Elisabeth Moss found the freedom to ad-lib in her new movie intoxicating.
The 33-year-old is best known for playing Peggy Olson in hit TV drama Mad Men. But in her latest feature, psychological thriller Queen of Earth, the actress gets to fully unleash her emotions as her character Catherine hits rock bottom, and Elisabeth loved every minute of it.
“It’s way more fun for any actor to play complex emotions. Feeling good and happy is just boring,” she told Vulture. “I mean, in life, it’s awesome to be happy, but most actors enjoy getting a little messy. Mad Men was so controlled, with so much subtext, and it was so subtle. It was a very distinct style, so it's great to be able to do something like Queen of Earth where it’s no holds barred — I can do whatever I want, I can ad-lib, I can do something crazy. That kind of freedom is very intoxicating.”
While Peggy was quite innocent and determined in Mad Men, Catherine is loose-lipped and determined to make those around her feel as fraught as she does.
Elisabeth loved sinking her teeth into such a ballsy character, especially when women are so rarely portrayed in that way on-screen.
“First of all, you never get to do that in real life, and we all want to say things like that in life at some point or another,” she said. “Second, you rarely see that coming from a woman in film. It’s awesome.”
As well as starring in the movie, which is directed by Alex Ross Perry, Elisabeth also served as a producer, another challenge she relished.
“Being a producer on this one allows me to have an objectivity that I never had before. I usually don’t like watching myself — and that doesn’t come from any highfalutin place of, ‘I can’t watch myself, it interferes with my process!’ It’s just that it’s uncomfortable when you see yourself making weird faces, or you don’t like the way your hair looks or something,” she explained. “With Queen of Earth, though, I had to watch the first cut as a producer, and it was a very cool new experience for me. I was able to look at it in a different way.”
