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SPOILER ALERT: This story comprises spoilers for the sequence finale of “The Handmaid’s Story,” now streaming on Hulu.

“The Handmaid’s Story” ends because it started — and Elisabeth Moss couldn’t be happier with the selection.

Within the remaining scene of its first episode, in 2017, the Handmaid often known as Offred sits within the quarters supplied to her by her captors, observing the issues round her in an inner monologue: “A chair. A desk. A lamp. And a window with white curtains.” The voiceover, delivered by Moss, concludes with a shock: “My title is June.” It’s a reputation that Offred is not allowed to make use of below Gilead’s theocracy — and one which she nonetheless makes use of to maintain some important a part of herself complete.

Within the sequence finale, June — now free to make use of her title — returns to the home the place she’d been saved prisoner. It’s now in ruins, and June, seeing its destruction, can start the work of writing her memoir: the guide that can be often known as “The Handmaid’s Story.” The recording she makes within the sequence’ remaining moments begins: “A chair. A desk. A lamp…” Her title, she tells us, is Offred. By recollecting her life as Offred, June Osborne is making a doc of the life she led, and a historical past that, she will be able to solely hope, received’t repeat itself.

Talking on the Fox lot for a profile for one in all Selection‘s Emmys further editions — on the manufacturing workplace for her subsequent present, “Imperfect Girls” — Moss explains that what we’re listening to in that remaining scene is definitely a mix: A newly carried out model of the monologue overlaid with the model recorded nearly a decade in the past. Creating the unconscious cue to the pilot required precision, a problem as Moss had postpone getting ready for the scene till about 10 minutes earlier than. (Fortunately, the Hulu app on her cellphone let her remind herself of the cadence.)

This scene additionally options, in what could also be a disappointment to many viewers, an imagined glimpse of Hannah, June’s daughter. The mom and daughter had been separated earlier than the motion of the present begins, and the sequence ends with out their reunion. June’s quest to save lots of Hannah has been the narrative throughline of the present, however the 2019 publication of Margaret Atwood’s “The Testaments,” a sequel to the TV sequence’ supply materials during which Hannah options as a personality, closed off that chance. (An adaptation of “The Testaments,” with Moss as govt producer, is deliberate for Hulu; it’s being created by Bruce Miller, who created “The Handmaid’s Story” and wrote the finale, which Moss directed.) “I wish to say to each single one that says to me ‘Please inform me she will get her daughter again,’” Moss says, “like, I get what you’re feeling, however that doesn’t occur in Margaret’s sequel.“

“The Handmaid’s Story” ends in an intriguingly ambivalent place: Gilead has not been toppled, however has been critically weakened, and June vows to proceed preventing, and to talk out. She elements methods together with her husband Luke (O-T Fagbenle), however not essentially endlessly; she bids her former tormentor, Serena (Yvonne Strahovski), farewell by providing her forgiveness.

But it surely’s the callback to the present’s first season that may persist with viewers, not least due to an eerie real-world resonance. “The Handmaid’s Story,” primarily based although it was on Atwood’s novel from 1985 and echoing abuses in opposition to ladies all through historical past, drew untold volumes of juice in its first season from streaming within the early months of the primary Trump presidency. It was the present for the rageful, righteous months between the Girls’s March and the #MeToo motion, and it drafted off the political power within the air. In its first season, the present received greatest drama on the Emmys and Moss received greatest actress; touchdown now, after the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the Trump restoration, the present’s circling again to its origins as soon as once more proves the ability of its timing.

And the ending represents a significant transition for Moss, who’s — having adopted up her position on “Mad Males” with an award-winning, long-running and long-struggling efficiency — one of many defining TV stars of the streaming age. Right here, she addresses all the complexities and selections in Gilead’s endgame.

I wish to discuss in regards to the tie again to the pilot within the remaining scene, with June narrating what she sees round her in what’s now the ruined house of the Waterfords. Had that at all times been the plan?

I don’t know when Bruce got here up with it — I haven’t requested him, which is form of humorous. I don’t suppose it was there from the very starting. However I really like this ending. As somebody who has lived telling this story for 9 years, I can’t think about it ending another means. When she begins to say “A chair, a desk, a lamp”… That second, for the viewers, is one thing I crave. “Is that the unique voiceover? Is that the best way the guide begins?” For me, that’s tv gold. I’d by no means have stated sure to something that I didn’t really feel was precisely the best way that sequence ought to finish. 

I’m certain that’s true.

It’s. This complete sequence has at all times been about the identical factor. It’s the identical factor that I fell in love with within the first episode, and the explanation I stated sure to it, and it’s the identical story we’re telling within the remaining scene. It’s about how this lady won’t ever, ever surrender preventing for her kids. And she is going to by no means surrender preventing for the subsequent era, and the era to return. That has been her story from the start, and it’s her story within the remaining scene. The truth that what she begins with is what she ends with, to me, is so fucking genius. And I can say that, as a result of it’s not my concept. To me, there isn’t any higher technique to say what the present is than her telling her story.

It’s actually laborious to finish a present. “Mad Males” did it completely—

Did you just like the “Mad Males” ending?

After all!

Me too.

I didn’t suppose that was controversial; I simply thought it was beloved.

[pause] Good! [laughs]

Was it unusual being again in that room? 

It was a really good day, as a result of we constructed it to make it possible for it was a really good day. Initially, on the schedule, we had been doing greater than that scene that day. And the DP cleared the rest off that day. That’s the one scene we’re capturing that day. Initially, it was later within the schedule, and we moved it up within the week, as a result of I used to be like “I don’t wish to be doing that on the final day. Oh, God, I’d fairly kill myself.” 

I additionally closed the set. That was me as a director defending myself as an actor. As a result of I knew that, in the end, regardless that I’m directing that scene, a very powerful job I’ve that day is to play June and be within the second and really feel protected — not really feel like there’s a bunch of people that got here down from the manufacturing workplace to look as a result of it’s super-exciting to observe somebody movie the final scene of a sequence. I completely get that, however I used to be like, I can’t have that. 

So it didn’t really feel surreal, as a result of it felt very calm, and it felt very pure. Everybody, I might inform, was working so laborious. The dolly grip was ensuring it was the perfect shot. Everybody was super-precious in regards to the lighting and the set — being very specific about every little thing. It didn’t really feel surreal to be within the house. It simply felt like I can’t imagine we’re doing this proper now. However you’ll be able to’t suppose like that.

Since you really need to be taking part in June, not “Elisabeth, who’s excited.”

Precisely. The opposite factor I’ll let you know is that 10 minutes earlier than we shot it, I noticed that I needed to memorize the speech, which I hadn’t performed but. Then I additionally realized I needed to memorize it within the cadence of the unique voiceover. And if I wish to put the unique voiceover from episode one in my mouth in publish, I’ve to say it the best way I stated it. 

In any other case, there could be a niche…

…and it will not match. So I bought Hulu up on my cellphone — okay, $17.99, no advertisements — shit, it’s getting actually expensive over there. And I pulled Episode 1, went to the tip, and simply listened to it again and again for 10 minutes, memorized the cadence, and by chance, bought it proper. There’s one second we needed to finesse with ADR. However I believe you are feeling it subconsciously — the meta nature of it, you simply form of really feel. Particularly when she says “My title is Offred”: That one’s creepy.

I discovered it oddly heartening that Gilead doesn’t as soon as and for all burn to the bottom on this episode — that June is dedicated to a combat that may put on on throughout numerous fronts. It felt much less fantastical and extra a gesture towards how political change actually occurs over lengthy intervals of time.

It might be unrealistic if one way or the other June, in a single episode, was in a position to topple this evil empire. The very fact is that this battle is received battle by battle, guide by guide, protest by protest. That’s the fact. And so it provides us hope for our future. 

I’ll admit that a part of me actually did anticipate a reunion between June and Hannah.

Discuss to Margaret Atwood. It positively is one thing we now have carried with us since “The Testaments” got here out, figuring out that wasn’t going to be an ending. That was a alternative that Margaret made that we, in fact, adopted, and I don’t know if we might have performed it if she hadn’t written “The Testaments.” I actually do not know, however I can’t think about it another means. I believe if there was no “Testaments,” this might be a really totally different expertise for me. 

Our problem was to be loyal to what Margaret determined to do, however on the identical time honor Hannah’s presence. There may be actually no another conscious of the viewers’s need for June to get Hannah again than me. It’s the primary query I’m requested. It’s the primary factor folks need. I don’t wish to name it a burden, however I’ve carried this query with me for a few years. And I wish to say to each single one that says to me “Please inform me she will get her daughter again,” like, I get what you’re feeling, however that doesn’t occur in Margaret’s sequel. 

So the subsequent logical step, being conscious that our viewers was going to be dissatisfied, probably, or stunned, was to convey Hannah in. We made certain of that every one season lengthy, as much as the ultimate scene the place we put Hannah within the room. 

Talking of “The Testaments” jogs my memory of Aunt Lydia. It’s attention-grabbing that she appears to have a change of coronary heart and begins serving to Handmaids to freedom, nevertheless it’s rooted, nonetheless, in these immutable non secular beliefs that haven’t shifted.

What she believes, when you had been to boil it all the way down to one thing means oversimplified, is that she loves her women and he or she needs the perfect life for them. I’m not excusing the horrible issues she did. And now she’s seeing that these those who she thought she might hitch her wagon to are doing horrible issues to our women. That breaks down all the issues that she thought had been true. These guys aren’t doing it proper, so I’m going to want to take over and do it my means. However she’s good, as a result of she’s doing it from the within, which June at all times believed was the precise factor to do. That’s why June by no means left. June, notoriously, didn’t go away Gilead on the finish of Season 3. As a result of what are you going to do, file paperwork from Canada for the remainder of your life? You’ve bought to be on the within; you’ve bought to combat. 

June’s greatest and worst high quality is her potential to imagine that individuals will change and that they’ll do the precise factor. Typically she’s proper and generally she’s incorrect, however she is going to by no means surrender on Lydia. I really like the ultimate second between them, as a result of I did this factor the place I finished and seemed again at her once more, and that was purely for “The Testaments.” 

June makes the selection to inform Serena she forgives her. What was it wish to play that scene? 

It was most likely probably the most troublesome scene, as a result of — how do you do it? In any case these years, how do you do it? She is aware of that it’s extra vital for Serena to listen to it than it’s for June to not do it. And that’s the selection June makes. I don’t know if she actually does forgive her for every little thing, nevertheless it form of doesn’t matter.

She must set Serena free.

And that’s the reward that June is able to giving her. And I believe it’s good for June, too, to have the ability to give that to her and to let that go. And — this was only a silly sensible factor — nevertheless it was snowing once we shot her facet, a fucking blizzard, and once we shot my facet, clear as day. So I used to be coping with that as a director, we bought the snow machine in and bought the proper quantity of snow within the shot. And I’ve to say the strains and never have all of it land on my face. 

I assumed the best way June left one other character, Luke, was attention-grabbing, too; it was much less a “goodbye” than a “goodbye.” 

That’s precisely what we wished. We didn’t wish to reply it. For therefore a few years, I’ve been requested “Workforce Nick or Workforce Luke?” And what I’ve wished to say and haven’t been in a position to say till now could be that she’s not going to decide on both. Her journey will not be about that. That was actually vital to me. O-T and I had the concept to play the second half of that scene nearly like they simply met. The 2 of them have to start out over on this new place they’re in. I really like the optimism of it — that they may meet up in New York or Chicago, might need a drink. However the ending isn’t that she selected Luke, and that was vital to me. 

The opposite facet of the coin is Nick. Max Minghella instructed me that you just revealed his large heel flip properly forward of Season 6 capturing.

The shock is what we wished. However the factor Max and I talked about was setting it up correctly. If we had been going to do it — not simply killing him, however him going to the darkish facet — we needed to do it proper. It couldn’t be zero to 60. We needed to set it up from the start. From Episode 1, each single scene of his is ready as much as get him to the place the place he decides to inform Wharton about Mayday. 

There’s a really sturdy Workforce Luke contingent, nevertheless it’s my understanding that Workforce Nick is unquestionably very sturdy as properly. And that’s as a result of an unrequited love story is the perfect one. That’s far more attention-grabbing than the strong marriage. However we knew that we needed to take a whole faction of individuals and persuade them that she shouldn’t be with this individual. 

It’s notable that in his remaining moments of life, earlier than the aircraft he’s on blows up, he’s asking about June. He does nonetheless care.

It’s so vital for us to not have black and white villains on the present — or black and white heroes. I personally suppose folks can change, and that occurs alternative by alternative. These two males [Nick and Bradley Whitford’s Commander Lawrence] get on the aircraft; one in all them has determined to do the incorrect factor, and one in all them has determined to do the precise factor. Each selections put them on the aircraft. 

Within the penultimate episode, when your character, from the gallows, shouts “Don’t let the bastards grind you down,” a phrase that’s grow to be so related to the present. How did that really feel?

It’s a type of moments the place you must recover from a little bit of stage fright. It’s not the simplest factor to face in the course of a sq. in Cambridge and scream on the prime of your lungs. It in the end got here all the way down to, I can’t see the rest however the digital camera, as a result of it’s so shut. And I had the extras eliminated, after which there wasn’t a bunch of individuals looking at me. And it’s simply me and the digital camera. That’s the one means I can do it — in any other case I’d actually be a bit embarrassed. 

The digital camera was so shut — it’s the “Handmaid’s” means. In case you don’t hit your head on it, it’s not shut sufficient. However I used to be very targeted on the technicalities of stuff. The best way that I direct once I’m appearing is — it’s like I cut up myself, and half of me is doing it and half of me is watching. The one means I might do it was simply to, on the one hand, take into consideration the technical facet of it, and then again, simply go for it. 

This interview has been edited and condensed.