The Handmaid's Tale boss is all for Ann Dowd saying 'Hulu' again, teases season 2

The Handmaid’s Tale continues to collect hardware. The drama, which became the first streaming series to win the Emmy for Best Drama, has nabbed three Golden Globes nominations, one for Best TV Series — Drama, one for Elisabeth Moss in the Best Actress category, and one for Ann Dowd in the Supporting category.

With production for season 2 underway, showrunner Bruce Miller talked to EW Monday morning to react to the series’ latest accolades.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The series made history in September as the first streaming show to win an Emmy for Best Drama Series, and now you’ve landed another trio of nominations, this time for the Golden Globes. How have you felt about each subsequent round of accolades? Does it only add more pressure to delivering a spectacular season 2, or are you super used to these awards at this point?
BRUCE MILLER: I hope I never get super used to it! It’s always incredibly shocking and surprising and awe-inspiring. I think when you have a successful season and you get picked up for season 2, regardless of the accolades you get, you always feel pressure, like, “Oh, what are we going to do this time?”

But we decided early on it would not be good for our show or our audience for us to play, “Can you top this?” We have an incredibly interesting world, and Margaret created a beautiful template for us to go on and we just have to keep moving forward. It’s lovely to be recognized for awards for the work that you did, and the breathtaking work that Elisabeth [Moss] and Ann [Dowd] did. It’s a recognition of genuine devotion and hard work and commitment to something.

So where are you with season 2? You started production in September, so…
We’re a little more than halfway through shooting season 2. We’ve been able to explore more of Margaret Atwood’s world. One of the great things about the book is it gives you a glimpse of the world, but it’s only a glimpse, so we get to go beyond that and explore some of the places that are only mentioned in the book, and not just be restricted to the things that were on the page in the book.

What questions are you tackling in season 2? Last season ended on all these huge beats, with a pregnant Offred being taken to see her daughter, and then getting carted off in a black van. At the time, I remember you had said that the finale was about asking, “How do you move on after the thing you dread finally happens?” What are you asking when season 2 starts?
More than anything, season 2 is about what it means to be a mother. What is motherhood? Even in our world, that has changed so much with adoption and in vitro fertilization and surrogates and all these kinds of blended families, so what does it mean to be a parent, to be a mother?

It changes, and it’s complicated, and here, Offred ended the season pregnant, but she’s also a mother of another child that’s been taken away from her, and Serena has given up everything to become a mother, so all of those people going through those experiences, are figuring out what kind of mother they are, what kind of mother they want to be. Gilead is a society built on that particular dynamic of having children, it’s built on motherhood, so we’re kind of, in a lot of ways, exploring what’s at the core of our show and our world and our characters.

I do have to ask, just to wrap up, if Ann Dowd does win the Golden Globe and gets to deliver an acceptance speech, how much are you looking forward to hearing her say “Hulu” again?
[Laughs] Well, it was one of the high points of my life, to hear her pronounce it the first time, and just to see the look on her face when she won. It would be richly deserved, and she’s allowed to pronounce it in any way she wants, she’s earned the right. I know that Hulu would be thrilled.

The Handmaid’s Tale returns in 2018. The 75th annual Golden Globes, hosted by Seth Meyers, air Jan. 7, 2018 on NBC.