Elisabeth Moss on Mad Men Delays, Broadway Memories & Her Star Turn in London's Children's Hour

Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss is making a blazing West End debut in The Children’s Hour, the smash-hit revival of Lillian Hellman’s 1934 melodrama. Moss joins Keira Knightley as a pair of female teachers in 1930s New England whose lives are upended by a student’s lie about the nature of their relationship—a lie that just may contain within it a kernel of truth. Blessed with commanding stage presence, Moss may well repeat her scorching performance as Martha Dobie on Broadway, a possibility she discussed with Broadway.com late one afternoon at the Comedy Theatre, along with Mad Men delays, the apparent perils of eating sushi, and the delight the 28-year-old actress takes in live theater.

Congratulations on a terrific London stage debut! You have a natural affinity for the theater.
Thanks! I don’t take any of it lightly. Six years before I did Speed-the-Plow on Broadway, I did a play off-Broadway [Richard Nelson’s Franny’s Way at Playwrights Horizons] when I was about 20. I was definitely intimidated and don’t have formal training, so there’s a lot of pressure. But I work really hard at it, and I’m happy I’ve had the chance to come back and try again. I really do love doing it.

How did you end up working in London on this particular play?
I was on a press tour for Mad Men at the time the offer came. This is going to sound really fancy, but I was in Cannes, and Ian [Rickson, the director] flew out to see me. You think of being stuck in shabby [theater] dressing rooms, and there we were last October having a meeting about the play literally on the beach in a restaurant on the most gorgeous day you have ever seen.

Was Keira Knightley already attached?
I knew she was circling it, and that in itself was a huge draw because I’ve always been an enormous fan of hers. She’s one of the few actresses her age who has done these humongous projects representing millions of dollars and also managed to construct a career that is full of serious, interesting work. I really respect that because [Moss lowers her voice] she doesn’t have to. I knew that I would like her from the minute I heard she wanted to do this play. I thought, she’s got to be a cool girl if she wants to do this because it’s a lot of work!

But why come to London, with the upheaval involved for someone who lives in New York and shoots a phenomenally successful TV series in L.A.?
Oh, I think it’s the respect that actors have for the West End, especially as an American. There’s Broadway, as well, but I do think the West End is considered a serious place to be, so for a film and TV actor who wants to keep growing and learning and trying things, it’s a great place to do it.

What’s extraordinary about this play is that the lie about a love affair between these two female teachers facilitates a truth-telling that would not otherwise have occurred.
Absolutely! What I identify with—because I am straight and this is the 2000s, a very different time—is just the idea of putting yourself out there and confessing your love for somebody and being rejected. That’s a universal idea. There’s also the idea of an injustice, and how agonizing and frustrating it is when that happens to you and you can’t fix it. It’s incredibly timely in our world of the internet and blogging and paparazzi and magazines, where people just make up lies and print them, now more than ever. And that’s just that aspect; I’m not even going to get into the political and the sociological side of things.

By which I assume you mean the play’s anatomy of what one might call the tyranny of the righteous.
Yes—the ignorance of something you don’t know anything about and then being righteous about it.

I love the last scene, which is essentially you and Keira in a shared stasis, like something out of Beckett.
It’s interesting that you say Beckett, because that’s something we said many, many times in rehearsal: It’s just these two people sitting there. And so much of the play, too, is down to Ian and our designer, Mark [Thompson]. It would have been so easy to make the production visually heavy, with lots of velvet and dark woods, but instead they’ve come up with this bare, beautiful blue space that is filled with light. I think that’s so brilliant!

There has been a lot of talk about you repeating this performance in New York.
From your mouth to God’s ears! [Laughs.] I’d absolutely love to. I mean, it’s incredibly hard, make no bones about it. The main attraction of theater is also the main drawback, which is the fact that you do eight shows a week and you have to do it over and over again. But that’s also the best thing: Yesterday, I found something that it has taken us 68 shows and seven weeks of rehearsal to find, and that’s what keeps you going —as well as the fact that I love the play. We’re all in love with the play!

Do you find yourself monitoring Keira’s consumption of Japanese food, after what happened in Speed-the-Plow? [Jeremy Piven abandoned the Broadway production after a self-proclaimed bout of mercury poisoning]
[Laughs] I did say before doing this play that if everybody stayed in the cast, I would consider it a complete success!

How challenging was it to play opposite four different actors as Bobby Gould [Piven, understudy Jordan Lage, Norbert Leo Butz and William H. Macy]?
The procession of people felt like we were in rep [laughs]. But you know what? I look upon that experience as very positive. It was difficult for the entire company because there we were, almost thrust out onto the street, but it was also incredible to see people band together and just hit the boards. I had maybe three days of rehearsal with Norbert, who came in, book in hand, and the same with Macy, who came in and saved the day, and this is on a David Mamet play, which is not easy! But hard as it was, it was also kind of amazing that I got to work with Norbert, whom I might not have gotten to work with otherwise, and with Jordan, who was amazing, and with Macy. I mean, when was I going to be on Broadway with Macy in a Mamet play? So for me, it was great.

What can you tell us about delays in production for Mad Men’s fifth season?
We all want to go back to the show and we’re not sure exactly when that’s going to happen; at the moment, we’re all confident that everyone has their hearts in the right places. But to be perfectly honest, I don’t know a whole lot more about Mad Men than anyone else. Negotiations are going on, and those are private; those aren’t told to us. What I do know is that we all want to continue with the show.

How have your Mad Men co-stars reacted to your work in the theater, first in Speed-the-Plow and now The Children’s Hour?
[Series creator] Matt Weiner was the person who told me after season one, “You need to go do theater.” Well, not “you need to” but that “you should.” When I got Speed-the-Plow after season two, you’ve never seen a group of people be more excited: cast, writers, producers. They came to see Speed-the-Plow, and I’ve had tons of people come all the way to London to see this.

Like who?
Christina [Hendricks], which was very sweet, and Matt, and a few others. Now I sort of feel like I’ve got to go back and say, “Hey, guys, let’s all go do theater. You’ve got to do it, it’s great!”

Do you have a sense of what's in store for Peggy on Mad Men? Will she re-encounter her baby?
Well, one of the reasons Mad Men's great is that sometimes we give you exactly what you want, sometimes we never do, and sometimes we do and it's years later. When I had the baby at the end of season one, it took until the end of season two for Pete and me to talk about it. It's possible that Peggy could be reunited with her child, but it would have to be in a good way. We don't want to do a soap opera!