Steven Prusakowski
In The Testaments, Lucy Halliday delivers an impressive performance by playing not one version of Daisy, but several. There is the sarcastic, rebellious teenager who remembers the freedom she recently lost. There is also the frightened, but resilient young woman just trying to survive inside of the often ruthless walls of Gilead. Then there is the carefully constructed mask she must wear to keep everyone around her from becoming suspicious. The amazing thing is Halliday somehow plays all of them at once.
“Every single thing she says, every single thing she does is very calculated because she’s actively trying to protect herself and actively trying not to appear out of place,” Halliday explained. “What is she looking for and what is she having to present herself as being in this scene, but also… what is she having to suppress of herself? Like what sarcastic sentence does she want to say that she normally would say? What quite volatile or energetic aspect of her old self would normally come out right now? And how can we show that to the audience without showing that to the girls in Gilead?”
That’s the challenge for Daisy and what elevates Halliday’s performance from one facet to multiple. She has to conceal the real Daisy from nearly every character around her while giving viewers just enough glimpses behind the wall she creates to remember the young rebel is always present. It’s a balancing act for the character and the actress filled with vital subtleties.
From the beginning, that duality is exactly what attracted Halliday to the role of Daisy. “In Gilead, there’s not very many people that are getting to be boisterous or pushing against the regime or thinking differently,” she said. “To get to play this character who’s really having to suppress her true self and try and integrate in this environment, but it’s an environment that she’s fervently against, was definitely a draw from the very beginning.”
Daisy may be trapped like a bird in a cage, but her spirits are never broken, even as the truths she learns should easily do so. Every moment of her existence is used to further the quiet rebellion, said Halliday, “She’s soaking up information. She’s looking for clues. She’s trying to figure out where are the avenues that we could go down to dismantle this organization.”
Although it can be easy to forget due to the grim situation surrounding her, Halliday never lets us forget that Daisy is still just a teenager. “I think she’s just terrified,” Halliday said. “I think that’s at the core of everything that she does and every decision she makes, that she is terrified and she doesn’t know what the right thing is.”
Halliday understands the timeliness and importance of stirring up this conversation with the audience in hopes that it resonates. “She doesn’t always know what the right thing to do is or the best thing to do is, but all she knows is that she’s got to do something. She’s got to do whatever is possible to help those around her.”
She continued, “Unless one person is the first person to put their head above the parapet and stick up for others, then there’s never going to be that wave that follows. And so if anyone ever has that opportunity to be that person, then I very much hope they do. And I hope that Daisy inspires that in others.”
Lucy’s use of the American accent, instead of her natural Scottish accent, helped her connect with Daisy at a new level, “I do find it incredibly helpful as an actor getting to do an accent,” Halliday said. “I do think it gives you a level of access to a character that you wouldn’t normally have.”
The series carries a lot of emotional weight that could become overwhelming if not for the close-knit ensemble surrounding her, including Chase Infiniti (for more The Testaments talk, check out Chase’s fascinating TV Topics interview), Rowan Blanchard, Matea Conforti, Anne Dowd and Elizabeth Moss.
“I really love our cast, and I truly believe that we could not create the show that you watch if it wasn’t for that specific group of people,” Halliday said. “There’s so much heaviness in the scenes and in the story, that to film those scenes actually requires… an atmosphere on set that is one of levity and support.”
Ultimately, what makes Halliday’s work as Daisy so mesmerizing is that she understands the character’s greatest weapon isn’t anger or uproar, but rather it’s patience and hope. “What is particularly hopeful is that at the crux of it is a group of individuals who are willing to subvert the notions of what they were taught, to go against the ideas that they were raised in, and to look at things differently.”
In a series filled with darkness, Lucy Halliday emerges as one of The Testaments’ brightest lights, not only in her performance but also as a reminder to other young women that they can bring about change.
You can watch all of season one of The Testaments on Hulu. Also be sure to watch my full conversation with Lucy below.
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