Sydney Sweeney isn’t hurting for work these days. Even before she received Emmy nominations for her performances in Euphoria and The White Lotus, she was booked and busy. This year, Sweeney also focused on filming movies like Madame Web, Reality, and National Anthem. Of course, those who have followed Sweeney’s career for years will also remember her from The Handmaid’s Tale. Turns out, her most challenging scene to date was from the hit Hulu series.
Who did Sydney Sweeney play in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ cast?
In the sophomore season of The Handmaid’s Tale, Sweeney portrayed Eden Blaine. A true child of Gilead, Eden was introduced as Nick’s pious, child bride. However, it was Issac’s affection that eventually caused her to fall in love, and the couple ran away together. Unfortunately, the pair were discovered, and when they refused to repent, they were executed by forced drowning.
Why Eden’s death scene was the actor’s most challenging scene to date
Since The Handmaid’s Tale, Sweeney has shot a number of films and TV shows. However, Eden’s death scene still sticks out to her as the most challenging. While the emotions of the scene weren’t difficult for the actor to conjure, the physical demands were quite intense. In an interview with British GQ, Sweeney explained why Eden’s death scene was her “most challenging scene.”
“It actually is a little further back for [The] Handmaid’s Tale,” Sweeney recalled. “I had to learn how to dive and sink with weights on me, and I wanted to do my own stunt, so I went through the training. Challenge means fun for me, so I like a good challenge.”
Sweeney explains her training process for the drowning scene in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
A sports enthusiast, Sweeney isn’t one to back down from a challenge. The Players Table producer is trained in MMA and loves wakeboarding, hiking, etc. But what did her training for her death scene in The Handmaid’s Tale consist of? She and her fellow castmate, Rohan Mead (Issac), trained with scuba divers in order to perfect the stunt before filming.
“We went to this giant pool, we put on wetsuits, and we had to perfect our dive,” Sweeney shared with Refinery29. “We tried diving with weights, we tried diving with chains, and then we worked on how long we could hold our breath under water and how different signs underwater [work] for scuba divers and what they meant.”
Training extensively means that Sweeney felt fully prepared when she finally got the chance to film her character’s death scene in The Handmaid’s Tale. So while Eden was going through turmoil, Sweeney was enjoying herself. “I was having a blast,” she admitted. “I was having such a great time. I wanted to keep doing it over and over again.”
