IF YOU’VE STUCK with The Handmaid’s Tale up to this point, you’ll know that some of the scenes, which have played out over the course of the second season, have been jarring at best, and utterly traumatic at worst.

And if you’re up to date, you’ll recall a particularly harrowing scene in episode ten of season 2 which saw Commander Waterford and Serena rape a heavily pregnant June/Offred.

Discussing the impact this scene had on her as both a pregnant woman and an actress, Yvonne Strahovski, who plays Serena, told The Huffington Post that the scene left a ‘bad taste in her mouth’.

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While the 35-year-old Australian-native has become accustomed to the violent nature of the programme, which has been met with considerable acclaim since its launch last year, the intensity of the aforementioned scene cast a long shadow.

I wasn’t nervous because we’ve faced so many complex, difficult scenes on the show, but it did leave an incredibly bad taste in my mouth.

The scene gave Yvonne pause for thought, and she admitted that the role of Serena was not one she ever envisioned for herself as a female performer.

I never thought that in my career, as a woman, I would be playing the part of a rapist.

Outside of the beating scene that I did in Episode 8, it was one of the ones that really affected me while shooting it and walking away from it. I just felt so dirty.

Acknowledging her role in the brutal attack against Elisabeth Moss’ character, Serena found it difficult to reconcile it in her own mind.

I know the commander is the one physically doing the deed, but at the same time I’m holding Offred down. It’s a very jarring concept to think of it that way when you’re a woman – it’s the other way around, usually, in scenes like that.

Yvonne is also known for her roles in Chuck and Dexter, and is expecting her first child in September.

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