Elisabeth Moss Pulls Double Duty

The Mad Men star on the upcoming season and her role in Get Him to the Greek

Courtesy of NBC Universal
To all those who've succumbed to the scotch- and cigarette-tinged allure of AMC's celebrated retro drama Mad Men, last season was a nerve-wracking thrill ride. There was domestic turmoil, corporate intrigue, and at least one bloody lawnmower accident! Even Elisabeth Moss, who plays the intrepid Peggy Olson, needed a change of pace. This weekend, she stars alongside Jonah Hill and Russle Brand in Get Him to the Greek, the big screen spin off of Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Moss plays Daphne, the sweet girlfriend of Hill's Aaron, a much-suffering record label intern. And now that Moss' comic turn has hit theaters, she's back to the Mad Men set, where she swears the atmosphere is not much different than your average comedy. "People think we walk around brooding with a drink in our hands, but it's not like that," she says. "It's much more fun than that." Now she talks to ELLE about getting the hang of comedy, the upcoming season of Mad Men, and what it's like to make Don Draper angry.

Did you make a deliberate choice to try a comedy when you auditioned for Get Him to the Greek ?

I really wanted to try a completely different style of working. Mad Men is so regimented and so scripted, and I love that—it's what I'm used to. So to go and do something else was a little bit scary. I had no idea how different it was actually going to be.

The movie is pretty wild. Was there a lot of improv involved?

Yeah, it was almost like 80 percent improv, but not where you're constantly coming up with things in the moment. The writers and directors would sit behind the monitors and watch you do the scene and then come up to you with a notepad that has different jokes on it. The hardest part is just remembering all the new bits and jokes you now have to do in one ten-minute take. It's like being on a rollercoaster.

So there was a learning curve?

On the first day, I had a big talking scene with Jonah, and I felt like I was swimming in the ocean without a boat in sight. But I became more sure of myself and I was able to come up with my own jokes and retorts. And sometimes I just needed to be the person that jokes were bounced off of. But Jonah is just so funny—he's the writer, the star and obviously the genius in that area—that I was happy to be his sounding board.

You're married to Saturday Night Live's Fred Armisen. Did being around him and his comedian friends give you a leg up?

It's actually very different being an observer than having to step in and do what they do. But the nice thing is that it's a very small world so everybody knows everybody—Jonah knows my husband, and he hosted SNL. So at least I felt like I wasn't entering a world that I knew nothing about.

And now you're back in the world of drama as Mad Men enters its fourth season. We left off with some characters splintering off to form Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Price. What can you tell us about what's to come?

There was so much change at the end of season three, anything I say is potentially revealing. I can't tell you who I work with—I can't even tell you if there's a new office to work in. The last time you saw us, we were working out of a hotel room...

Last season Peggy became more bold—she had an affair, she was part of the office coup, and she even got high with the guys! Is she finally breaking into the ad world's boys club.

I actually don't think she's making any sort of statement, or trying to move in on the boys club—she works with a bunch of guys, so naturally, who else is she going to hang out with? Joan? No! The secretaries don't want to hang out with her because they think, "Who's this young uppity thing that thinks she's better than us?" She'll always feel alone because she doesn't have anyone who is like her. There are no other girls at that office who do what she does.

And we're still seeing Peggy evolve and work her way up.

I think that one of the great and lucky things about playing Peggy is that she has so many places she can go because of where she started out at such a young age—20 years old and so inexperienced in 1960. The challenge for me is to balance Peggy as we know her and as someone who is changing and growing up.

Speaking of growing up, she had a bit of rude awakening last season when Don chewed her out for the first time. It was tense—and pretty scary!

The last thing you want is for Don Draper to get mad at you. It's the worst! But from an objective viewpoint, the fact that he's even engaging with her in that way is a sign that he respects her. He has always been the one who has helped her the most—and even his getting angry with her helps her. He's trying to make her stronger, and she needs that.

What about Peggy and Pete Campbell's relationship? Is it going to come to a head?

They've have been through so much that shows that they shouldn't be together, and I find it really interesting that people still have hopes for them to work everything out. But real life dictates that it doesn't always happen that way. But the great thing about Pete and Peggy is that you kind of don't have to do anything. There's so much history there that you can write "Pete and Peggy exchange a look at work," and it's a massive moment. If you think about it, nothing really happened between them last season—they didn't have a big talk or anything. But if you just mention the word "baby" in the scene between the two of them, it has tremendous weight. It's a really fun thing to play because everybody is watching.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
More From Movies & TV 2019