Beautiful Villainess

There are any number of deliciously unsympathetic characters who populate the now-playing “The Handmaid’s Tale.” What’s notable is that the most despicable of them is also the most beautiful.

“It’s nice that you’re not decorative and you’re not there to make the leading man look like a heck of a guy,” declares Victoria Tennant, who does a sinister turn as the Nazi-like Aunt Lydia. The film of the Margaret Atwood novel deals with a futuristic society wherein women are relegated to the role of baby-making machines. Aunt Lydia’s job is to strip them of their emotions and indoctrinate--and humiliate--them into their new roles.

“I sensed quite strongly when I turned up for work that the crew and everybody around looked at me quite skeptically,” says the veteran actress of “All of Me” and the “Winds of War” marathons. “ ‘This isn’t how we imagined Aunt Lydia,’ they would say. Then, after the first of the dailies had been shown, they were going, ‘You are Aunt Lydia.’ ”

Director Volker Schlondorff had seen something in Tennant in “All of Me” and “Strangers Kiss,” both 1984 releases, that prompted him to cast a villainess who could just as easily grace a cover of Cosmo.

“It was a very different part from the things that I’m usually offered,” says Tennant, who’ll next star with husband Steve Martin in his screenplay of “L.A. Story,” which rolls cameras next month. “And I thought it was terrific to play against type.”

Nor did Tennant display Aunt Lydia’s viciousness when Schlondorff said “cut.” In the Queen’s English, she becomes vehement when reminded that some actors carry their character, however offensive, around all bloody day long.

“I don’t believe in all this psycho-drama (stuff),” asserts the actress. “I mean, give me a break. There’s no need to live a character. There is something very simple and it’s acting.”