Bradley Whitford

Bradley Whitford tells EW about his experience directing on 'The Handmaid's Tale,' how fellow actor-turned-director Elisabeth Moss inspired him, ...

[Now] I think Lawrence feels like he has an opportunity — and it may be naive, and it may be misguided — to some path of redemption that has to do with Eleanor, and I think it's an interesting discussion in the world of Handmaid's Tale. I think I kind of have to leave it at that. I think he enjoyed the status as a commander and I think it ruined him and it killed his wife. I think he's powerful in Gilead, but I don't think he's in complete control. This is a show that I love, these are a crew that I love, and characters that I love, actors. And I think that what Lawrence is trying to do with New Bethlehem is it's basically an argument. And I'm realizing, okay, it's 200 frames, and I have to match it to a song that I knew I wanted, and I'm so grateful that we got, the Janelle Monáe song "Americans." And it's toward the end of the shoot, it's in the final block of the year. I want to talk about Lawrence for a bit. And I assumed stupidly that it'd probably be what we call a bottle episode, which are episodes that take place basically in the studio, with the main cast, and there's not a lot to it because it's much easier to shoot in a studio. Then the episode I was going to direct, I got an opportunity to write, and you couldn't do both. One of the hardest things I think in television is guest directors coming in and having to be an authority when they're kind of an outsider, you know?