'The Handmaid's Tale' Madeline Brewer Reveals She Came Forward With Her Own Abortion Story After Being Inspired By Her Character

Madeline Brewer is opening up more about her motivation in sharing her abortion story.

The 30-year-old The Handmaid’s Tale star shared her own story with fans in June, right as Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States.

“When I decided to write that Instagram post in June, I was one in a cacophony of voices sharing fear and anger at the overturn of Roe and any information on how to access abortion pills,” she recalled in an essay for Self. “I wanted anyone who saw it to know that I understand how important it is to have abortion as an option because I’ve needed it myself.”

In a new interview, Madeline is going deeper into her story, and revealed she was in part, inspired her character on the Hulu series, Janine.

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Madeline told The Hollywood Reporter that she felt compelled to share her story because of the Roe decision and also the story arc she was filming at the time with Janine.

In addition Madeline was also going to star in Cabaret, and both of her characters had gone through an abortion.

“Right now I’m doing theater in the West End, which I’ve wanted to do my whole life, and this character has an abortion as well,” she says. “I was preparing this audition during the overturn of Roe. I was playing Janine, preparing this audition, and now every single night I play a woman who goes through the feelings of getting pregnant, wanting to keep it, deciding not to keep it, because of the life that she wants for herself.”

She continued, “When I filmed Janine’s scenes where she was getting an abortion and being manipulated by these crisis pregnancy centers, Roe v. Wade was still intact. But having that storyline was actually a really incredible grieving process for me for my own abortion that I spoke about online in June after the overturn of Roe.”

“People talk about how much they love Janine and how much Janine has inspired them, and it felt important to me to talk about my own experience,” Madeline adds.

She then explained that when she was younger, she never saw abortion being represented onscreen the way The Handmaid’s Tale showed Janine making her choice.

“There’s no one way to tell why someone would get an abortion because there’s no one way a woman or a person decides to have an abortion,” Madeline said. “I do feel like sometimes we talk about it like it’s one thing: ‘Oh, that was the abortion storyline.’ But there are thousands upon thousands of reasons why even one individual would decide it’s not right for them. And for me, it was the very singular fact that I was not ready.”

The sixth and final season of The Handmaid’s Tale is expected to premiere in the fall of 2023.