The Handmaid's Tale scene Joseph Fiennes refused to perform

The Emmy-nominee drew the line with one particular season two plot development

Joseph Fiennes has revealed he refused to perform a scene in The Handmaid's Tale season two.

British actor Fiennes has had his fair share of controversial scenes to act out as Commander Fred Waterford in the Hulu award-winner, but he drew the line with one particularly harrowing scene written for his character in the episode which saw him travel from Gilead to Canada.

The scene in question, Fiennes told Entertainment Weekly, would have seen Fred rape his wife Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski).

“I guess in many ways, as abhorrent and nasty and evil as Fred is, I have to defend parts of him,” Fiennes said. “In episode 9, we had a moment where Fred was going to rape - after meeting Luke [Offred's husband] - rape Serena in a hotel room straight after, and it just didn’t track for me. I had to go out on a limb and refuse to do it because I felt that even though Fred is who he is, he’s human.

He continued: “I think that he would be reeling from the interaction with Luke and that suddenly the reality comes face to face with him and he would be digesting that and trying to understand it, and he wouldn’t necessarily be switched on by being in Canada in a new hotel and trying to heavily persuade his wife to do something that she wouldn’t want to do.”

Following “long emails and defending and pushing,” showrunner Bruce Miller respected Fiennes' wishes. He added: “Yvonne had tracked Serena so beautifully that her disenfranchisement with the regime and Fred was so beautifully charted it didn’t need a heavy scene to kind of suddenly push her over the edge.”

Fiennes earned an Emmy nomination for his performance as Waterford alongside much of the show's ensemble including Strahovski, Elisabeth Moss, Ann Dowd and Alexis Biedel. The series will also compete with Game of Thrones, Westworld and The Americans in the hope of winning Best Drama for the second year running.

The Handmaid's Tale continues on Channel 4 this Sunday (29 July). Its third season will return in the US next Spring.