Alexis Bledel reflects on ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ character before finale

Alexis Bledel’s Emily Malek suffered mightily for four seasons of Hulu’s Emmy-winning dystopian hit The Handmaid’s Tale.

The former professor — whose name shifts from Ofglen to Ofsteven to Ofroy to Ofjoseph over the course of the series — experienced a forced clitoridectomy, committed a hit-and-run murder, and then was exiled to the radioactive Colonies. And Bledel was immediately onboard for all of it.

“I was actually offered the role [of Emily/Ofglen],” Bledel told The Hollywood Reporter in a new rare interview. “And when I read the pilot script I immediately said yes. Somehow, Bruce [Miller, the show’s creator] just knew I had Ofglen in me.”

The Gilmore Girls star, who took home the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series award in 2017 for her work on the show, said she saw the potential in her character’s journey from the beginning.

“It was deeply upsetting to even imagine Emily going through something like that — being captured, powerless, with no say over her body,” she recalled to THR.

After six bleak, bloody seasons, The Handmaid’s Tale concludes its run on May 27, revealing the final fates of June (Elisabeth Moss), Janine (Madeline Brewer), and the other rebels. (No spoilers here, but co-showrunner Eric Tuchman recently unpacked that pitch-perfect Taylor Swift needle drop in the penultimate episode in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.) 

In 2018, as part of the lead-up to season 2, Bledel told EW that she and Miller discussed Emily’s pre-Gilead life before she set foot on set. “I loved filming Emily’s flashbacks,” she said. “I think much of her worldview is informed by her previous life as a professor of cellular biology. Life in the Colonies is a last stop. Emily does not have a great deal of hope for a future there; she knows her days are numbered.”

Like Emily, Bledel’s days on The Handmaid’s Tale were numbered — she announced her departure from the show after season 4 and did not return for season 5.

In a statement shared with EW in May 2022, Bledel said she gave a great deal of thought to her decision to step away from the show. “I am forever grateful to Bruce Miller for writing such truthful and resonant scenes for Emily, and to Hulu, MGM, the cast, and crew for their support,” she said.

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Bledel’s absence from The Handmaid’s Tale was explained in the season 5 premiere when June learns that Emily left her wife, Sylvia (Clea DuVall), and their son, Oliver (Charlie Zeltzer), in Canada and returned to Gilead to resume the fight.

Bledel, who divorced Mad Men star Vincent Kartheiser in 2022 after eight years of marriage, took a break from acting following her exit from Handmaid.