Alexis Bledel on How Becoming a Mother Led Her to 'The Handmaid's Tale'

Alexis Bledel has been trying to pick roles she’s passionate about since she became a mother.

The star of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale told Entertainment Tonight Wednesday in New York City that she wanted to take on roles that she cared about.

“More than anything, I just think about what roles I take on, and make sure that it’s really something that I feel passionate about if I’m going to leave home and go work,” Bledel said. “I just want to love what I’m doing.”

The 35-year-old actress currently plays Ofglen on The Handmaid’s Tale, the 2017 retelling of the Margaret Atwood novel. Bledel, who gave birth to her son with Mad Men actor Vincent Kartheiser in 2015, says it was “wonderful” to play a character so different from Rory Gilmore on Gilmore Girls.

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“It’s really interesting for me. It’s really wonderful to play characters as different from each other as I can. So it’s just a great opportunity to do something different,” Bledel said.

The new series finds Bledel playing one of several handmaids who are forced to give up their lives to become surrogates for elites after birthrates drastically decline. It’s already making waves, having caught the attention of Hillary Clinton, who was “captivated” by the book “years ago.”

“I am not suggesting this dystopian future is around the corner, but this show has prompted important conversations about women’s rights and autonomy,” Clinton said Tuesday at Planned Parenthood’s 100th anniversary. “In The Handmaid’s Tale, women’s rights are gradually, slowly stripped away. As one character says, ‘We didn’t look up from our phones until it was too late.’ It is not too late for us, but we have to encourage the millions of women and men who support Planned Parenthood’s mission to keep fighting.”

The Handmaid’s Tale is currently streaming on Hulu and was renewed for a second season on Wednesday.