How 'Handmaids Tale' changed Joe Fiennes' marriage

Joe Fiennes is nothing like his 'Handmaid's Tale' character IRL.

August 17, 2018, 4:00 AM

This is acclaimed actor Joe Fiennes.

PHOTO: In this undated photo from a GMA photo shoot is Joseph Fiennes.
In this undated photo from a GMA photo shoot is Joseph Fiennes.
ABC

You may better know him as Commander Fred Waterford in HULU's "The Handmaid's Tale."

PHOTO: Joseph Fiennes in a scene from "The Handmaid's Tale."
Joseph Fiennes in a scene from "The Handmaid's Tale."
Youtube

When Fiennes isn't on screen acting as an evil commander in the fictitious totalitarian society of Gilead, where fertile women are forced into sexual servitude, he is living his best life as a traveler, foodie and, most important, a husband and dad.

PHOTO: British actor Joseph Fiennes poses with his wife Maria Dolores Dieguez and their children in St Peter's square before Pope Francis weekly general audience, Feb. 3, 2016, at the Vatican.
British actor Joseph Fiennes poses with his wife Maria Dolores Dieguez and their children in St Peter's square before Pope Francis weekly general audience, Feb. 3, 2016, at the Vatican.
Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images

"Although Fred is a character that I very much enjoy getting under the skin of, I also can’t wait when I hear at the end of each day, 'cut.' And I’m allowed to escape," Fiennes told "Good Morning America." "My greatest escape is being with my family or going on walks or busting out crazy moves to some Katy Perry song -- so pretty normal dad stuff, I think."

Fiennes said he would love to get an audience to understand that he and the commander are two very different people. In fact, they couldn't be more opposite, he insists.

"Being in 'The Handmaid's Tale,' having read the book, what I come away with is feeling that much more protective and much more alert to what my wife and my two daughters might have to put up with in society," Fiennes said. "I, an average sort of white male, have grown up with great privileges. Now I’m more alert to what a lot of women are up against, and I think it’s really switched me up to that cause."

But blessed be the fruit, we're here to help Fiennes set the record straight.