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Chase Infiniti remembers where she was when the TV adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale was released.
“I remember it taking over my [high] school. Everybody around me was always talking about it, and always talking about the similarities also to what was going on in real life versus the show,” she says in a conversation with Q’s Tom Power.
From there, Infiniti says her friends and peers started to read more of author Margaret Atwood’s work, including the original novel, and so she was “very familiar” with the world of Gilead before she joined it herself as the star of The Testaments, the TV adaptation of Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale sequel novel.
But, while working one of her first professional acting jobs, Infiniti said she was advised not to watch Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale by one of her co-stars.
“He said it would be a bit too intense for me,” she says.
“I’ve definitely grown up a lot in the past two to three years. But also, at that point I was like, everything is so new and I was — I’m obviously so excited to be doing everything —- but I was even more excited then. And he was like, ‘I don’t know, it might be a little bit too much for you.’ And I’m like, ‘I’ll be fine. I’ll be okay.’”
WATCH | Full interview with Chase Infiniti:
Upon reading The Testaments, which takes place in Gilead 15 years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, Infiniti says the thing that stood out to her about it most was the relationships between characters.
“I was really struck by their friendship in a world where they’re not allowed to have friends, they’re not allowed to have connections with people — because that’s what makes them dangerous, in a way.
“And so, that was really my connection point because I have such a strong love for my friends, and Agnes has such a strong love for her friends, and all of these girls love each other so much.”
In preparing to portray her character Agnes, who she thinks of as the “princess of Gilead,” Infiniti says she did some research into not only the experiences of people who grew up in very religious households, but also the experiences of people who grew up in cults.
“I really wanted to do a deep dive into what it would be like to grow up in, I guess, a system where you don’t really have any perspective of what the outside world is actually like versus what you’ve been taught your entire life,” she says.
Towards the end of filming The Testaments, Infiniti got the chance to meet Atwood on set.
“I remember getting briefed probably like 10 minutes before walking on to set one day that Margaret was coming around lunchtime and … you saw everyone have this, like, bolt of electricity running through them,” she says.
“[She] welcomed me in with so much love and so much support…. It was a really cool moment because I’m here because of her.”
Listen to the full interview with Chase Infiniti to hear her talk about how her K-pop dance videos helped her get an audition for One Battle After Another, what it was like learning karate in front of Paul Thomas Anderson, and her love of the movie musical Grease.
The Testaments is available to stream now on Disney+.
The full interview with Chase Infiniti is available on our YouTube channel and on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Chase Infiniti produced by Simi Bassi.