Actress Carey Cox chatted about being a part of “The Handmaid’s Tale” on Hulu, where she plays Rose.
How was your experience in “The Handmaid’s Tale”?
From day one on set, everyone I worked with on “The Handmaid’s Tale” treated me like family. The feeling on set is extremely warm and good-natured, which is necessary for material that can be so emotionally charged.
Television filming moves very quickly, but I felt totally supported as an actor. Even on a tight schedule, the performances are treated with tremendous importance, and I was given a good deal of time and space to discuss scene-work and character.
Getting to watch such amazing actors work was an amazing lesson for me as well.
“The Handmaid’s Tale” was my first experience in television, as I come mostly from a theater background, and I learned a great deal about film acting technique from watching and collaborating with such incredible performers.
I gained a great deal of confidence in camera awareness and consistency from take to take, as well as my ability to make strong, immediate choices on the fly.
Every day on set was also guaranteed to be a great time, with lots of laughs and great conversation, because the cast and crew are filled with hilarious, intelligent, well-informed people of great integrity.
What did you like most about your character?
I love Rose’s complexity. She is not an easy character to define. She has high political status due to her family’s position, but low social status due to her disability.
She has been sheltered much of her life and is sidelined in social gatherings, but she is intelligent and has an innate sense of nuance and moral ambiguity.
Her faith in her religion is the one thing keeping her from getting lost in a storm of cognitive dissonance and allows her to prioritize her immediate needs: safety for herself and her family.
In this way, I think that she is a very realistic character, considering her circumstances.
She has very limited power but uses that power to protect her safe bubble, as many people in similar situations throughout history have done.
She does not always have the privilege to make the choices that best fit her ethics, but she can make choices that ensure her and her family’s survival.
Like many characters on this show, she isn’t a hero, but she is a survivor.
How does it feel to be an actor in the digital age? (Now with streaming, technology and social media being so prevalent)
I have a love/hate relationship with social media. Social media has great potential for connection, community, creativity, education, and expression.
For many marginalized people, social media is a lifeline, and for many creative people, social media provides an equal opportunity platform to showcase their talent, somewhat leveling an uneven playing field.
However, social media of course can be a source of great insecurity, misinformation, uninvited animosity, and consumption of precious time.
I feel a pressure to promote myself and my projects on social media, and it has created opportunities for me, such as the 2022 CBS showcase or the Disability Film Challenge.
I also met my beloved husband through social media. I find, however, that I am very sensitive to online criticism, and doom scrolling makes me absolutely depressed, so the less aimless time that I spend on social media is better for me.
I use it as a tool more than a form of entertainment or a source of information, and that balance works for me.
Everyone is different, and I think that everyone just needs to find the relationship to social media that makes them feel most productive and connected, but also the most regulated and grounded in the “real world.”
Streaming is also an interesting mixed bag. Streaming has created so many opportunities for more shows and films to be platformed, but the sheer volume of content makes it harder for a show or film to become a shared cultural phenomenon.
The days when everyone in the country tuned in for the season finale of a show seem to be left behind in my childhood, which is bittersweet.
I am always appreciative of more work for actors and creators, however, and for unconventional storytellers to have the opportunity to be heard.
Of course, the driving force behind a lot of entertainment is still making money, but even within that, a lot of fabulous art has the opportunity to be appreciated and seen.
What do your plans for the future include?
My husband and I just had a baby two weeks ago, our sweet little Milo, and he immediately became the love of our lives. Anything that we do moving forward will be about prioritizing his happiness and making him feel loved.
Knowing that, I want to continue to work on meaningful projects that really matter to me and make a difference in the world.
My husband Joe and I have a pilot based on our short film, “Adoptive,” about a disabled married couple tackling the adoption process, and learning about the good, the bad, and the corrupt aspects of the industry.
We would be thrilled to move forward with that pilot in some way, or with other writing projects.
I am currently submitting a play of mine called “At Least You Have Your Health” to theaters and festivals, and Joe has a Blacklist recommended film called “The Way We Walk” currently in development. I would love to do more theater, film, and television, and explore teaching and directing.
I am also a visual artist and am working on a small business for commissioned portraits of pets and people, and within the next few years, I hope to be serviceable in Spanish and ASL.
In addition, I want to do more volunteer work, continue reading and learning, and nurture our growing family.
Were there any moments in your career that have helped define you?
When I graduated from undergrad in musical theater and after a year of working in restaurants and taking classes, I started grad school at UNC Chapel Hill for an MFA in Acting.
The program at UNC Chapel Hill is connected to the professional regional theater PlayMakers Repertory Company, so from the moment I started my graduate program, I had the opportunity to audition and work for a professional theater.
I did many shows with PlayMakers and being thrown into the deep end of professional acting was absolutely the best thing for my development as a performer.
I learned so much so quickly and was allowed to stretch and challenge myself in an environment that was both nurturing and supportive, but also high stakes. Going to grad school at UNC and PlayMakers was hugely impactful to my career.
After grad school and moving to NYC, I landed an understudy role for the Broadway production of “The Glass Menagerie.”
I performed on that stage one time towards the end of the run which was an incredible experience, and that experience led me to my first representation, future work, and connected me solidly to the disabled acting community.
I’m very grateful for those early experiences that eventually led me to “The Handmaids Tale” and my first lead in a feature, the upcoming film “Where Did the Adults Go” written and directed by Oscar nominee Courtney Marsh.
What is your advice for young and emerging actors?
Never stop learning and challenging yourself. There is always something to learn and ways to grow and keep your work fresh.
I am a member of the Actors Center in NYC, which is an actor community that offers continued training and workshops.
There are many accomplished and prestigious actors in the company who continue to take classes, and their openness and humility is a great inspiration to me.
A great actor never stops asking questions and being curious. It’s also so important to find community as an actor.
Finding people you connect with who can create with you, challenge you, and support you is so important. For me, finding community led me to the people who were looking for me professionally.
Someone, whether in casting or directing or elsewhere, is looking for you, and your relationships will help you find each other.
What does the word success mean to you? (My favorite question)
Success to me just means enjoying the day to day, moment by moment. In my work and in my life, I’m happiest when I’m not thinking too much about the past or about the future. I feel successful when I am presently blissful or in flow.
I feel successful when I’m on set and thinking about the scene at hand, enjoying the atmosphere of the set, thinking only about the next line, the next moment, and my scene partner.
I feel successful when I am sitting in the video village watching my fellow actors work and wondering at the miracle of creation.
I feel successful when I am working on an art commission and I’m unaware of time passing, or when I’m enjoying my husband or snuggling my baby.
Success to me isn’t worrying about how many people will watch a film I’ve done, or how the critics will review a play I’m in, or when the next job will come.
The joy I feel in the minutes and hours of work and rest are more important than anything else.
What would you like to say to our readers about “The Handmaid’s Tale”? (What’s the one thing you want them to get out of it)
The one thing I always hear about “The Handmaid’s Tale” is how relevant it is. Margaret Atwood has acknowledged that nothing in the book is fiction—it’s all inspired by something that has happened somewhere in the world. The same is true of the show.
One great lesson of the book and show is that American exceptionalism is a convenient myth, and that we are just as vulnerable as any other place on Earth to fascism, extremism, and corruption.
Particularly right now, the events of “The Handmaid’s Tale” can be seen as a warning, which for some people, hits a little too close to home.
A lot of people have told me that they are scared to watch this season because they’re afraid that the events of the show will feel too real.
I think that’s an even greater reason to watch right now, and I want to assure anyone who is scared to watch that the most important part of the show is not the tragedy, but the resistance.
The show depicts a world that many of us fear, but it also demonstrates the unbreakable quality of the human spirit and our capacity to fight back.
The characters in “The Handmaid’s Tale” are profoundly brave, which I find inspiring and makes me feel so optimistic.
If the events of the show were to come true here, I would hope that every June, Moira, and Luke in our midst would rise up and resist in the same way.
To learn more about actress Carey Cox, follow her on Instagram.
