Exclusive interview with Elisabeth Moss: That’s not our show
Deborah and I saw Elisabeth Moss on Broadway in Speed-the-Plow and met with her backstage after the performance. She was just a love, and invited us to come back another time for a proper interview.
My conversation with her took place less than a week later, up in her dressing room at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, an hour before Elisabeth’s 8:00 curtain. It was October 30th. The previous weekend, not only did the Mad Men Season Two finale air, but Jon Hamm was guest-host of Saturday Night Live. Elisabeth played Peggy in the Mad Men sketch, replacing Amy Poehler, who’d just had her baby.
What is hard to capture in these interviews is the enthusiasm. Everything out of Elisabeth’s mouth has an excitement and a sense of wonder and a lot of love.
RKL: So how was performing on Saturday Night Live?
EM: It was pretty awesome. I got the text [message] just before my matinee, around 1:45, from my friend Casey who’s a cast member. I knew Amy [Poehler] was gonna play Peggy…
RKL: Which is brilliant!
EM: … which is awesome enough. And I still am a little disappointed that I didn’t actually get to see her rendition of Peggy; that would have been fun.
RKL: Right. Rich [Sommer] just wrote about how that was just the greatest thing he’s ever experienced.
EM: Oh, I’m sure. So I got a text from her saying Amy just went into labor, can you come tonight, and I called her and I said absolutely. I went over in between my performances, and rehearsed a couple of times. They wrote a new joke for me because now it was like a guest appearing. So Seth Meyers wrote me a great joke. It was crazy. I wasn’t even nervous because I was like in shock. And then the great thing was that, during rehearsal, the SNL cast members kept looking around and being like, This is so cool, it’s like stepping into your favorite tv show. Because they’ve got the set and there are both of the Johns [Hamm and Slattery] and I was there. And I would just look back and be like, Are you kidding me? I’m on SNL! What are you talking about?!
RKL: That’s great; that’s amazing. That’s so amazing.
EM: Yeah, and it was weird because I’m kind of in a Peggy costume and I’ve got the bangs and a ponytail and there’s Jon and then John. And yet there are SNL cast members. It was very surreal.
RKL: And there’s the house [live audience].
EM: Yeah, so it was kind of like shooting Mad Men but not. It was very strange.
RKL: Like a dream. Like you’re in a Mad Men dream.
EM: It was like one of those weird dreams that you have where you’re like, It was so weird I dreamt that we were shooting Mad Men but we were shooting it with SNL cast members.
RKL: Well congratulations, that’s very cool, and fun.
EM: Thank you.
RKL: So. Mad Men. Because, omigod, the finale was as satisfying as everyone had indicated and certainly your story was stunning.
EM: Oh good! I’m so glad.
RKL: What do you want to say about it before I poke?
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