How does one find the humanity in a morally ambiguous (at best) character?

Such was the conundrum for Bradley Whitford as he brought the role of Commander Joseph Lawrence to life on The Handmaid’s Tale. Initially presented as one of the architects of the tyrannical Gilead — a cunning man whom you’re never sure can ever totally be trusted — Lawrence is also portrayed as being racked with guilt after the death of his beloved wife, and is eventually altruistic to June (Elisabeth Moss) and her fellow handmaids.

“How can you do those things and remain redeemable?” Whitford ponders during EW’s Awardist Drama Actors Roundtable, which also includes fellow Emmy contenders Aimee Lou Wood (The White Lotus), Tramell Tillman (Severance), Antony Starr (The Boys), Marisa Abela (Industry), and Sharon Horgan (Bad Sisters).

He continues, “It’s an interesting part of the show to me that Lizzie [Moss’] character is basically blowing on the spark of decency. And it’s a kind of hopeful message that I hope people are getting at this moment that comes from June’s character, which is despair is a luxury that our children cannot afford, and action is the antidote to despair. And she is doing that with everybody.”

As for his character, whom he has played since the second season of the Hulu drama, Whitford says, “As a young actor, I felt like I was trying to narrow it down to what a character was. And with this guy, I got to kind of open up the aperture, which was interesting to me. Also, ethically, it was nerve-racking because he was disappointing often.”

Whitford previously opened up about the “fascinating” nature of his ambiguous character and what makes him tick in an interview with EW back in 2022. “Well, it’s a fascinating thing to play because he’s not static. There’s two things that I’m always thinking about,” he said. “One, is his love for [his wife] Eleanor was real. And then, immediately when I got this part, there’s a guy, Robert McNamara. He was Secretary of Defense, and escalated the Vietnam War, and a brilliant economist, who streamlined auto production in the United States, and then used those same ideas to incinerate about a million people on the other side of the planet.”

Whitford continued, “He’s one of these guys that I always thought Lawrence was, someone whose huge brain obliterates his humanity. [Now] I think Lawrence feels like he has an opportunity — and it may be naive, and it may be misguided — to some path of redemption that has to do with Eleanor, and I think it’s an interesting discussion in the world of Handmaid’s Tale.”

The sixth and final season of The Handmaid’s Tale — which is now streaming in full on Hulu — finally answers the question of which side of history Lawrence ultimately wants to be on. Based on the 1985 Margaret Atwood novel of the same name, the series has won 15 Emmys from a staggering 76 nominations through its first five seasons. For his role as Commander Lawrence, Whitford won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2019, and was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2020 and 2021.

For more with Whitford and EW’s Awardist Drama Actors Roundtable, watch the full video above.