‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 5: Yvonne Strahovski’s Home Birth Influenced Episode 7 Scene
The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 7 included some of the most emotional moments for Yvonne Strahovski’s character Serena Joy Waterford. Serena went into labor at the most inopportune time and gave birth in a barn. Strahovski used her recent experiences giving birth at home to influence her acting in this scene.
[SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers ahead for The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 7.]
Serena Joy goes into labor in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 5 Episdoe 7
The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 7 picked up in the immediate aftermath of Serena shooting her guardian and running off with June in his car. Unfortunately, Serena gets the car stuck and ends up going into labor. June hurries her to a nearby barn, where she coaches Serena through the birth of her first son. It’s a surprisingly deep moment between these two women who have been enemies throughout the series.
“I really wanted to do that moment where Serena is very physically leaning on June, and it’s very intimate, and have my arms around her,” Yvonne Strahovski said while speaking with Entertainment Weekly. “And I just thought that would be so cool to see these two women in that relationship, have that physical relationship, especially after all five seasons, and how we got here today and how complex that would be.”
Yvonne Strahovski used her own home birth experiences to influence this scene in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 5
Strahovski has experienced the pain of childbirth firsthand. She has two children with her husband, Tim Loden. In fact, Strahovski filmed the birthing scene in The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 not long after the birth of her second child.
“It definitely felt very close to home given that I was very newly postpartum. I had just given birth to my second son in real life. So that was very, very, very fresh for me,” she told EW. Strahovski’s second child was also given a home birth.
“I think one of the most exciting things about the episode was talking to Lizzie [Moss] about the actual birth. I really wanted it to have a lot of elements that were inspired by my own second birth,” the actor continued.
“My first birth was in the hospital, so I did my second one at home, which sort of felt slightly on the same sort of parallel, I guess, of doing it in a barn. [Laughs] I mean, not entirely, but it’s not a hospital, obviously.”
This was Strahovski’s first on-screen childbirth scene
Strahovski has two children of her own. However, her scene in The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 was her first time performing an on-screen birth. “It’s very reminiscent of the actual process because it does take forever. I think we were in that barn for three full days shooting, and it was very, very, very physical,” Strahovski told EW.
“But at the same time, I was also really tickled to have the opportunity I’ve never had, to have an opportunity on camera to give birth. I’ve done it twice in my real life, but not on camera,” she continued.
“So I was really excited to pull elements from my most recent birth, which I did. I really wanted to pull elements from that and the intimacy of that and how it felt and even the physical intimacy that I had with my husband as well.”
Don’t miss new episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Wednesdays on Hulu.
