Yvonne Strahovski: from villain to victim in Cate Blanchett’s ‘Stateless’

By Magdalena Tsanis

Madrid, Jul 6 (efe-epa).- Well known for her role as Serena Joy in The Handmaid’s Tale, Yvonne Strahovski is no stranger to intense and complex characters and once again takes on the part of a struggling woman in Stateless, a series that has been created and co-produced by Cate Blanchett for Netflix.

Stateless tells the story of several characters fighting for survival who all collide at one of Australia’s detention centers.

Based on real events, the plot takes place in the early 2000s, before the Australian government moved its detention centers to the islands of Manus and Nauru, where activists have reported abuse and human rights violations in recent years.

QUESTION.- As a daughter of Polish migrants, did you feel a special connection to this story?

ANSWER.- I definitely feel a connection to the story, I think most people will. I met so many people onset, the majority of them were people who had been detained or who had a family member who had experienced being a refugee and coming to another country experiencing statelessness and what they went through and it was heartbreaking to hear the stories of loss and family separation from people as I got to know them during the process of working with everybody onset.

Q.- What was your family’s experience of migrating to Australia?

A.- Back then when my parents migrated from Poland in the 1980s you were welcomed with open arms into Australia and there was a process where my parents were put up in a hostel and taught English and they were helped in any way possible so my parents were able to get jobs with the help of the Australian government at the time and make a life for themselves.