'The Testaments' Brutal Aunt Lydia Backstory: Ann Dowd Interview
Ann Dowd in the Aunt Lydia backstory episode of 'The Testaments.'
Disney/Russ Martin
-
Share on Facebook
-
Share on X
-
Google Preferred
-
Share to Flipboard
-
Show additional share options
-
Share on LinkedIn
-
Share on Pinterest
-
Share on Reddit
-
Share on Tumblr
-
Share on Whats App
-
Send an Email
-
Print the Article
-
Post a Comment
Logo text
[This story contains spoilers from the sixth episode of The Testaments, “Stadium.”]
The Testaments has delivered another Aunt Lydia backstory and halfway through the revelatory episode, The Handmaid’s Tale sequel series revealed the key to understanding the mystifying franchise character played by Ann Dowd. The moment comes in a scene between a pre-Gilead Lydia amid the totalitarian takeover and one of the men, Commander Judd (Charlie Carrick), who becomes a high-ranking leader in the fictional fascist government.
In the flashback scene, Lydia offers herself up as an asset to Commander Judd by asking that he toss aside her history — which includes that she is unmarried and had an abortion, a “form of person murder” now punishably by death, even retroactively,” says Judd — and elevate her as the head Aunt that she becomes in The Handmaid’s Tale, vowing to enforce Gilead’s religious views and train young women on how to become handmaids to bear children for infertile Gilead wives. The scene brings to life the major abortion secret that was revealed in Margaret Atwood‘s sequel novel of the same name, on which the show is based; Dowd says below that she learned about the abortion when reading the sequel novel, back when she was still filming The Handmaid’s Tale.
Related Stories
TV
'The Testaments' Creator Explains Biggest Change From the Book and Reveals Multi-Season Plan
TV
'The Testaments' Has a Major 'The Handmaid's Tale' Connection -- But You Won't See Any Red (At Least Not in Season One)
Then, in the most shocking moment in the flashback, Lydia agrees to kill her former colleague to prove her Gilead allegiance. Judd was only testing her — she pulls the trigger, and it’s a blank. But that colleague becomes her fellow Aunt Vidala (played by Mabel Li), and Vidala carries the trauma and resentment from that day throughout The Testaments.
It’s a monstrous moment, but it’s all explained by a key voiceover from Lydia during that scene between her and Judd when she says: “Surviving these men requires patience, and allies wherever you can find them.”
Viewers see at the end of this sixth episode that the voiceover comes from Lydia’s journals — her “testament” in this story. After vowing to be an ally of June’s (Elisabeth Moss) Mayday resistance movement at the end of The Handmaid’s Tale, Lydia has been secretly recording her thoughts and working behind the scenes in her allyship in The Testaments. How exactly? Viewers and even Dowd herself don’t have that full picture just yet.
“We’re talking about survival, and what Lydia does to survive,” says Dowd of what we learn in her backstory episode. “She makes the decision at the cost of maybe ending her colleague’s life. We learn a lot about Lydia. Not only is she going to be alive — she’s not going to be Aunt No. 6. She’s going to be Aunt No. 1, and she will find a way to do that.”
Below, Dowd and Li spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the flashback and what it reveals about their present-day Aunt-ship. Also during this episode, the two Aunts referenced main protagonist Agnes (Chase Infiniti) and the fact that her mother is June (Moss). The women don’t say June by name, but they reference Agnes’ mother as being “not just any handmaid.” Dowd and Li also weigh in on the subtext in that moment below, and if it means Lydia and June could be in Mayday cahoots.
***
Mabel, did you chemistry read with Ann for the role of Aunt Vidala?
MABEL LI No. That would have been fun — and intimidating, because I’m a fan of Ann’s. I kind of wish I did.
When you were cast, had you read The Testaments and were you familiar with your character from the book?
LI I hadn’t read The Testaments yet when I got the part. I’d read The Handmaid’s Tale and was a fan of the show. But when I got the part, I read it immediately. It was such a great read. It was so useful and I soaked everything up, but then I also had to put it down and be like, “OK, I need to find her myself now.” Because in the book, Vidala is so filtered through other people’s perspectives. and so biased.
Ann, did you read the book before? As in, did you know that you were going to do The Testaments?
ANN DOWD Yes, I had a little inkling it was going to happen. [Writer’s note: Dowd revealed when Atwood told her about the se