2001 - 2023, The Broadway League, All Rights Reserved. WHITFORD I think about that with Commander Lawrence [his character in The Handmaids Tale] all the time, because he loses his wife. This supposedly pro-life religious right, which has facilitated the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans., This season of Handmaids, more than any other, has already racked up a body count. It is, by the way, upsetting to me that we live in a culture where the definition of obscenity is the act of procreation. In 2011, Whitford guest-starred in In Plain Sight on USA Network as a man combatting paranoia. He appeared in the season three finale of The Mentalist as a minion of and decoy for "Red John", the long-sought nemesis of the show's protagonist Patrick Jane. Whitford appeared on Law & Order: Los Angeles as a lawyer. In 2017, The Handmaids Tale debuted just months into the Trump era, and was widely praised as an eerily prescient portrait of how rapists and religious fanatics could seize power. He was raised as a Quaker, so pacifism and non-violence come naturally to him. How Mark Duplass and Bradley Whitford Swapped Bodies, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/26/arts/television/emmys-mark-duplass-bradley-whitford.html, Its been fun being an improvising mumbler inside the Sorkin tradition, said Mark Duplass, with Jennifer Aniston in The Morning Show., There had to be a dam on this guy, Bradley Whitford said of his character in The Handmaids Tale.. Full editorial rights UK, US, Ireland, Canada (not Quebec). What Shows Have Been Renewed or Canceled? It was a very kind place, and thats where she learned how you should function on a set, which is to be respectful of everybody, and the best idea wins, and try to eliminate the hierarchy, and collaborate. The problem is you take these people with this incredibly rare assertive impulse and put them in a business that renders them totally passive. That kind of tyrannical violence is such a perversion of why we should be doing this, and why storytelling is important. One of the compensating things about getting older, he says, is that he no longer tolerates any hint of that tyrannical violence. [on if he's felt typecast after "The West Wing"] You're going to get typecast as whatever you do, but to be typecast as that guy who was complicated, passionate, funny, that's fine. Whos Judge Reinhold? A year later, you realize that youre living in a country where, after they had a Black president for four years, and then there was a prospect of a female oneeven though it was the most qualified human being in history to run for the office[the voters] said, oh, you know what, it's a woman? Emma Dibdin is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles who writes about culture, mental health, and true crime. Bradley Whitford - Wikipedia Start with the fact that he directed the finale of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip in 2007 and then waited fifteen years before venturing behind the camera again. Bernard - (Apr 19, 2008 - Sep 07, 2008) Play Comedy Revival. These are edited excerpts from that conversation. I dont think a conventional reboot is a good idea, although I do think a version of that show could have gone on and on and on. Mark Duplass and Bradley Whitford Swapped Then in 1986, the actor made his film debut in the movie, Doorman.