Yahoo News Elisabeth Moss On Hollywood Sexism And Why Intelligent Men Should Watch Female Stories
Elisabeth Moss knows how to pick a good script. The former child star got in at the ground floor of the prestige TV boom, winning plaudits as the president's daughter in 1999's The West Wing. Her subsequent roles as Peggy in Mad Men and Offred in The Handmaid's Tale – two women who rage against the patriarchy in very different ways – then cemented her status as one of the most impressive actors working today (and that's before we even get started on her film roles).
Following a deeply unsettling and subtly funny turn in Jordan Peele's Us, the 37-year-old is returning to thriller territory with Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man, a modern retelling of the famous HG Wells story that touches on themes of domestic abuse, gaslighting and privacy anxiety. We sat down with the actor to find out what it's like taking on the loneliest of roles.
How important is it that you approach subjects like stalking and abusive relationships in a measured and empathetic way?
Really important. I mean, you really want to do your best to honour those stories and to be as truthful as possible to the actual victims as you can. You feel sort of a bit of a sense of responsibility. We also wanted to make sure we were as inclusive as possible to different types of abuse: physical, mental and emotional. That can all be abuse and can really traumatise somebody. It's not a matter of intelligence or strength. There are strong, intelligent women who end up in these situations, and it doesn't mean that they've done anything wrong. It doesn't mean that they're weak, and being a victim doesn't mean that you're not a smart person or a strong person.
Had you spoken to abuse survivors?
Leigh [Whannell, the director] had already spoken to victims of abuse, so he shared what he had learned with me. And I’ve done my own research over the years, especially with Handmaid's Tale. So I’ve been, unfortunately, looking at it for a while. And there were a couple things that I learned on this journey that I thought were interesting, especially about stigmatisation. Victims feel like they're stupid, or that somehow it’s their fault and they deserve to be in a relationship like that. I felt I had to address my own bias, even judging other women. Like, there have been times when I've looked at a woman in a relationship, even just a toxic relationship, and you're like, 'What is she doing with him?' or 'What is he doing with her?'. It’s really not creating a safe space for that person.
How important do you think it is that men watch movies and TV shows about the female experience?
I think most men who are intelligent want to. I mean, this was written by a man. He wrote it brilliantly. It's a beautiful script and what's on the screen is very, very close to what he wrote. But he also had the intelligence to ask me, as soon as I was cast: 'Can you please tell me what I did wrong here? What did I miss? You’re a woman, you're coming at this from a completely different perspective. What can I put in here that will be true to being a female?' Most men that I've dealt with, and worked with, have that frame of mind. So, I think that is important, and I think that most smart men know that. But there are some dummies out there.
Is it easier to address difficult subject matter through horror movies?
I think it's the power of a lot of genre films – even sci-fi – because you can cloak a deeper message in something exciting and something fun. You know, there was a big part of us that, first and foremost, wanted to make a really scary movie. We were like, ‘if this isn't scary, it doesn't work’. So we want to be entertaining and we want to be fun. If we can do that, then we can actually tell a story that perhaps has a more complex message in it.
From Mad Men to Handmaid’s Tale, your characters are often rebelling against the patriarchy in some way. Did you target those roles intentionally?
Not really. I just think that our art reflects our culture back at us. As artists, whether it's literature or music, or film or television, we're exploring the conversation. Maybe it'll change, maybe it'll move onto something else, but right now it's that, and as a woman who enjoys challenging work, I've sort of found my way into that.
How did your experiences as a child actor inform the way you've navigated Hollywood?
I've been doing this for, like, 30 years. It's crazy. I think that I was lucky in a way to have good experiences growing up. To have a mom who kind of didn't expect anything else but for me to be treated as an equal and to be respected as a woman.
Have you noticed changes in the film business in terms of how women are treated?
Yes. Especially in the last few years. It's been pretty crazy. Even on-set there's just certain tiny things that that have happened now that you go, 'Oh, that's different'. You'll hear someone say something and you know now that's not okay that they said that, or they know that that's not okay and so they won't say it. You can see the space where somebody would have said something that was maybe inappropriate and it doesn't happen anymore. That's something that, having been on-set so much, I can see where that difference is.
Do you think horror gets enough recognition from awards shows?
I think it's starting to. I don't suppose really enough, yet. But the scripts are getting better, the performances are getting better; the actors and directors are amazing. Lupita's performance in Us was remarkable, and I think that over the years that’s going to be considered one of the greatest of all time. But whatever. There are a lot of great performances out there. I mean, the whole thing is, you know, a bit silly. You can't pick five performances. That's it! Five! I couldn't pick five performances out of the year that were the best, let alone one!
The Invisible Man is out now
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