After the horror of Teacup and The Handmaid’s Tale, Yvonne Strahovski is ready for a rom-com

After the dark dystopia of Handmaid’s and the terror of horror series Teacup, Aussie actor Yvonne Strahovski has revealed what her next big move will be, and why.

After seven years of the dark, dystopian drama The Handmaid’s Tale and now the horror series Teacup, Yvonne Strahovski reckons she’s probably due for something a little lighter.

As the Aussie actor gears up to play the complicated, cold, calculating Serena Joy Waterford – a role that has earned her two Emmy nominations – one last time in the final Handmaid’s season due to be released next year, she says she is a little conflicted.

“It’s going to be a tough one because she has been such a big part of my life and she has given me so much,” she reflects over Zoom call with her Teacup co-star, Scott Speedman. “But I am also at the same time so ready to say goodbye. She’s so complex and so intense that it’s probably time to do some kind of a romantic comedy at this point and say goodbye to that energy.”

Yvonne Strahovski as Serena in The Handmaid's Tale.

But whether she’s more frightened of the kind of grisly, spooky horror/sci-fi dished up by Teacup, or where the repressive and alarmingly ever-more-plausible vision of America’s future painted in The Handmaid’s Tale might end up, she’s not immediately sure.

“That’s a really good question,” she ponders. “I think if I didn’t know how Handmaid’s was ending I might be more afraid of it. I have heard whispers and rumours of where it’s going – there have actually been various versions that I have heard. But definitely the supernatural stuff scares me more.”

Yvonne Strahovski as Maggie Chenoweth in Teacuo. Picture: Mark Hill/Peacock

Sydney-born Strahovski and former Underworld and Felicity star Speedman play a married couple in Teacup, which is based on Robert R. McCammon’s novel, Stinger, and adapted by former Yellowstone producer Ian McCulloch and Aussie horror enthusiast James Wan, of Saw and Aquaman fame. The exact story details are a secret but centre around a disparate group of people trapped on an isolated farm in rural Georgia by forces they cannot see but know to be dangerous, and potentially deadly.

Strahovski, also known for her roles in US TV series Chuck, Dexter and 24: Live Another Day, agrees that “it’s definitely out there – and that’s probably why I liked it”. She says she was drawn to the blend of family drama and the horror elements as the families have to negotiate their own issues as well as “the extreme scenarios the characters are placed in” and the lengths that the parents will go to keep their children safe.

“The story explores the inner depths of these characters – diving into emotions and situations that are thought of as somewhat taboo in our society,” she says. “It’s an interesting way to thread naturalistic family dynamics into a fantastical thriller.”

As it turned out, motherhood was freshly imprinted on Strahovski’s mind when she started shooting Teacup on a farm outside of Atlanta. Just eight weeks earlier, she’d given birth to her third son – she had the family with her during production, including husband Tim Loden – and the visceral, maternal instinct she needed for her character Maggie was never too difficult to access.

James Wan, Executive Producer; Scott Speedman, Ian McCulloch, Showrunner/Executive Producer; Yvonne Strahovski, Chaske Spencer at San Diego Comic Con in July. Picture: Christine Bartolucci/Peacock

“Just being a parent plays into the performance and Scott and I have both connected on that,” Strahovski says. “It just changes it – rather than imagining you as a parent, you are really feeling it. But this was my third time – my third child – so I’ve definitely done this before, where I bring my baby to work with me and we do it together. It’s just worked out for me that way and I kind of love it.”

Speedman, 49, was also a relatively recent parent, having become a dad in 2021 with his swimwear designer fiance Lindsay Rae Hoffman. The couple added to their brood just last month, with son Indy born on September 2. The Animal Kingdom and Grey’s Anatomy star says while he’s played a father many times in his near 30-year career in film and TV, it wasn’t until he actually became a dad that he finally cracked the code.

“It can’t help but change everything you’re doing,” he says. “I played many a father in my career before having kids, and then when you have a kid you think about when you played those fathers that you knew basically zero and you would like to go back and redo all of them. Because you know so much about it just instinctually now.

Yvonne Strahovski says she enjoys bringing her family with her during filming. Picture: Griffin Nagel/Peacock

Yvonne Strahovski’s Teacup co-star Scott Speedman. Picture: Christine Bartolucci/Peacock

“When you go to do a show like this, where your kid goes missing and then they’re all in these situations where going missing was the least of their problems, it really affects you in subtle ways where you don’t have to do the legwork. It’s just right there already for you.”

Teacup also marks Strahovski’s first professional producing credit, although she points out that after graduating from the University of Western Sydney’s Theatre Nepean in 2003, she co-founded the Sydney theatre company Sauna Productions, where she acted and produced plays. Since relocating to the US in 2007, she’s been a regular on the small screen, as well as appearing in movies such as The Tomorrow War, The Predator and The Guilt Trip, but her recent experience directing the short film Vlog, has encouraged her to broaden her horizons.

“It’s definitely something I want to do more of,” she says of producing and directing opportunities. “I got to the States and I hit the ground running and I’ve only ever been in front of the camera until recently and I think I have probably just run my course of wanting to just be an actor and telling a story through just a character lens.

“I want to expand and I want to tell the story and peel it back into more of a development stage. I wasn’t on development on (Teacup), but certainly it’s my first producing credit … and it gave me an insight into how it works here and it’s something I’m really looking forward to exploring on feature projects.”

Teacup streams on Binge from October 10

Originally published as After the horror of Teacup and The Handmaid’s Tale, Yvonne Strahovski is ready for a rom-com