Interview with Elisabeth Moss: "I'd like The Handmaid's Tale to be fantastic. I wish it to be Game of Thrones & # 39;

ELisabeth Moss wants to go to an honest place. If you can not look at what we are doing, she says, how can you face and confront what is happening around you in our country and in the world?

Sitting near a hotel bar to promote the release of his independent film in the United States His smellthe conversation turns to Martin Luther King. As she says, Moss shot a scene at the Lincoln Memorial for the third season of The servant's tale when she looked down and saw the engraved space honoring King's iconic address "I have a dream". Then, in her maid's red coat, she knelt on the marker.

Moss, who played June "Offred" Osborne – and Peggy Olson before her – in some of the most remarkable but unplanned feminist icons of television over the last twelve years, has not hesitated to recognize the connection between the show and some political figures. and the social problems that develop in the country. She even calls him cathartic.

"I do not know how many people have this experience wearing this suit on these stairs," she says, "the president taking a few blocks making huge decisions that will affect immigration and the freedom and rights of many citizens".

If the red cloak is now the international symbol of the manifestation of women's issues, whether it is to defend reproductive rights abroad or against a US Supreme Court nominee, Moss, or his character, is the face of this branch of resistance. As Moss says at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, she hopes Gilead will be "a long walk" from President Trump's America, but that does not change the current reality. It's a role she admits she does not have to take on, but she remains honored for her responsibility in "really unusual circumstances."

"How would you feel?" She said, calling the situation "crazy." "The fact that she entered the culture in this way is incredibly unusual. I would like it to be fancy. I wish it to be Game of thrones, you know? I would have liked it to be like: "It's crazy!"

"But unfortunately, it's not."

A sunny Saturday in early March, it is midday. The 16-dollar badtails are already overflowing with the scent of flora flooded with integrators and spectators in town for the famous festival, hoping to catch a glimpse of Seth Rogen or Henry Winkler. But no one turns their heads in this heavyweight influencer hotel than Moss, the brightest star in the bar, whose long blond locks fall on a black Led Zeppelin t-shirt and a matching blazer. She is supporting two films at the festival, a conversation with singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile (she's playing in the Carli One's Party 2018 song clip) and a list of very crowded movies.

Moss had not slept much the night before, when Jordan Peele We made its world premiere a few blocks away. The same was true later in the night His smellLove letter powered by Alex Ross Perry's addiction to the punk rock of the '90s, screened at the festival before going out to the US this month.

As she sips a green smoothie, Moss swears she keeps him together during the tired weekend. The 36-year-old actress then wonders if she has any smoothie on her face. She does not.

"Do not worry, I'm fine," she told me with a relieved smile. "I'm just pouring green juice."

If you ask him, Moss will tell you that His smell, the third collaboration of the actress with Perry, is the most difficult thing she has ever done. The anguish, anger and depression of the grunge of the 90s pushed Moss – who grew up with jazz and blues musicians for his parents and adored Paula Abdul and whose first concert was the Michael Jackson Bad tour – is downright out of his element.

"Nirvana was not my thing at all. I just went straight to Britney Spears, "she said, citing" … Baby One More Time "as her clbadic not to be missed. "It was my trip. I mean, how are you better than that?

Becky Something, the character of Moss in the fictional biopic, is the toxic and self-destructive singer of the feminist punk movement Riot Grrrl. She's less Courtney Love and more Kurt Cobain, as well as Amy Winehouse, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean – those who fought with a life of an incredible celebrity mixed with a disabling addiction. You can not turn a blind eye to Becky's anxiety and instability, whose stinging feathers, bursts of violence and sobriety are both striking and holistic.

"In one sitting, she does what she does season after season on television: create a multi-year story for her characters," Perry said in a statement.

No matter how Moss arrived there, she left Carlile, a fan and collaborator, visibly shaken.

"I was sometimes visibly uncomfortable watching him," Carlile told Moss during their interview in Austin, before going any further. "I was uncomfortable all the time."

From the moment she debuted on Mad Men from 2007 to the present day, as she was entering her third season in another critically acclaimed program and reserved lead roles in feature films at a breakneck pace, the attention paid to the film. actress had never been so big. But there is a price. Moss and his works are increasingly being promoted by his fans, colleagues and critics about his beliefs in the Church of Scientology. She refuses to develop these criticisms, but says she's sticking to what she describes as a personal affair.

"Honestly, what I'm going to say is that I have very little control over what's mine, what's private and what's not," says Moss. "It's my choice to keep some things confidential, because otherwise, you'd rather feel like you've got nothing personal. The truth is what I believe, and what is important to me is in my work. Often, the things I defend, the things that mean something to me and to my heart, I try to integrate them into my work. "

In this work, the striking range of Moss is on display throughout the weekend. One night, she is Kitty, the vain housewife, managed by gossip, who drowns her insecurities in the rosé We. Next, she's tough Becky. She says she played four different characters in less than five months last year, casually mentioning how she had just returned from a Wes Anderson film in France.

"Bill Murray is in there," she says timidly about the project, probably referring to the The French dispatch. "I think I can say that."

This versatility was evident to Peele, who wanted Moss to tap into a Real Housewives of Orange County atmosphere in We.

"What's wonderful about working with Lizzie, from the management's point of view, is that you can experiment," said Peele in an interview to promote the horror film. "She has so refined tools that you will get a performance and a vision of something as beautiful, nuanced, strange and unbalanced, and then you say," Try another one like that. " but different, "and she'll give you the hardest options you can imagine.

She sees it in simpler terms. "It's not rocket science for me," she says. "In a sense, my job is ridiculous. I put on costumes, hair, makeup and pretend to be other people. Then there are a hundred people who play and play with you. It's ridiculous. "

A standing ovation weekend ends with another in a dark ballroom at the Austin Convention Center. Fans hold their hands and their iPhones in search of an opportunity to meet who they want Moss to be in this example: the editor, the maid, the punk rocker, the star. It's the glory that follows Moss. The scene is not very different from one of the themes of His smell – the cost of fame and the sacrifices that go with it.

Back at the hotel, she wonders what the cost of the celebrity was. It finally lands in time, the world's largest natural resource, and prioritizes it to make sure it never becomes a cost.

“My family is very important, my friends are important, my boyfriend is important to me,” she says.

Then, Moss returns to an honest place.

“Those are the people I actually want to hang out with.”

She catches herself: “No offence, but you get it.”

None taken.

© Le Washington Post