photographer/ SHANNA FISHER
make up / KAYLEEN MCADAMS @THE WALL GROUP
hair / CERVANDO MALDONADO @ THE WALL GROUP
stylist/ ASHLEY ZOHAR @ THE WALL GROUP
The LADYGUNN #7, “Whatever” Issue is all about anything and everything. We wanted a theme that encompassed whatever we fancied and covered all our multifarious predilections. We were beyond happy to present Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss as one of our multiple covers. The 30-year-old actress has played Peggy alongside Don Draper for six seasons and she talked to our Editorial Director Heather Seidler about Mad Men‘s last season, her mini-series Top of the Lake, and Mad Men’s last season, her mini-series Top of the Lake, and her unique acting method. The photoshoot was shot in LA by Shanna Fisher and styled by Ashley Zohar with the outcome Elisabeth looking as beautiful and radiant as ever.
The “Whatever” Issue is available onstands now, check out a sneak peak of the cover story plus exclusive outtakes below. You can also download the full magazine digitally for $.99. C’mon Looky-Loos, have at it!
On Peggy and Draper’s relationship:
“I think that one of the reasons why their relationship is so unique is that in a weird way, as much as she gets upset, cries or gets angry when Don yells at her, there’s a weird lack of judgment from her. There’s an understanding…she gets him. She doesn’t like it when he does that, but she understands him. There’s a compassion he gets from her that he doesn’t really get from anyone else. She knows what type of bullshit he does and knows he can be an asshole–eventually she gets to a place in season five where she realizes she cant be there anymore, she has to go elsewhere. The scene where she quits is so interesting. One of the things I loved about it is how calm she is and how upset he is. In this moment, in this constituted moment, she’s totally calm and confident in her decision and it’s her confidence in her decision that rattles him and makes him realize that she’s serious.”
On the pros and cons of being on a longstanding TV show:
“I think one of the drawbacks of doing a television show for so long is that you have to play the character for a long period of time, and I feel lucky that I’ve never had that feeling because every season Peggy comes back different, more grown up–partly because she goes from twenty to twenty five in a few years. I was actually just talking to Matt [Weiner, show’s creator] about this and it’s a really weird combination of reality and non-reality. You’re supposed to be totally okay with the fact that you have to stand on this particular mark and completely ignore that it’s there. You have to be totally okay with the fact that everyone is staring at you. You’re supposed to totally fine with this complete non-reality. Yet at the same time, you’re supposed to be as realistic as you can possibly be to act out these emotional moments and be completely real. So there’s this funny acceptance of non-reality and that’s why sometimes actors can be a little up and down and flighty–they’re used to going back and forth. You’re used to having to start crying all of a sudden. I think the good actors and actresses I’ve worked with are used to doing that and understand the job. I don’t believe you have to be that all the time, you don’t have to take it with you. It works for a lot of people and is great and results in a lot of great performances, but that’s just not particularly my thing.”
On working with Jane Campion, director of Top of the Lake:
Jane is an opinionated person with a very strong point of view. She’s extremely independent, she really believes in what she believes in and she’s very secure. She said the most AMAZING thing to me that I’ll always carry with me. It was the greatest thing she could have given me as a director to an actor going into an audition. She said, ‘Don’t worry about hitting the bulls-eye, just get the dart on the board’.”
On her acting method:
“I think there’s no hard and fast rules. I think that often, pulling from personal experience can create the opposite effect because there might be things that have happened in my own life that I’m over and I feel fine about now, so for me to go back there actually doesn’t work anymore, because I’m not really upset about that anymore. I actually work better creating a new moment that my character specifically is in but then identifying that because of past experiences. Because I’ve had that experience, I know what that means. I know what it feels like to cry but I’m not necessarily thinking about something sad that happened to me…that actually really messes me up. You know, when something actually sad happens to you and you’re really upset about, sometimes you don’t cry or you might have a reaction totally different than the reaction you’re supposed to have.”
More pictures and full story in the LADYGUNN, #7 WHATEVER ISSUE!
