The Testaments, Margaret Atwood’s sequel to A Handmaid’s Tale, is currently enthralling/frightening viewers on Disney+, returning to the oppressive regime of Gilead to show a group of teenage daughters of commanders at an elite “wife school”. As they plot rebellion, Chase Infiniti’s Agnes falls for Garth, a complex young regime figure played by new English talent Brad Alexander.
“Garth is interesting because he’s living in two worlds,” says Alexander. “Ostensibly he’s with Gilead, he has a commander family, but he has allegiance elsewhere, to this uprising… This is a world in which looking at someone the wrong way can get you strung up. You’re constantly looking over your shoulder.”
Alexander bagged the role in a blind taping audition — not knowing which show it is — then was immediately flown to Canada for what would be a six-month shoot full of, “complexity and profundity and enjoyment. I didn’t work as hard as the girls. They were on set every single day and had legions of pages to learn — I still thought it was challenging.”
He is a young man with film star looks but he was far from destined for the acting game. From Weston-super-Mare, Alexander was your classic English small town dreamer who loved films, but was essentially just fantasising about acting. “Western-super-Mare is not a town with a lot of opportunities in entertainment. I’ve been obsessed with TV and film my entire life, I just never considered it an actual possibility until the pandemic when we all got to think, what do I really want to do?”
“It’s strange being interviewed, you get the sense that this is how narcissists are created. I can feel my ego just inflating”
Brad Alexander
He’d been studying marketing at uni, starting businesses, “going towards this corporate path,” when he suddenly switched tack: “I knew it was risky and unrealistic but I wanted it more than anything. Forget about success, forget about stability, as long as I’m actually doing what I love. It was a poor strategic move actually. I was very lucky.”
He did some modelling — “even less steady than acting, a solid expiry date on that one” — signed up to background artist agencies and ended up on Netflix’s Anatomy of a Scandal, where he managed to impress the director with his knowledge of the novel and was given a couple of lines. His diligence and enthusiasm paid off. He won a part in thriller You, but The Testaments is a bigger breakthrough, and will be followed by a hush-hush new Charlie Brooker show. He just hopes he can keep his feet on the ground.
“There’s definitely been a temperature shift in my life,” he says. “It’s strange being interviewed, you get the sense that this is how narcissists are created. I can feel my ego just inflating. I had a day where I had like five interviews and by the third I felt myself getting more arrogant, ‘Yeah, I am a genius.’”
