SETTING THE STAGE: MOSS (L) AND PERRY (R)
PREPARE TO SHOOT A LIVE PERFORMANCE SCENE ON
THE SET OF HER SMELL« READY FOR HER CLOSE-UP: PERRY SAYS HIS 2015
FEATURE QUEEN OF EARTH FULFILLED HIS MISSION
TO MAKE A “70-MINUTE CLOSE-UP” OF MOSS’ FACEMOVIEMAKER.COM WINTER 2019 59TOP LEFT: COURTESY OF ABC / PHOTOFEST; TOP RIGHT: PHOTOGRAPH BY DON STAHL; BOTTOM LEFT: COURTEST OF TRIBECA FILM / PHOTOFEST; BOTTOM RIGHT: COURTESY OF IFC FILMS
says, drawing out the syllable as if dragging on
a smoke. “Oh my God, no. Far from it. I am so
not method. Occasionally I’ll be like, ‘Maybe I
should go method on this one!’ But no. I can’t.
I just can’t. It’s not how I’m built.”
It doesn’t get any easier, acting. Moss
doesn’t want it to: She wants to challenge her-
self, not only on each new movie, but even on
television, in each new episode, in every new
scene. This is the motivation that guides her.
It’s like Perry says—give her something new
to try, some role she’s never done before. That
will get Moss excited.TOP OF THE LAKE
Between the fifth and sixth seasons of
Mad Men—at the apex of the show’s popular-
ity, after she’d been nominated for Emmys
and Golden Globes—Moss met with a casting
director who was looking for the lead of a
new miniseries for the BBC, a grim procedural
called Top of the Lake. The writer and director
of the series, Jane Campion, did not think
Moss was right for the part. “She only knew
me from Mad Men,” she remembers.In common with most of the world,
Campion saw Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson:
plucky, resilient, a little dweeby. Detective
Robin Griffin was... not that. She was the kind
of woman who could stab a man in the belly
with a broken beer bottle. “It was totally un-
derstandable. If you see Peggy and then you
see Robin, it is not a logical choice.”
Moss fought for the part anyhow. Her audi-
tion persuaded Campion straight away. Now
that we have all seen Moss as Robin Griffin,
the casting seems not only logical but perfect:
Moss is terrific in the show, and takes as
naturally to the role as Daniel Craig to
James Bond. But doing Top of the Lake while
Mad Men was still on air had an unexpected
effect, besides universal acclaim. It did some-
thing that most of her colleagues on Mad Men
are still, several years after the finale, figuring
out how to do: it made Elisabeth Moss exist
as a concept independent of Peggy Olson. In
other words, it simply and cleanly divided
a great actor from a character she might
otherwise have been associated with forever.
Doomed to type-casting as Peggy Olson, Moss
would never have the career she does now.
Top of the Lake convinced the world that
Moss could do more than Peggy. Moreover, it
convinced Moss that she could do more thanPeggy. “That was really important for me,”
she confesses. “I didn’t know if I could do
anything else. I needed to prove to myself that
I could.” It was hard going at first. “I remem-
ber getting to New Zealand and talking to my
mom for hours on the phone. Like, literally,
I remember saying to her, ‘I don’t know what
I’m doing, I don’t know if I can do this.’ I was
doing an Australian accent. I was working
with Jane Campion. I was in New Zealand!
By myself! For six months!” But, as she says,
in the end she “figured it out.” And she figured
out something else: She can do whatever she
wants. She never has to repeat herself again.
That is now the guiding principle. No
repetition. It’s what puts her in mind of mov-
iemakers who are known for the boldness of
their visions: Ruben Östlund, David Lowery,
Ben Wheatley, all of whom she worked with
after they intrigued her with interesting films.
It’s what attracts her to produce new movies
she knows have the potential to be original,
to help usher those projects into the world
unspoiled. It’s what makes her continue to
work with Perry, who, by his own admission,
knows “the best way to get her attention is to
say, ‘Here’s a challenging thing you’ve never
done.’ ” “You just can’t do that much with
something that isn’t challenging you,” she tells
me. “If I know I’ve done something before,
and I know I’m just gonna pull up some trick
I did last time that worked, then that’s shitty.”
The kinds of films that allow Moss the
latitude to get crazy are by nature small films.
And although she is comfortable working at
that level—she is adamant that the industry
“maintain the space for movies made by
auteur moviemakers that are different and
not necessarily popular”—a true desire to do
everything must also include a willingness
to do something huge. As much as Moss had
never played a drug-addicted rock-star mother
before she set out to make Her Smell, she has,
as of this writing, never played an Avenger or
the lead in a Nancy Meyers comedy. So why
not those in her future, as well?
She’s always liked the kitchens in Meyers
movies. And as for superheroes, she could give
it a shot. Maybe. “I don’t think I’m good at the
whole green screen thing,” she jokes. “But I’m
not averse to trying it out.” Still, she says, she
is probably more inclined to lean dark and
small than massive and colorful. She’ll try
anything once, but the heart has its wants. “I’m
more into, like, a weird concentration camp
miniseries,” she laughs, stubbing out a cigarette
and grabbing a stick of gum. “That’s a sure path
to my own Marvel movie.” MMHer Smell opens in theaters March 29, 2019,
courtesy of Gunpowder & Sky.