Bradley Whitford Says America Is Living in the Worst ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Episode Ever

“The Handmaid’s Tale” took the stage for PaleyFest LA 2025 Wednesday night, and while reflecting on the show’s ongoing political relevance in American culture, Bradley Whitford — who stars as Commander Joseph Lawrence — said it feels as if the country is being run like a real-life Gilead.

“I think at the core this is something really … it is very weird that this show began, started shooting … here we are, unthinkable things have happened. I make a very, and we’re bewildered — I make a dark joke that it’s like the worst ‘Handmaid’s’ episode ever, where June [Elisabeth Moss’ character] is about to be executed and she turns to the camera and says, ‘I heard they’re really incompetent, right?'” Whitford says, explaining his bit, but pivoting to a more serious tone. “We need to meet this moment, and June is a fundamental thing we have to remember in this moment, which is, despair is a luxury that our children can not afford … Racism is not going away, misogyny is not going to go away, religious harm is not going to go away, and I find something really inspiring for this moment about what is the core of June Osborne.”

Whitford was joined by his fellow cast and crew members, which included actors Elisabeth Moss, Yvonne Strahovski, Samira Wiley, Ann Dowd, Madeline Brewer, O-T Fagbenle, Sam Jaeger, Amanda Brugel, Ever Carradine; and showrunners, producers and writers Yahlin Chang, Eric Tuchman, Warren Littlefield and creator Bruce Miller.

The country’s leadership was first mentioned earlier in the group’s conversation when moderator, The Hollywood Reporter contributing editor Stacey Wilson Hunt, asked the panel to describe what has made “The Handmaid’s Tale” a “singular experience in their career.” Taking the question, Littlefield said watching the show evolve from a jarring entertainment piece to a social and political statement has been internally and creatively fulfilling.

“Yeah, I think we just started out trying to make good television show and wanted to honor Margaret Atwood’s words written over 40 years ago, and Bruce’s really brilliant interpretation of her work. And those were kind of humble goals, and then along came our 45th president and went into a whole other world,” Littlefield shared. “We became more than a television show, we became a symbol of the resistance and a fight for human rights. As we try to continue to do a good television show and also feel the responsibility and the weight of what impact we have in the world. And so, that is something that I don’t ever think I’ve ever found in my lifetime, and I cherish it. It’s an honor.”

As the event started to close out, the dialog around the show and its political and societal connections continued, with Chang sharing even more examples of how the series just so happened to be reflecting life in real-time, noting that the same week “The Handmaid’s Tale” aired an episode that featured June being torn away from her daughter Hannah (Jordana Blake) in Season 3, was the same year President Donald Trump launched his family separation policy immigration enforcement strategy.

“That June-Hannah meeting scene, it happened to air the week in 2018 when children and parents were being separated at the border,” Chang said. “So it happened to air just that week, and it was one of these weird, horrible, tragic coincidences.”

Hunt then asked the group an audience-drafted question related to “The Handmaid’s Tale’s” author’s creative intentions : “Do you think Margaret Atwood’s book was a premonition of what we’re now living through?”

To which Miller replied: “I think the fact that the sport of the book is 40 years old this year, and I’ve read it over the years a bunch of times, and every time it seems like now is the exact time that it was written,” Miller said. “So I think it’s Margaret’s prescience that really she attacked subjects that are ongoing places of conflict in our society — ongoing places of conflict between men and women, between people and their government and people in their worst natures. So I think the reason the show is sustainable and feels like it’s of this time, it’s just because we have followed Margaret’s lead, not any reinvention on our part. It’s actually the opposite. It’s— Margaret tapped into things that were perennially interesting, and we’re following her very smartly.”

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