The Handmaid's Tale: What is happening behind-the-scenes

The Handmaid’s Tale is one of the most talked-about television shows of the last few years. The show first aired in April of 2017 and has been running ever since, with the third season beginning June of 2019. The show has earned eight Primetime Emmy Awards and Golden Globe Award for actress Elisabeth Moss. The show is a Hulu production, garnering a lot of viewers for the streaming service, which has to compete with giants like HBO and Netflix. The show is an adaptation of a novel by Margaret Atwood, which delves into a dystopian America of the future, where a second Civil War takes place and throws off the government of today, leaving women who are able to have children, in a place where they are forced to do just that. The success of the show has been astounding but what has been happening behind-the-scenes?

The show’s location

The Handmaid’s Tale is filmed in Toronto, Canada, with several locations sprawled around the city. Ironically, the location matches that which appears in Margaret Atwood’s book. Toronto is the city where the refugees come to when they are trying to escape Gilead, what we call the United States of America today.

Whether this was intentional or not, it sparks a nice connection to the book for fans as well as the cast and crew that are involved.

The seasons following the book

The first season of the show ended where Margaret Atwood’s novel did. What that means is that the second season is going past the novel and therefore has producers taking creative liberty with the storyline. The first season ended with Offred (played by Elisabeth Moss) pregnant and being thrown into a car.

The second season, moving past the literature, focuses on some elements from the book but with far greater detail. Elisabeth Moss herself spoke out and stated that the colonies are the major element being expanded upon in the second season of the show.

The timing of Margaret Atwood’s books

Margaret Atwood wrote the original novel back in 1984. At the time, Atwood was living in Berlin. She rented a typewriter and spent the year writing one of her most famous works. Atwood is originally from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and used the inspiration of being away from home to write the novel.

Atwood is also a well-known poet whose theme throughout her work rest in gender, identity, religion, and the power that resides in language. She uses the theme of all of the above in her writing of The Handmaid’s Tale, while it is dystopian, it is also empowering.

How long did it take to film

The first season was smoother than the second. During this season, which was also filmed in Toronto, there were 13 episodes that took nearly seven months to film. Filming started in September and lasted through April, which means that the production took place in the Canadian winter, where temperatures easily slide down to negative 20 degrees centigrade.

The conditions for the cast and crew were less than ideal but they knew that have a gem on their hand and therefore knew that they needed to give it their all, and give it their all they did.