She’s the Moss!
Elisabeth’s dramatic tale
She might be one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood right now, but when it comes to choosing her next role, there’s one person Elisabeth Moss listens to more than anyone else – her mum!
The Los Angeles-born actress, who won accolades as corporate climber Peggy Olson in MadMen, is now tipped to finally win an Emmy for her latest role in the dystopian TV drama The Handmaid’s Tale, now showing on Lightbox.
It’s a role many actresses would not have thought twice about, but Elisabeth says she took six weeks to make up her mind if she wanted it. “That’s because if I say yes, I’m in 100%,” tells the actress. “When it came down to making a decision, I emailed them saying, ‘When I decide, you’ll have my answer, but for now, I’m talking to my mum.’”
Of course, she finally jumped in, boots and all. The critically acclaimed show is based on the Margaret Atwood novel of the same name, about a society that controls women’s bodies and reproductive rights. And with President Donald Trump’s goal of overturning abortion laws for women in the US, Elisabeth, 34, thinks there’s no better time to make a stand for women.
“I get angry, but it’s a cold, calm anger,” she says matterof-factly. “Now is not the time for fear. It’s not the time for violence. It’s the time for cold, hard action ... I would like to have a child. But I very much support the right for women to not, if they don’t want to. I don’t understand the concept of a woman not having ownership over her body.”
To many of us, it seems like Elisabeth has had a dream run as an actress, following up her long-running part in
MadMen with the lead role in the Jane Campion-directed, New Zealand-shot TV drama Top of the Lake.
But the star – who was raised as a Scientologist by her musician parents, Linda and Ron Moss – says that what we see is just the tip of the career iceberg.
“I’ve been doing this for 28 years,” she tells. “For the last 10 years, it’s been pretty good, but there were many times before that when I didn’t have a job, many times when nobody wanted to talk to me.”
‘Horrible’ hubby
There have been times, too, even after her career took off, when things haven’t gone her way. After an eight-month engagement, in 2009, she married Portlandia star Fred Armisen, 50, in a private ceremony in New York. But the relationship was over just eight months later. They finally divorced in 2011.
Last year, Fred admitted that he was caught up with the idea of being with an actress from MadMen. He then forced the end of the relationship by sleeping with other people.
Admits Fred, “This is gonna sound so shallow, but I get lost in fantasy a lot ... The fantasy of this person from MadMen. It is like being star-struck, and I was getting to know the other people from the show and her, and it was very, very exciting.”
Elisabeth has described the short-lived union as “traumatic, awful and horrible” and said later about her ex, “One of the greatest things I heard someone say about him is, ‘He’s so great doing impersonations, but the greatest impersonation he does is that of a normal person.’ That sums it up.”
Six years later, however, it’s all water under the bridge for the actress, whose star has continued to rise.
Kiwi viewers will soon be watching her reprise her role as Detective Robin Griffin in the second season of the twisty-turny psychological thriller Top of the Lake.
The six-part series is slated to show on Sky’s UKTV in August and this time, the action moves across the Tasman to Sydney, where her character investigates a washed-up suitcase containing the body of an Asian girl.
Nicole Kidman and Gwendoline Christie, who plays Brienne of Tarth in
Game of Thrones, are also in the cast. In the new season, the detective is in a dark place
personally, but there are also light moments from Gwendoline, who plays her cop partner and is the yin to her yang.
“I requested that it be darker,” admits Elisabeth. “I didn’t see the point of doing it again if we didn’t. It’s about being more complicated, more challenging, to do things that were a bit more f***ed up.”
Not that Elisabeth doesn’t like a little levity to balance things out. She confesses to having a penchant for staying in hotels, ordering room service and watching escapist TV.
“I love The Real Housewives BeverlyHills and NewYorkCity are my favourites – and I love Shonda Rhimes’ projects,” she says. “I love Scandal. I’ve seen most of Grey’s Anatomy.
“Perhaps because I have done so many intense roles, people expect me to be serious. I don’t know what it is. I don’t think you have to be a dark person to do dark material.”