She's Nothing Like Peggy, or Is She?

This is long, but a good read..... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/arts/television/07barn.html?_r=1

She's Nothing Like Peggy, or Is She?

By BROOKS BARNES
Published: June 5, 2009
LOS ANGELES

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TAPED to the wall of Elisabeth Moss's apartment here a large, hand-lettered sign reads, "Lock the Door." The woman who plays the tightly controlled Peggy Olson on "Mad Men" needs to be reminded of this?

"Fred put it there," Ms. Moss said, referring to Fred Armisen, the musician and "Saturday Night Live" comic who is her fiancé. "Sometimes I'm just a little," she said, pausing and looking thoughtfully upward, "forgetful."

An effervescent 26-year-old trained as a ballerina, Ms. Moss has earned Emmy chatter for her work on "Mad Men" and critical raves for her recent turn in the David Mamet play "Speed-the-Plow" on Broadway. She is currently filming "Get Him to the Greek," a big-screen comedy co-produced by Judd Apatow, in which she plays a put-together medical resident, the foil to Jonah Hill's hedonistic music-industry gofer.

Contrary to what one might expect of a person who inhabits difficult roles so seamlessly, Ms. Moss can come across as a bit of a space case. There is the door thing. A question about "Circus of the Stars" leads to an awkward moment. It's one of the weirder things on her résumé, but she can't remember anything about it.

And what's up with the ukulele on the armchair? "Fred and I like to keep instruments around the house," she said, taking a careful sip of Pellegrino.

The contradiction between her characters and her real-life persona extends to appearance. While she plays something of a dump truck on "Mad Men" -- all bumper bangs and dreary dresses -- Ms. Moss is every bit the sexy ingénue off camera. (Check out the photos online of her attending this year's Golden Globe Awards in six-alarm red.)

Ms. Moss spoke in an interview about wanting to be taken seriously as an actress and not becoming the kind of Hollywood cliché that trades on her looks. But perhaps her "Mad Men" character could be a tad more attractive? "I'm always crying around the set for more makeup," she said. "For the love of humanity, give me some lipstick!"

Peggy Olson, alas, isn't that kind of woman. The character, a secretary turned copywriter at an advertising firm in the early 1960s, is simple, a little self-righteous and overtly determined. She's only 20, but comes off as much older by contemporary standards. "She's good at her job and really bad at a lot of other things," said Matthew Weiner, the show's creator.

Mr. Weiner said that he was familiar with Ms. Moss's work from "The West Wing" -- she played a presidential daughter, Zoey Bartlet, for seven seasons -- but that he didn't expect what walked into the audition room. "I was shocked at how quickly she metabolized the material," he said. "She is that kind of actress where we don't intellectually ever delve into what is going on with her character. It's almost like it doesn't pass through Elisabeth's brain. It's completely instinctive.

"She works hard, but I think she also works hard to hide it. Either that, or she's an alien."

Asked why so many television critics describe her "Mad Men" character as a cipher, Ms. Moss suddenly focuses, answering immediately and aggressively. "I like that they don't understand Peggy," she said curtly. "That makes the performance more interesting."

Suddenly Ms. Moss's contradictions are starting to make sense.

The third season of "Mad Men" will have its debut on AMC sometime in August. (The cable channel won't be more specific.) In the first season Ms. Moss's character concealed a pregnancy, a plotline that required the actress to wear increasing amounts of padding. Season 2 was marked by a big promotion for Peggy and several heart-wrenching monologues for Ms. Moss. What's next?

"She's not going to get a sex change, and she's not going to shoot anybody," Mr. Weiner said. "You know I'm not going to give that away."

Ms. Moss didn't want to give too much away either. Sitting in her living room, decorated with Crate & Barrel furniture, she politely confirmed information but did not elaborate on it. Yes, she practices Scientology. No, she doesn't collect French Revolution cookware, whatever that is, as some celebrity blogs have invented.

She didn't want to talk about Fred -- too much. "I could talk about Fred for three hours," she said, fluttering her eyelids and beaming. "But we are very private people." Ms. Moss met her fiancé, who is 16 years her senior, last October when Jon Hamm, who plays the charismatic Don Draper on "Mad Men," hosted "Saturday Night Live," and she joined him for a couple of skits. A date for the wedding has been picked, but no details were forthcoming.

But she was more than willing to talk about her career choices. Ms. Moss said the role in "Get Him to the Greek" interested her because it was a chance to work on a different set of acting muscles. Where "Mad Men" scripts are very specific and "you don't vary a word," she said, "Get Him to the Greek" involves a lot of improvisational humor. "I love anything that makes me a better actor," she said.

Nicholas Stoller, the director and co-writer of the movie, said: "I think she's enjoying the opportunity to be kept a little off balance in front of the camera. She's a natural at being very funny, which I didn't quite expect."

She got more than she bargained for with "Speed-the-Plow," Mr. Mamet's three-character satire about the movie business. As if the pressure of learning the rapid-fire dialogue and performing on Broadway for the first time wasn't enough, she had to work overtime helping to get the two replacements for Jeremy Piven (Norbert Leo Butz and William H. Macy) up to speed. (Mr. Piven withdrew from the show, saying that mercury poisoning had left him exhausted and disoriented during some performances; it was a claim that producers had a hard time swallowing. An arbitration hearing resulted in a split decision, and Mr. Piven avoided any penalties.)

"I was worried she would feel like she was slumming it when she got back to our show," Mr. Weiner said. "I mean, I encouraged her to do theater during our hiatus thinking she would do some little workshop somewhere. Instead the woman goes out and does David Mamet in a Broadway debut."

Hollywood has never been far from home for Ms. Moss. She grew up in Los Angeles as the daughter of musicians. Ron Moss is a jazz musician and music manager, and Linda Moss is a professional blues harmonica player. Musical ability runs in the family: at the age of 10 Ms. Moss starred as Baby Louise in a production of "Gypsy" that was shown on CBS and featured Bette Midler in the lead role.

Ms. Moss said she was a "serious, focused child." As a youngster, she would play "library," a game that involved lining up books on a staircase; her parents would check them out. She graduated from high school two years early. Her first acting job came at the age of 6 in a Jackie Collins mini-series called "Lucky Chances." By 16 she was working with Angelina Jolie in "Girl, Interrupted."

But Ms. Moss was more focused on dancing than acting during her early years, something that she thinks kept her grounded. She studied at the School of American Ballet in New York and with Suzanne Farrell at the Kennedy Center in Washington.

"It took all the pressure off of auditioning for acting roles," she said. "If I didn't get a job, I just went on dancing. It saved me from becoming that 9-year-old who has everything riding on getting that one part."

"We all know that 9-year-old," she added, with a smile, "and she's not a pretty picture."

With that, Ms. Moss escorted a reporter to her door and sweetly bid him goodbye. A loud click followed as soon as he was in the hallway.

It seems the sign on the door works.