The TV adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale has been critically acclaimed since its debut on Hulu and subsequent airing on Channel 4, the dystopian story of a near-future America first published in 1985 ringing true decades later.

However the show’s star, Elisabeth Moss, came in for criticism in April for saying that the tale was “not a feminist story – it’s a human story, because women’s rights are human rights.”

In a new interview, Moss explains that while she stands by the idea that her character Offred’s story is at heart a human one, she now understands the importance of talking about feminism specifically.

Speaking to The Guardian, she says: “What I meant to say was that, for me, feminism is equal rights for men and women. Men and women are both humans, so, for me, that makes my characters and the work that I do human stories.

“I play a f***ing sexual slave, I play a breeder, a host, a woman for whom all of her rights, and all of her family and friends, have been taken away. She has nothing. So, yes, it is a feminist story.”

Elisabeth Moss on the importance of talking about feminism: “As a woman, now, you have to speak up”