Lucy Halliday Is the Rebellious Spirit of 'The Testaments'

Lucy Halliday was a devout Margaret Atwood fan well before she landed the lead role in The Testaments, Hulu’s sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale series. The 22-year-old grew up reading titles like The Penelopiad (which she devoured amid an obsession with mythology); and remembers fondly the day her friend brought a copy of The Testaments to school in 2019.

“The moment this job came up, I was so enthralled by it,” Halliday tells Marie Claire over Zoom in early April. “I wanted to audition so badly—and I really wanted them to hire me.”

Inevitably, the newcomer landed a leading role with a self-tape audition. She stars as Daisy, a teenage girl from Toronto who goes undercover in the dystopian, theocratic Gilead as a convert of the Pearl Girl missionaries. Upon her arrival, she’s assigned one of the commander’s daughters as a mentor, Agnes (One Battle After Another breakout Chase Infiniti), and the series explores the depths of their relationship and the empowerment they discover through sisterhood.

It’s clear that Halliday shares Daisy’s rebellious spirit. The up-and-comer, who hails from Paisley, Scotland, begged her parents to let her do theater, and ultimately deferred studying medicine when she booked her first-ever on-screen role in the 2022 BAFTA-nominated indie film Blue Jeans. “How I got my first job was quite gutsy, a bit like Daisy,” she says. “There was an open call for a film that I saw online, and I didn't really match any of the description that they'd said, but I sent an email anyway, being like, ‘I'm perfect for this!’”

She brings that tenacity to her performance. For eagle-eyed fans who spotted resemblances between the actresses and thought Daisy was June's daughter, showrunner Bruce Miller has debunked the theories, but Halliday still delivers as feistiness feels resonant of how Elisabeth Moss portrayed The Handmaid’s Tale’s heroine, June. It’s unavoidable in the work they did together in The Testaments—as is Halliday’s ability to hold her own opposite the Emmy-winner. “Getting to share the screen with her was a real privilege, and getting to spar with her was the joy,” Halliday says of Moss, who also executive-produced the series. “She was a real source of support for all of us because she's an encyclopedia of knowledge when it comes to this world.”

With Halliday and Infiniti now ushering in a new generation into that universe, and the first three episodes of The Testaments out on Hulu, below, Halliday tells Marie Claire about what she knew going into the project, how she bonded with her castmates, and the message she hopes the show sends.

Maire Claire: What was it like playing a character who has such a huge secret and is trying her best to perform herself?

LH: The duality of Daisy really appealed to me from the very beginning because, especially in the world of Gilead, everyone's having to be very pious and composed all of the time, but then to have a character that has an alter ego and you get to explore a whole other realm of her was so exciting. I was continually trying to find moments where I could bring the Toronto side to the Gilead side—not lose the Daisy that existed before she came here. That was very important to me because, when you go somewhere new or you change over time, you don't lose your roots, you don't lose where you've come from. We've all entered a room or a place where we felt we've had to change who we are slightly or conform a little bit or hide who we are a little bit, so I think that being a universal experience definitely was something I drew on and was keen to explore more.

MC: Daisy has such a rich innerworld and backstory—considering she’s an outsider in Gilead and had a normal teenhood before becoming an incognito Pearl Girl. How did you get into her head?

LH: I do have a Daisy playlist. Playlists are something that I think I've done for every job I've done. They really allow me to get inside of a head of a character. But what's great about Daisy and this show was not only does she have two sides, so already there's going to be two very different styles of music or energies that are going to be added to the playlist, but so much occurs throughout the season that she really does experience so many different emotions. So, the variety of music really was quite incredible. It was interesting going back and looking through at the very end and being like, "Oh, my gosh, she's really gone on a journey here."

I'll quite often, on the way in to work in the morning, have it [be what] I'm listening to, just to get into the mindset. Especially in the show, when you are jumping about, not just storylines, but locations, whether she's in Toronto or Gilead, to put on the music and transport back to that specific place was so helpful.

MC: What was on your playlist for when Daisy was in Toronto versus when she became a Pearl Girl?

LH: I remember there being Doja Cat’s “Boss Bitch” at one point. I've got “The Times They Are A-Changin' by Bob Dylan; I think that's when she comes in. I've got “Rebel Rebel,” David Bowie, “The Wind” by Cat Stevens, “212,” Azealia Banks. I've actually got The Cranberries, which is funny because this was before The Cranberries was ever added to the soundtrack, so I was on the same wavelength. It was a real mix of songs; they didn't really need to have rhyme or reason. It was just if I listened to it and felt, This is Daisy, it would go in the playlist.

MC: Going into the project, did you know you were going to have screen time with Elisabeth Moss?

Lucy Halliday: I didn't know until I'd already had the job Bruce [Miller, showrunner] texted me to tell me before he then sent the updated script, and I was ecstatic because Elisabeth Moss is the embodiment of The Handmaid’s Tale. And aside from that, she's just a phenomenal actor. I really treasured the moments I got to share with Elisabeth.

MC: Working with her as an executive producer, what questions did you end up having for her that you didn’t expect to have?

LH: I do remember the best piece of advice she gave us was, not like a singular statement, but it was rather [that] she reassured us and gave us a space to step into these characters and to step into this world. I know both of us, Chase [Infiniti] and myself, we were nervous coming into this because we were aware of the weight of responsibility of how well The Handmaid’s Tale had done and we didn't want to mess up. She basically was like, "It's okay. You've got this,” and let us step into these characters and pass the mantle.

MC: When did you find out that you and Chase would be on-screen partners?

LH: I found out immediately after I got the job that Chase had the job—and it was an immediate friendship, an immediate kinship. That was so lovely to have from the outset; to have a support in someone and paralleled experience with someone was so crucial to the overall experience I ended up having.

MC: What surprised you the most about working with Chase?

LH: Something I've learned from Chase throughout this process was the power of advocating for yourself and speaking up for yourself on set. That's something she was continually encouraging me to do. It was something I noticed had already transformed in me by the end of filming because I was aware that I was utilizing that facet a lot more. I've been on sets since then and it's the same. I hold myself differently or I speak up differently now, and it's not something that I have as much qualms about approaching—and that's because of Chase.

MC: That’s so great to hear. Can you recall a moment on set of The Testaments where you felt compelled to advocate for yourself?

LH: I don't think I can recall a singular moment. It's more just about continually keeping the belief that you're not an inconvenience for advocating for what you need. Like, if you need five more minutes to reset between a take—because ultimately that's going to allow you to do the job better. That's key to a lot of it: You're not just advocating for something for yourself, it's actually going to benefit you professionally and the performance, which ultimately is the end goal for everyone.

MC: Stories about female teenage rebellion have been beloved and inspiring audiences for decades, and The Testaments is the latest series to join that pantheon. What do you think it is about those stories that resonate?

LH: I think what's going to resonate with audiences is actually just the universal experience of adolescence and how transcendent it is of location or culture or upbringing. We've all shared these same moments and these same milestones and felt these emotions at one point or another.

I think also just the idea of sisterhood and community and the power that we find in having each other and the power that can come when we come together, I think is going to resonate with audiences. We see it in the show and I hope it inspires individuals in real life to band together, to form communities, to use their voices and try to enact change because that's such a powerful thing, too.

MC: I love that you mentioned the universality of the coming-of-age experience in the show. What coming-of-age movies, shows, or books have stuck with you?

LH: Girlhood by Céline Sciamma. I really love that film. Lady Bird. I obviously watched Normal People when it came out, when I was in school. I think that just further reiterates how important art is in the coming of age [experience] because we remember the stories or books or TV shows or whatever that we watched and we felt resonated, we felt seen and we felt represented. It would be lovely to think if this show can have the same impact on someone coming of age right now.

MC: The crux of the show is really the iconic line, “Don’t let the bastards get you down.” How might you be taking that, and Daisy, with you after working on the show?

LH: I think it is essentially how important it is to remain hopeful, and how important it is to be there for each other, and to band together because we are powerful as a team, and that it is possible to make a change, whether it be on a small, minute level or a grand scale. We need to keep hope because without hope we have nothing.

MC: As you said, sisterhood is a big theme of the show. While you shot a lot of intense material, what were some of your favorite memories working with the other women, either off or on set?

LH: It was like being back in school. There was so much chatter and laughter, which was so great. I remember going to Medieval Times—We really liked Medieval Times. I don't know who suggested it. We also saw Superman like four times in the cinema. We had dinner together just about every weekend. It was moments like that that really further reiterated how much of a community we'd found in each other, and that was really beautiful.

I think having those girls really informed the experience that I had in this job, and allowed the levity, because we did have some heavy scenes, and they are difficult to film. You are pouring yourself into them and giving them your all, but having people who you can take a step back from those scenes with, and be supported and be held, was so important. It allowed that transition between reality and fiction to really take place, because you didn't need to take those feelings home with you at the end of the day. You had the girls to decompress with and add some laughter.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.