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The Handmaid's Tale Season 2 Landed Marisa Tomei Thanks to Elisabeth Moss

Exclusive! Star of the Emmy-winning Hulu drama reveals how she helped bring the Oscar winner aboard for a guest-starring role

By Billy Nilles Jan 16, 2018 7:49 PMTags
Watch: Did Elisabeth Moss Get Marisa Tomei on "The Handmaid's Tale"?

When The Handmaid's Tale returns for season two, it'll do so with the help of an Academy Award winner!

As showrunner Bruce Miller revealed during the show's panel during the 2018 Winter TCA Press Tour over the holiday weekend, the season's second episode will feature none other than Marisa Tomei in a guest-starring role. Details surrounding her role are, naturally, being kept under wraps, though Miller did reveal that the episode involves the oft-mentioned in season one, but never seen, Colonies, the radiation-soaked wasteland remnants of America. 

When E! News' Sibley Scoles sat down with star Elisabeth Moss following the panel, she attempted to get the goods out of the Emmy-winning actress regarding Tomei's appearance. Naturally, she was tight-lipped about specifics, but did reveal that we have her to thank for Tomei's involvement.

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The Handmaid's Tale: See the Cast in and Out of Costume
Hulu; John Lamparski/WireImage

"I don't think I can say what she does," Moss said, laughing. "We're just throwing an actor's name out there. We can't say anything else!

"I can't say anything they didn't say," she added, referring to fellow EPs Miller and Warren Littlefield. (Moss is an executive producer on The Handmaid's Tale, herself.) "I'm not going to be the one to get into trouble. But yes, Marisa Tomei is in and I had the pleasure of working with her in a play reading, actually, with Lena Dunham in New York. When this role came up—she wanted to do TV. I remember she said to me at the reading, she was like, 'I want to do some more television.' So when this role came up, I was like, 'What about Marisa Tomei?' I mean, it was a good get for us."

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The Handmaid's Tale Season 2 Finally Has a Premiere Date & a Suitably Grim Trailer

Though Moss may have been unable to share much about what's to come on the dystopian drama, she did open up about what it's felt like to win an Emmy, Golden Globe and Critics' Choice Television Award for her stellar work as June Osbourne, aka Offred. "It's pretty crazy," she said. "Even when you say it to me, it's sort of shocking to me because it doesn't happen all at once in real life, so it's shocking. I think that happens, if you're really lucky, once. And I don't think that ever happens again. So it's very, very nice. I've been nominated a bunch of times, and I've lost far more times than I've won, so it's nice to be able to thank people and say something every once in a while."

 

For more from Moss, including who in Hollywood has revealed themselves to be fans of hers and the show, be sure to check out the video above!

The Handmaid's Tale returns for season two on Wednesday, April 25 on Hulu.