A fan once saw Ann Dowd on an escalator and ran away, terrified. That’s how convincing the actor has been as the tyrannical Aunt Lydia across six seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale. In the drama – set in the totalitarian, theocratic Republic of Gilead where women are forced to reproduce – she has tortured those who resist the regime, beaten them with cattle prods and even ordered the removal of one poor girl’s eye.
Many who meet the real Dowd are struck by how warm and kind she is. I can back all this up – Aunt Lydia would never call me “darling” or “sweetie pie”, but Dowd does. And she’s sensitive, tears pooling in her eyes as she talks about emotional roles. But, actually, she is similar to Aunt Lydia in one way. There’s a steeliness, a strength, that the two share. Aunt Lydia can be a sadistic maniac of course, and worlds away from Dowd, but, my god, she has mettle. “We’re very close, the two of us,” Dowd tells me of the character. “She’s a dear friend. I learn from her, she learns from me.”
