Amanda Brugel plays Rita in The Handmaid’s Tale. However, little does she know that her character will appear in the sequel The Testaments.
In a chat with THR, she was asked about her casting in the upcoming series and whether she knows it.
“No,” she said. “I found out from my fiancee’s brother-in-law, and I started crying. I had to go to the bathroom to pull myself together!”
“I have two copies of The Testaments, but I have the page ripped out with that dedication framed in my washroom,” the actress said.
It was a coincidence, Amanda said, when she wrote a thesis on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel, focusing on the character Rita, which she later played in the Hulu-adapted show.
In the interview, the star reflected on her 1996 college thesis. “I immediately fell in love with the book when I was 14 in a class for Canadian literature.”
She continued, “I loved how Margaret wrote female protagonists. I wrote a series of short stories, and in grade 10, I won a small scholarship to start applying for universities.”
The actress added, “When I went to university, I went to theater school, and I didn’t know if I wanted to be a writer or actor.”
“To get into the writing program, you had to submit a thesis of what you thought your writing career would be.”
“I chose to write it on The Handmaid’s Tale, but specifically on Rita, and I got a full scholarship to the York University writing program. That was in 1996,” Amanda concluded.
In the meantime, work on The Testament has started from April.
