Interview
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: Max Minghella Reveals What Luke Gives June That Nick Can’t
[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Handmaid’s Tale‘s final season.]
It’s hard to imagine how Nick and June come back from that bombshell reveal at the end of The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6 Episode 6, “Surprise.” Max Minghella and Elisabeth Moss‘ characters were hiding in a closet in Serena’s (Yvonne Strahovski) home when her new fiancé/Nick’s father-in-law, High Commander Gabriel Wharton (Josh Charles), revealed that Nick divulged Mayday’s plot to attack the commanders at Jezebel’s. Wharton had Nick cornered and likely would’ve had him killed if he didn’t come clean in their tense scene earlier in the episode. But it’s an unforgivable betrayal nonetheless, one that has put the life of every trapped woman in Jezebel’s at high risk—Janine (Madeline Brewer) included.
Nick and June’s romance has a split audience. For some, it’s their favorite romance of the show. Others see Nick as a moral blind spot for June, given his rise in the ranks of Gilead leadership. Nick has never been very rebellious; June has brought that fighting spirit out of him. Minghella previously told TV Insider (Swooon‘s sibling publication) that Nick has a very poor opinion of himself (he has the “self-esteem of a goldfish,” the actor described it). His stronger moments come when he’s motivated to act to help June in her rebellion. Minghella also noted that his primary reason for helping June’s resistance is because it means he can see her.
Nick struggles to stand up to the Gilead commanders close to him. Minghella says this stems from his lack of a father figure and education, which makes him impressionable and unconfident. Given that Nick frequently only fights against Gilead when June inspires him to do it, does June make Nick feel like a better person? Is that what he gets out of their relationship? We asked Minghella that very question. It’s not what June can do for Nick that makes him feel connected to her—it’s what their connection creates for them in this dangerous world.
“I don’t think that he thinks of himself as a good person at all,” Minghella tells Swooon. “I don’t think that that’s what he gets from that relationship. What he gets from that relationship, it’s always been some kind of symbiosis. I think we all have this experience in life where we can feel lonely for a stretch of time. Then you meet somebody and you click with that person in such an easy way. You feel like, ‘Oh, we just speak the same language. We see the world in a similar way. I feel completely relaxed and open with you.’ Those are rare connections that we have in life, whether they’re platonic or romantic. And I think Nick and June just have that.”
“This is a safe place for both of them,” Minghella goes on, “and that’s what he’s lacked really in any other relationship in this world.”
There’s only one other person who Minghella thinks Nick would call a friend. “He has a friendship with Lawrence for sure,” the actor notes. “I think that they have a similar ease with one another—in a very different way, obviously.”
Minghella admits that there’s one major thing missing in Nick and June’s relationship. “He’s a really good survivor. I don’t know if he’s the smartest person in the world, and I think that that has always been there a little bit. That’s what he can’t offer June, which Luke [O-T Fagbenle] can, is an intellectual connection,” Minghella says. “He doesn’t have that at all. A lot of the time he finds himself in situations because he doesn’t really have the tools to navigate this stuff. It was never taught to him.”
The fallout of Nick’s betrayal will be seen in The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6 Episode 7, coming out tomorrow, May 6, on Hulu.
The Handmaid’s Tale, Tuesdays, Hulu
