Chase Infiniti may have only three acting credits to her name, but she’s more than made her mark with each. First came Apple TV’s limited series Presumed Innocent, then Paul Thomas Anderson’s Oscar- winning juggernaut One Battle After Another, which earned her multiple award nominations.
And now there’s Hulu’s The Testaments, the followup to The Handmaid’s Tale where she stars as Agnes MacKenzie, one of the teenagers being raised in Gilead with little knowledge of the outside world — but simmering with a rebellious spirit.
She’s back in the awards conversation — she just won the Gotham TV Award for lead performance in a drama series, and she’s currently No. 6 in Gold Derby’s leaderboard in the category. “It’s been crazy, but it’s been amazing,” she tells Gold Derby of her whirlwind year.
In our exclusive video interview (watch above), Infiniti offers a deep dive into the Season 1 finale, including the big reveal about her parents, what questions she has for Season 2, and that kiss with Becka (Mattea Conforti). And despite having spent all season as a “plum girl,” she still wearing the signature Testaments color: “I love purple, so there was no world in which I was going to stop wearing plum after the show was done,” she admits with a laugh.
Gold Derby: Who’s tougher, Willa Ferguson or Agnes MacKenzie?
Chase Infiniti: You know what’s crazy is I feel like most people would say Willa, but I think that they’re both equally tough, but in different ways. I think that the worst thing that somebody can do is underestimate Agnes, because there’s a lot of stuff that she goes through and a lot of things that she faces that Willa wouldn’t even be able to handle, and vice versa for Agnes with Willa. So I can’t say that one is tougher than the other. I think they’re both very strong in their own ways.
Did you always know that Agnes was June’s daughter?
I did, because I was a fan of the original series. I remember when I first was getting cast, during my audition process I didn’t know, but after I was cast, that was the first thing that they told me, and I was like, “OK, that’s what I thought.”
Were you always playing that note from the beginning?
I guess I wouldn’t say I was necessarily playing it, but it was something that was already there in the writing, and you could feel that undertone of it throughout with her conversations that she would have with different characters in the show. I think the only thing that I was really playing, I guess, was just leaning into that. I wasn’t necessarily putting on an extra face for her or for other people to see, because I think if I put an extra effort onto doing that, it wouldn’t feel as authentic in a way. I also didn’t want to push it too much to where it seemed like this is June’s daughter, 100%. I like the idea of it kind of popping in and out, and you finding the similarities between Hannah and June in just simple things that she says, or simple things that she does, or the way that she replies back to it. Same thing with Luke, and the similarities that she has with Luke.
What are some of those similarities?
Strength is one of them. Even though Agnes may not understand really where it’s coming from, because she doesn’t know June, and she doesn’t really remember any of her life pre Gilead, but I think just overall care for the other person is something that she shares, and it manifests in her friendships. I think that that’s something that she shares with June.
And what about with her father, with Luke?
I think I would say her heart. I want to say Luke’s heart is something that she shares with him, even though she has no idea. She has a very big heart.
Maybe that’s something we’re going to see more of in season two.
I hope so. I would love to!
Talk about that scene in the finale when you learned that June is your mother. How did you play that?
We spent a lot of time on that scene. Our director for that episode was Mike Barker, who did the first three episodes, and he also did a lot of episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale as well. We really wanted to make sure that we took such delicate care of that scene, because it was such a big moment in not only the storyline but also in Agnes’s life, and I think that because of that we really wanted to make sure that we were very delicate about what we were doing and the way that we did it. We tried many iterations of it, and I think the version that we settled on was the strongest balance between both ends. I just remember spending a lot of care with that one, and it felt not only between me and Lucy, but the entire crew who was there as well, and we all knew how important this moment was, and we really wanted to make sure that we took good care of it.
What felt right to you? What emotions did you want to play? Where was Agnes’s mindset going into that?
Going into the scene, she’s feeling relief because she’s pretty much in a way saved her best friend. She feels a relief for that. She knows that Becka is saved. She feels a bit of heartbreak knowing that she’ll never be with Garth, but I think that the relief that she feels for Becka’s safety is the thing that she really is going into that scene with.
But then in the moment, her first reaction is “That terrorist”!
Because that’s what they’ve all been taught, that June Osborne is a terrorist, and she’s elicited all this chaos and is the worst person imaginable for all of these girls, so that’s why that reaction is so strong, that’s why she’s so shocked, because it’s an insult to her that that’s who she would be related to.
But then what makes her come to terms with it?
I think a lot of it comes from just having those conversations with herself that you don’t see on-screen. There’s a bit of time that passes between Daisy telling Agnes this information, and Agnes having the conversation with Aunt Lydia. I think there’s a lot of internal dialogue that went on with her, and also a bit of soul-searching in a way, because she already was questioning Gilead, and questioning the things that she had been taught, especially considering the things that she goes through in Episodes 8 through 10, where she’s having this discovery of the life that she’s been told she’s supposed to have in the way that she’s supposed to have it is just not realistic, or is a lie. Once she has that realization with herself, and then this new piece of information that she’s found out, once she sits with that and understands that too, I think it’s only fueling her idea that she really doesn’t actually know that much about Gilead and that much about her own life, and that much about what she’s been taught. I think that that just only further adds to her questioning not only her own life, but the system around her and the society around her.
I think it’s so interesting that the first thing she then does when she does come to terms with it is that she goes to Aunt Lydia.
Because Aunt Lydia knows her, and she also knows how connected Aunt Lydia is, but also how intelligent she is. It’s a situation where even from that first meeting, where you see Agnes and Aunt Lydia meet on screen for the first time, you get this sense from Aunt Lydia that she knows Agnes is capable of far more than even Agnes knows, and a moment where Agnes is ready to play and learn from Aunt Lydia. So I think that her stepping up to the plate, knowing that she is capable of more than she thought she was able to, in a way, and I think it also shows with what she did to protect Becka.
Do you think that Aunt Lydia already knew that Agnes was June’s daughter?
Oh, definitely, I do. Aunt Lydia knows everything, and I don’t think that she would let a lot go unnoticed around her, especially in her own school.
So do you think she intentionally put Daisy and Agnes together?
I do. I think that she’s very strategic, and whether or not we know her full plan, I do think that that was all a part of her plan.
And what is her plan?
You might have to call [showrunner] Bruce Miller for that, because I don’t know her full plan. I can only pull from what I know from the scripts that we’ve read already, and then also from the book, so you might have to call Bruce Miller about that one.
I just love picking everyone’s brain. It’s just interesting watching all the chess that’s happening with all these women, but these are some very powerful women, and I love the last line, that nothing’s more powerful than a teenager. These are some very empowered teenagers. What does that mean for you?
One of the main things it means for me is teenagers, and especially young girls, have this strong tendency in society to be underestimated. And then I think that while there’s a disservice in that for them, I think that that’s also something that can be used as a weapon. I think that these girls, especially at the end when you see Daisy, Shunammite, and Agnes, they know that they’re in a society where they are underestimated in a way, and I think that they’re taking back their power. Teenage girls have a strong sense of passion and strength, whether or not they know where it comes from, and that intensity that they feel with everything, I think that that is also something that makes a teenage girl so strong, coupled with the fact that they know that there is a strength in being underestimated. I think that those three girls specifically are going to take action on that as well.
We’ve certainly seen them do that. Do you think that when Agnes confessed to Commander Weston, she knew that it was going to blow up the engagement?
When we were doing it on the day, I don’t think that she was even thinking about her circumstances. I think she was just completely thinking about Becka and doing whatever she could do to protect her. So I think she was just being completely selfless, and I don’t even know if that was even really something that crossed her mind until the end result happened.
Do you think she cares where it puts her going forward?
I think it makes her nervous, and I think it makes her anxious to know that the life that she had been promised her whole life is not going to come into fruition in the way that she thought, but again, I think that the only thing she truly cared about, which you see throughout the entire series, she cares about her friends more than anything. Becka’s safety is the only thing that she cares about in that situation, even after the engagement was broken off. Even after that, she only cares about Becka’s safety.
And what does it mean to her now that Becka is safe?
I hope Becka continues to be safe. There’s just this overall relief that she’s feeling. Her friends are her whole world. She would have done the same for Becka, she would have done the same for Shunammite, she would have done the same for any of her friends across the board. I think that the only thing after the whole situation is feeling relief that she’s safe and relief that she knows that she did everything in her power to protect her. I think that also internally she knows that she’s going to be OK. She doesn’t know what that looks like, and she doesn’t know how that’s going to manifest in the future but she knows that she’s going to be OK.
I know the internet made a lot of the kiss between Agnes and Becka. How do you interpret the kiss? What does the kiss mean to you?
There’s a lot of things that went into that, and a lot of care that went into it on the day as well, because we knew that it was an important moment in not only Becka’s storyline but also Agnes’s storyline, and the connection of both of them. I think that across the board one thing that is for certain is Becka loves Agnes and Agnes loves Becka, and I think that that the way that it manifested on the screen I couldn’t have envisioned it any other way.
I also have to give so much credit to Mattea, because she was the most incredible scene partner, as she always is, but her insight and her specificity that she brings with Becka, and also the pure heartbreak that not only the audience feels, but I felt on the day, because even like Chase just viewing her from behind, I just was completely in awe of not only her performance but just of what she brings to Becka. I think that something that Agnes felt is she feels the relief that knowing that Becka is going to be OK, she feels heartbreak knowing that that Becka is not going to be OK in the way that she would like, in a way, because we know that Becka did not want to get married, we know that this is not the life that she wanted to live, and so there’s a bit of heartbreak with that as well.
There’s so many things that went into that, and so many emotions that Agnes is feeling those in that moment, but I think that relief is something that is very strong, heartbreak is something that is very strong, but I also think love is something that she feels incredibly strongly because Becka is her person in life, that is the one person that she loves more than anybody. So that’s what I think.
And what about her relationship with Daisy? It’s gone through a huge transformation. Is there trust there now?
I think there is trust there. Those two girls have gone through so much together, and they’ve really saved each other in ways that they couldn’t have imagined. I think that there is a bond that can never be broken, knowing that in this world of people turning on each other, a society that does not allow connections and friendships to happen, they know how important they are to each other, because they know how important it is to work in a unit, how important it is to work with a community, which is why you see these girls are so strong, and why they’re so strong in numbers. My favorite moments in the show are when you can see that if somebody needs something, all the other girls will kind of cater around it and figure out what they need to do, so that this one person can succeed in their task or in their mission in a way. But I do think that there is a trust between them now that can’t be broken or even described in a way.
You definitely had some challenging moments this season. What was the toughest for you?
The material is incredibly difficult, but I feel grateful that our entire cast and crew made it so that there were no difficult days in terms of acting, because we really felt a strong level of protection around all of those difficult scenes, whether it be the dentist scene, whether it be Mattea with killing Dr. Grove. There was such a strong amount of love and care that was placed around us as actors on that day, that helped it to feel not as heavy or as mentally draining as it could be, because we were in a safe environment, and we knew that we were safe with the people around us. So I can’t say that there were any really difficult days on set. I think that the thing I probably struggled with the most was we had a lot of long days, and I think that the long days were the more difficult hurdle than working on the material itself.
What did you want to see for the second season now that you’ve been picked up?
I would love to see Agnes continue to step into her power in a way, and step into the curiosity that she feels towards not only her backstory but towards her life and society around her, that’s something I would love to see. I would love to see how these girls are going to continue to grow together as well as separately, but I think watching that community grow, I’m very curious about. I’m excited to see how Gilead is going to start to crack. That’s something else I’m very excited to see.
Do you think she’s going to try to search for June?
I don’t know. I’m not sure.
What would you want to ask Bruce, if you could sneak into the writer’s room?
Oh my god, there’s so many things I want to ask Bruce. There’s a lot of storyline things in the book that I would love to see happen soon. I think something I would ask Bruce about, because I’m the most curious about it, is in terms of what Agnes and Becka’s relationship is going to continue to look like, because it is different now. There’s so much that’s changed, not only between the two of them, but between their circumstances. Agnes is back at school, and Becka is married. This is not the life that neither one of them could have planned. So I’m curious about them. That’s what I would ask Bruce about.
What did having Elisabeth Moss on set mean to you?
It was such a gift. It was so incredible to be able to call on to somebody who literally is the encyclopedia for The Handmaid’s Tale and that universe outside of Margaret Atwood. I felt very touched knowing that I could call on her for anything, and she made herself readily available to not only me, but to every one of the girls on set. If we ever had a question, or if we ever needed something, she was always there to pick up the phone and champion us until the end. So it was incredible, and I feel very grateful to have worked with her and to continue to work with her.
And what did it mean to you to have Margaret Atwood on set?
It was really surreal, because I remember hearing all of these stories that Ann would tell us, that Elisabeth would tell us, that Mike Barker would tell us about her, and we didn’t get to meet her until close to the end, and so it was such a gift to meet the creator of the world that we’re living in and also just to pick her brain about various things.
She also is just such a kind person, but also very witty, and I think it was very fun to have her on set, because she would say so many things that are incredibly insightful, and then the next sentence she would say something that would have you cracking up. Getting to meet her and have that connection with her, and also just give her her flowers, her many deserved flowers that everybody gives her. She’s truly so incredible, and has done so much for not only literature, but also in enacting change into the world, and I think that just giving her those flowers and being able to shower her with all of the love that she deserves was something I will never forget.
