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In 'The Testaments,' Chase Infiniti and Lucy Halliday Bring Teenage Drama to Gilead
In The Testaments, the sequel to Hulu’s Emmy-winning The Handmaid’s Tale, which concluded its six-season run last summer, Chase Infiniti and Lucy Halliday play foils: young women from different worlds forced together against their will in a relationship defined by their disparity. In real life, though, they can’t stop giggling.
They’re currently promoting the new show, which is also an adaptation of a dystopian Margaret Atwood novel (The Handmaid’s Tale was published in 1985, with The Testaments arriving in 2019). Like its predecessor, The Testaments takes place in Gilead, a highly religious, oppressive regime where women are unable to read or write and are seen only as ornaments and reproductive incubators. Released in 2017 at the beginning of Trump’s first term, The Handmaid’s Tale quickly became a cultural juggernaut and earned its star, Elisabeth Moss, an Emmy and a Golden Globe.
Infiniti and Halliday are acutely aware of the pressure they face as co-leads of this new project. They’re covering heavy topics—violence, sexual assault, religious fanaticism—while simultaneously continuing a beloved franchise. “Neither one of us wanted to be the cog in the machine that screws it up,” says 21-year-old Halliday. It’s enough to intimidate even the most seasoned pro, but Infiniti and Halliday are both novices in this industry. Though Infiniti, 25, is fresh off awards season thanks to her breakout role as Willa in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Oscar-winning film One Battle After Another, this is just her third credit—and her first time leading a project. The Scottish-born Halliday, meanwhile, has only acted in indie British projects prior to The Testaments.
That’s why it’s such a blessing that they have each other. During our Zoom interview, their camaraderie is contagious. They playfully push and tease each other or show solidarity with a Gen Z two-finger clap. You can’t help but laugh along.
The rapport is a long way off from what we see on screen, at least at the beginning of the series. In The Testaments, we follow Infiniti and Halliday as attendees of an elite preparatory school run by The Handmaid’s Tale alum Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd). Infiniti plays Agnes, a young woman raised in Gilead who knows nothing beyond its strict world. She prepares to embark on a new chapter of life and get married when she meets Halliday’s Daisy. Born in Toronto, Daisy has immigrated to Gilead as a Pearl Girl, a kind of born-again refugee. The two are begrudgingly paired together by the school’s whip-wielding overseers, the Aunts, allowing each one to learn from the other’s vastly different experiences.
In many ways, The Testaments feels like an extremist Gossip Girl—though parties and hook-ups are swapped for afternoon teas and arranged marriages. The scenes in the school halls prove that no matter the circumstances, teenagers will be teenagers. Cliques will form, cutting remarks will fly, and crushes will bloom. There’s a beauty to the idea that oppression can’t suppress natural, youthful instincts.
Before landing their roles, both Infiniti and Halliday were familiar with the material (that is, they weren’t living under a rock during The Handmaid’s Tale’s run). “I remember it blowing up, not just at my high school, but all over the world,” Infiniti says. She didn’t engage in the story herself until much later. “It was a bit too dark for me at that point. I was more of a The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel girl in high school.”
On the other hand, Halliday defines herself as a “massive Margaret Atwood fan,” and she read The Testaments immediately upon its publication in 2019. Still, there was research to be done before arriving on set.
“We both took it upon ourselves to be as prepared as possible, because we didn't want to let anyone down,” Halliday recalls. “So we spoke to everyone who would speak to us.” That includes Dowd, with whom both women shared scenes, as well as the show’s creator, Bruce Miller, and director, Mike Barker. “All these people were such a source for us, and we really leaned on them.” Moss, who serves as an executive producer on The Testaments, was also a helpful resource. (She pops up throughout The Testaments’ first season, mostly in scenes alongside Halliday.)
“I spent the first half of those scenes in awe,” Halliday says. “It did feel like she was passing the mantle. She afforded us the space to step into this world.”
While Infiniti didn’t get a chance to film with Moss (at least, not yet), she does have experience with another Handmaid’s Tale alum: O-T Fagbenle, who plays Moss’s husband in the original series. Infiniti and Fagbenle worked together on the 2024 Apple TV+ series, Presumed Innocent.
“My man, O-T, I love him,” Infiniti says at the mention of her former costar. She laughs at a memory of the two discussing The Handmaid’s Tale on the set of Presumed Innocent, long before The Testaments role came into her life. “He was talking about The Handmaid’s Tale, but he remarked, ‘That show might be a bit too intense for you.’ Jump cut to three or four years later, and now I'm essentially playing his daughter.” (Agnes, born Hannah, is the daughter of Moss’s June and Fagbenle’s Luke, though she is unaware of her true parentage.)
To be fair, Fagbenle was right. The Handmaid’s Tale was intense, as is The Testaments. The show never shies away from showing the violence and corruption that breeds inside a fascist regime. “The amount of things these girls have to withstand will leave you heartbroken,” Infiniti promises.
Rowan Blanchard, Mattea Conforti, and Isolde Ardies round out the show’s core group of young people, and the fivesome bonded closely making sure the script's intensity didn't seep into their reality. “The bonds we had and the amount of lightness we brought to set really helped us get through the stressful days at work,” Infiniti says. While filming in Toronto, the group would regularly grab meals together and even attend dinner theater at Medieval Times. “Multiple times,” Infiniti says.
The Testaments was the first opportunity for Infiniti to engage with people her age on set. Both in Presumed Innocent and One Battle, she was the only member of her generation.
“I loved working on those projects, but I did get a bit lonely,” she admits. In contrast, Infiniti describes The Testaments as a high school setting, saying, “They became my group of friends.” Though Infiniti’s résumé is hardly long, her relative experience compared to the other young women allowed her to take on a mentor role within the group. “I wanted to be a voice of advocacy for the other girls who were in the show, because it can be scary to be that young and be a part of something so big,” she says.
And while Infiniti is only three years Halliday’s senior, the latter has no problem calling her costar an “old-timer.”
“I’m an auntie,” Infiniti agrees with a laugh. But to clarify, not a Gilead aunt.
