Chase Infiniti’s Quiet Rise Powers The Testaments Debut
How “stolen” lessons from Leonardo DiCaprio shaped her breakout role as Agnes
Trenton, April 10: Chase Infiniti didn’t arrive quietly. Less than 24 hours after The Testaments hit Hulu and Disney+, her name started circulating with a kind of urgency you don’t usually see for someone this early in their career. Not hype exactly, not yet. But attention. The kind that builds when critics start noticing something steady underneath a complicated show.
She plays Agnes, a character caught between identity and indoctrination inside Gilead’s rigid system. It’s not an easy role to carry, especially in a series already weighed down with expectations from The Handmaid’s Tale. And still, in those first three episodes, Infiniti holds the center more often than not.
What’s interesting is how she talks about getting there.
In interviews this week, she’s been unusually open about borrowing, or in her words, “stealing,” techniques from actors she’s worked with before. The biggest influence: Leonardo DiCaprio, her co-star in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another.
The phrasing might sound cheeky, but she means it. Not as an imitation. More like paying attention, then figuring out what sticks.
Watching Closely, Then Making It Her Own
On that film set, Infiniti wasn’t just focused on her scenes. She was watching how DiCaprio moved through the day. How he talked to people. How he handled the space around him.
One thing that stayed with her was how little he leaned into his own status. According to her, he treated the production like a shared effort, not a hierarchy. That meant knowing people’s names. Crew members, assistants, everyone. It sounds simple, maybe even obvious, but it’s not always the norm on large productions.
She brought that habit with her to The Testaments. Made it a point to connect with people across departments, not just her fellow actors.
And you can feel some of that in the show, even if you don’t know why. The “Pearl Girls” scenes, in particular, have a kind of ease to them that doesn’t always come naturally in tightly controlled, dystopian storytelling. There’s tension, sure, but there’s also a sense that the actors trust each other.
That kind of thing doesn’t happen by accident.
Keeping Things Loose In A Story That Isn’t
There’s another layer to it, too. Something less visible, but maybe more important.
Infiniti has talked about the idea of staying “playful” in scenes, even when the material is heavy. The phrase itself comes from Paul Thomas Anderson, but she points back to DiCaprio again when explaining how it actually works in practice.
He didn’t lock into one version of a scene too early. He kept adjusting, reacting, letting things shift depending on what the other actor gave him.
That’s harder than it sounds, especially in a show like The Testaments, where the world is so tightly defined. Gilead doesn’t leave much room for looseness. Everything is controlled, structured, and watched.
But that’s exactly why it matters.
Infiniti’s performance doesn’t feel stuck. Agnes isn’t frozen in one emotional state. There’s movement there, even in small moments. A hesitation that wasn’t there before. A reaction that lands a little differently the second time around.
Some early reviews have picked up on that, noting that she avoids the trap of playing the character as purely solemn or symbolic. Instead, there’s a sense of someone still figuring things out in real time.
Which, in a story like this, might be the most honest choice available.
The Small Stuff That Keeps You Going
Not every lesson she picked up is that abstract.
Some of it is practical. Almost mundane, until you’ve spent enough time on a set to know it isn’t.
Her now-circulating comment about the “craft truck” being the “Holy Grail” falls into that category. It’s the kind of thing actors joke about, but also rely on. Long days, inconsistent breaks, emotionally draining scenes, it all adds up. Knowing when to step away, grab something to eat, and reset for a minute is part of the job too.
She’s been passing that kind of advice along to her co-stars, including Lucy Halliday, who plays Daisy.
There’s a quiet shift happening there. Infiniti isn’t just learning anymore. She’s starting to teach, even if she wouldn’t frame it that way.
She’s also talked about advocating for herself more on set. Asking questions. Pushing back, gently, when something doesn’t feel right in a scene. Those are habits a lot of actors take years to develop. For her, they seem to have clicked early.
Again, she traces that back to observation. Watching how more experienced actors navigate collaboration without disappearing into it.
A Show With Weight, And Someone Carrying It
The Testaments was never going to have an easy launch.
It carries the DNA of The Handmaid’s Tale, which means audiences come in with expectations already formed. The tone, the politics, the emotional intensity, none of that is new. But the characters are, and that’s where the risk lives.
Agnes sits right at the center of that transition.
Through her, the show tries to bridge what viewers already know with what comes next. That’s a lot to ask of any actor, let alone one still this early in her career.
And yet, at least so far, it’s working.
Critics, including those writing for Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, have pointed to Infiniti as one of the steadier elements in a series that’s still finding its rhythm. Not flashy. Not overextended. Just present in a way that holds attention.
That might not sound like the highest praise, but in a show like this, it matters more than big moments.
What Sticks After The Cameras Stop
There’s a tendency, especially early on, to frame rising actors as sudden breakthroughs. Overnight success, even when it clearly isn’t.
Infiniti doesn’t really fit that narrative.
If anything, what she’s describing is accumulation. Watching, absorbing, trying things out, and keeping what works. There’s nothing particularly glamorous about it.
Even the DiCaprio connection, which could easily be turned into a headline on its own, comes across in her telling as something quieter. Less about proximity to fame and more about paying attention to how someone sustains a career at that level.
He reportedly praised her work last year. That helps, no question. But it’s not what’s carrying her now.
What’s carrying her is what shows up on screen. And increasingly, that’s enough to keep people watching.
For now, The Testaments has only just begun. There’s a lot of story left, and plenty of room for things to shift.
But if these first episodes are any indication, Chase Infiniti isn’t just part of the next chapter. She’s one of the reasons it might hold together.
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A bi-coastal pop culture critic and former indie screenwriter, Gia covers Hollywood, streaming wars, and subculture shifts with razor wit and Gen Z intuition. If it’s going viral, she already knew about it.
