Julia Schlaepfer as Alexandra in ‘1923’ season 2. Photo:

Lauren Smith/Paramount+

Warning: This post contains spoilers for episode 3 of 1923 season 2.

It was hard for Julia Schlaepfer not to internalize the heartbreaking and harrowing journey her 1923 character goes on in season 2.

Schlaepfer, 30, plays former British royal turned runaway bride Alexandra, who abandoned her title and her family to run off with Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar) in Africa in season 1. In season 2, both she and Spencer are making their way to his home in Montana on their own after they were separated in the heart-wrenching season 1 finale — and the stakes have been raised following Alex’s pregnancy reveal in the season 2 premiere.

“In her naive, privileged way, she doesn’t quite understand how perilous this journey’s going to be,” Schlaepfer tells PEOPLE. “And even when her and Spencer were going through these tough things, she had this bit of her little feisty excitement…because Spencer was always there to save the day. And now I think it feels a lot scarier and a lot more dangerous.”

Alex’s journey to get to the U.S. alone was treacherous, to begin with, but now that she’s arrived, as she did in the March 9 episode, things go from bad to worse — beginning with a truly traumatic immigration experience at Ellis Island required for her to get citizenship.

Schlaepfer says that filming the sequence, which showed Alex undergo back-to-back invasive medical exams by three merciless male doctors, was “really brutal” — just like it was to watch.

It took “about eight hours to film” the scene where Alex is “traumatized” by a doctor who makes her strip naked and performs a highly invasive examination, all while she’s terrified he’ll discover she’s pregnant and she won’t be allowed enter the country.

Julia Schlaepfer as Alexandra in ‘1923’ season 2. Lauren Smith/Paramount+

Though she was “taken such good care of” and had an “incredible intimacy coordinator” on-site, Schlaepfer admits that the experience was hard to shake. “I love Alex so much, and so I feel like I went through everything that she went through [in] season 2. My body doesn’t know the difference. I know that I’m acting, but my body doesn’t.”

“I thought that I would be able to just leave it at the door a little bit easier,” she says. Instead, “It was a lot more challenging for me.”

Giving her all to Alex’s story this season — she says that there are episodes to come that were “equally as difficult to film” as Ellis Island — meant that the actress often left a day of filming feeling “dissociated” and “had to figure out how to kind of settle back in before showing up the next day.”

“I don’t think I slept for most of season 2. I just couldn’t sleep at night,” she admits.

Julia Schlaepfer as Alexandra and Brandon Sklenar as Spencer in ‘1923’ season 1. Emerson Miller/Paramount+

There was also the rage at what her character was going through — and the knowledge that the story likely wasn’t far off from the reality many women faced at the time. “I felt like my body held onto a lot of anger about what she goes through, so I’d go take boxing classes on the weekend to get it out of my system.”

“I was really learning along the way because I don’t think I understood quite what that would feel like or entail,” she adds of the Ellis Island sequence, in particular. “And Alex continues to go through a lot this season because, again, she just got to [New York], she’s got to cross the country. And so I learned a lot [during] the months that we filmed, on the fly, about how to take care of my mind and my body as a person.”

Julia Schlaepfer at the Los Angeles Premiere of “1923” Season 2 held at Harmony Gold on February 19, 2025. Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty

The way that Alex’s Ellis Island experience ends, though, with her not only getting citizenship despite her pregnancy but also speaking her mind to the immigration officer, gave Schlaepfer some peace of mind, at least.

“It was a tough sequence, but then she gets that redemption at the end with that immigration officer, and, I think, says what so many people — even in our modern world — are feeling about the idea of freedom in America and what that means to who,” she says. “And so I was just really honored to get to tell that piece of her story and of what so many people did go through.”

Despite the turmoil Alex has already been through and will continue to face on her journey back to Spencer, Schlaepfer says there are also “moments of joy,” most of which are derived from her pregnancy.

“That mother’s love, I think, is what keeps her going,” she says. “She has such a purpose. It’s no longer just Spencer. She’s creating life, and I think you really see her go through the deepest, most beautiful parts of what a mother’s love can endure.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

The first three episodes of 1923 season 2 are now streaming on Paramount+ and new episodes premiere Sundays.