ELISABETH MOSS

The five-time Emmy Award nominee, 32, says goodbye to her character, Peggy Olson, when AMC’s hit series Mad Men begins airing its final episodes tonight. (For an interview with show creator Matthew Weiner, see page 4.) Has Peggy evolved over the seasons? “So much. A lot of it is by virtue of her age, going from 20 to 30. She wasn’t a fully formed person when we started, and now she’s become the person she’ll probably be for much the rest of her life.”

What lesson did you learn from your time

on Mad Men ? “Follow your heart and trust your instincts. You don’t know what’s going to work; you don’t know what people are going to respond to. You just have to do what you like and what you think you would

watch.”

What do you miss the most now

that you’ve finished filming? “The character of Peggy. I still see [the other actors]. They will always be in my life. But the character will never be in my life again, so I think that not getting to play her anymore is what I

miss the most.” You followed up

Mad Men with a turn on Broadway in The Heidi Chronicles . Why theater? “I think theater is a discipline, like running a marathon, mentally and physically—and marathons make you stronger. It helps

to push you as an actor.”