THE EVERYWOMAN OF PRESTIGE TV

Actor ELISABETH MOSS has played some of the most intense characters in recent television history, but, despite her fascination with them, she has no trouble leaving them behind once the job is done, finds Kashika Saxena

- Kashika Saxena

If you’ve spent any time on the internet, you’ve seen that dangling-cigarette-and-sunglasses shot of Peggy Olsen, played to perfection by Elisabeth Moss, in Mad Men. This was her second major television role after The West Wing, one that cemented her stardom. Dubbed the queen of Peak TV (the age of more high-quality television that one can possibly watch), Moss has made consistently great, solid choices over the years, whether that is the horrifyingly relevant The Handmaid’s Tale or her latest offering, Shining Girls on Apple TV+.

“I’m most interested in the everywoman,” she says of her career choices. “I’m most interested in normal women, quote-unquote. Women who are mothers, wives, daughters, who work and live normal lives and don’t necessarily have any special skills, or superhero skills, or magic skills. I’m much more interested in a woman who lives a normal life that you can identify with, but who has to find something extraordinary within herself to meet the challenge. I’m fascinated by that as an actor, and that’s the kind of material I like to watch.”