The creator of “The Handmaid’s Tale” said Sunday evening the echoes of real life in the dystopian drama make it more compelling.
“You just want it to be as terrifying as possible and that comes from it being as relatable as possible,” said Bruce Miller, who took home a writing Emmy for the show adapted from Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel of the same name.
Though the novel was set in the future, the screen adaptation is set in a contemporary America with an alternate past.
Politics have an impact on the story, but “it’s kind of on an unconscious level,” Miller told reporters backstage at the Microsoft Theater.
“We’re a very plugged-in group of writers, actors as well, producers as well,” he said, so there is an awareness that informs the work.
But the writers don’t fabricate the chilling events depicted.
“Everything that happened in the novel happened somewhere in the world to women,” Miller said.
Asked why he thought the book and now the show have such a dedicated, almost cult-like following, he said the women portrayed are a source of inspiration in difficult times.
“The book has always been kind of magnetic and now people are worried that they live in a society” where they lack control over events, Miller said.
He credited Hulu, the streaming service that backs the show, with “incredible bravery,” saying the team there has never said no to any scene he proposed.
“It’s rough stuff,” Miller said.
The win was the first Emmy for Miller, on his first nomination.
–City News Service