Here are edited excerpts from the conversation .

There will be no spoilers here. But early on in Season 3, I found myself really rooting for Serena. And then …

She has that look in her eyes. [Laughs] I think that’s the fun of watching a character like Serena. You root for her so much and she does something so good, and then just like that you can be like, Aww, nooo.

Serena is riding the Kingda Ka of emotions this season after giving her baby away.

I was so struck by how overcome with regret Serena would have been, because we pick up right after she gave the baby away. You’d be so upset and in such a low spot, considering that baby was the only thing she ever wanted and the only thing she looked forward to. So to have that one thing taken away from you just would be totally devastating.

And yet the grieving Serena still can’t quite fathom June’s own pain at having had one child stolen from her and then being forced to relinquish another.

I think she does understand it to a point but she thinks that her circumstances and position in Gilead trump June’s. More, “This is how it goes in Gilead and you are my handmaid and will make me my baby — and that’s what we all signed up for, supposedly voluntarily, right?” But I also think that Serena in her own brain has been through a lot and can’t see beyond her own trauma and her own emotion into someone else’s trauma and emotion — because it’s all pretty horrendous. So I don’t know that she necessarily thinks June is worse off than she is.

How did you approach such harrowing scenes with your infant son back in your trailer?

I came to work with a six- or seven-week-old. It was insane. I remember shooting really long days and running back and forth from set to the trailer and breast-feeding — shoot a scene, change the camera setup, run back to the trailer, feed, shoot more of the scene and come back, shoot more of the scene and come back. It was such a Jekyll-and-Hyde moment because Serena is so miserable and depressed when we first come into this season. And then I’m going back to the trailer and looking at my son, and he’s so cute and smiley and brings me so much joy.