As in the dystopian fictional world of The Handmaid’s Tale, in real life, one of the biggest obstacles of the upcoming fourth season of the Hulu drama was getting into Canada.
Though for the Elisabeth Moss starring series that barricade of sorts was more about the coronavirus pandemic than escaping a totalitarian theocracy.
“Honestly the biggest change is it was difficult to get our cast into Canada to shot,” Handmaid’s showrunner Bruce Miller admitted during today’s virtual TCA panel for the show.
The series based on Margaret Atwood’s acclaimed 1985 novel has filmed in and around Toronto since its first season.
Trying to contain the pandemic, Canada closed its doors to America early on as case surged in the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. Even though Canadian citizens and essential workers, which entertainment industry professionals were designated, were allowed to travel to the Great White North, provinces like Ontario had mandatory 14-day quarantines up until quite recently.
‘So we had to keep people out of episodes simply because they didn’t have enough time in their schedule,” Miller added on the consequences that policy had on Handmaid’s production. “I mean, people are very kind to come up and fly for a day’s worth of work in Canada from anywhere. So many of our cast members like Clea DuVall, these people who work very hard on other shows. So that was the biggest change.”
Of course, even as escape to Canada from despotic Gilead plays a big role in the world of Handmaid’s, travel wasn’t the only area where the coronavirus had an impact on the show.
(Excerpt) Read more in: Deadline