Elisabeth Moss‘ latest film, Shell, addresses issues she has battled throughout her entire career. But she’s never been alone. From the dawn of Hollywood, nearly impossible body image standards have crushed performers under the weight of fabricated ideals. And that doesn’t even account for the harsher truth: the reality of aging. Historically, it has been more difficult for women to navigate this, although men also face related challenges. Moss’ career is absolutely loaded with success, but if she hadn’t confronted these demons, none of it would have ever happened.
In an exclusive conversation with MovieWeb, Moss explains what kept her pushing past obstacles towards success over and over again. It’s fair to say that modern standards have loosened or varied, with a bit more tolerance for aging stars (Norma Desmond was only 50 in Billy Wilder’s seminal film on this topic, Sunset Boulevard). Yet, the presence of social media pressure and constant visibility has brought the struggle against this topic home for countless people everywhere, not just those in the traditional spotlight. All of this is why Shell, co-starring Kate Hudson as a wellness guru on youth steroids, feels relevant to us all.
Aside from discussing Shell, Moss takes a moment to reflect on her time on Mad Men, one of the standout series of the golden age of television, and how an early glimpse at footage from The Testaments (the highly anticipated follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale) brought her to tears.
George Edelman
I wanted to start by asking you about one of the things happening in Shell, which is the concept of body image and striving for physical ideals that may not always be realistic or fair. The character you play works in Hollywood, as you do, of course, and it’s an automatically heightened idea of what a lot of people experience.
Elisabeth Moss
For me, and for a lot of people, it’s just so incredibly relatable. We take it to this extreme in the film, where the best example of it is what a person would feel like standing next to Kaia Gerber. What I thought was brilliant about that casting, and she’s a great actress too, is that it’s such a great example of how we all feel a lot of the time. We all have our insecurities. As an actress who has been doing this for 37 years, I’m not a super insecure person, but I’m also realistic. I don’t think I look like Kaia Gerber [laughs]. So I found the idea of sitting in an audition room and feeling like you were not as beautiful as everybody else in the room so relatable and really lovely to explore.
As a woman, I’m 43 now, and I’ve definitely, over the years, heard many, many times, “Oh, well, you know when you get older, you know this is gonna change. And like, blah, blah, blah.” Luckily, it’s changing a little bit, so many actresses now are doing incredible work who are over 40, over 50, over 60. It is something that has changed a lot since I was younger, which is great for me as I get older. It’s very promising, but it’s very, very much a part of your kind of upbringing as an actress. It’s very, very present. You know, even as an actress in LA, I would go to auditions when I was a teenager, and I was not the cheerleader type. I was not.
George Edelman
I went to one audition when I was a teenager, and I was like, “I can’t do this. I’ll never be able to do this.” So that was the end of that. I am curious how you moved past that. Many of us are familiar with it, and even those who haven’t experienced it have a general understanding of it. The movie captures it great in that scene you’re describing. How did you move past it and be like, “I’m not the cheerleader, but I’m going to keep going, and I’m my talent, and what I am is going to get me somewhere.” Because it did, it really did for you.
Elisabeth Moss
That is such a good question. Wow, I’ve never been asked that before. Thank you. I think that I was very aware of what my strengths were, and I loved and continue to love acting. It’s kind of as simple as that, that I love acting, and when I got it right, right is not really the right word, but when I felt like I was doing a good job, whether it was, you know, like my audition for Mad Men or my audition for Girl, Interrupted, or something, when I was around 15. When I felt like I was finding that character, and I was doing a good job, it was so fun, and that feeling was beautiful and wonderful. It was absolutely worth the other 90% of the time.
George Edelman
You mentioned Mad Men. I think it’s my favorite show ever. It’s certainly one of the greatest shows ever. What was it like working on that? Were you guys just feeling that joy and in the zone all the time? Could you talk a little bit about what made it phenomenal and enduring?
Elisabeth Moss
It’s interesting talking about it now, finally, with enough years to give a little bit more perspective. I think that we knew it was different. Everything I’ve ever done, by the way, that has worked, whether it was The West Wing or Mad Men, The Handmaid’s Tale, they’ve all been something where the feeling was the same, which was, “I think this is really good. I would watch this. I really like doing this. And I think that actor who’s playing Don Draper is like nothing I’ve ever seen. That actor who’s playing Pete Campbell is absolutely doing a performance that is something I’ve never seen before. And this writing is like nothing I’ve ever said.”
You feel like you’re kind of in this little exclusive club that you’re like, “Well, I think this is really fun, I would totally watch this.” I am curious. I’ve never talked to anybody about how they feel about it, so I don’t know if other people in Mad Men feel the same. You don’t feel like, necessarily, anyone else is going to get it, you know, like, you’re like, “Well, I think it’s great. But, is anyone else going to understand?”
By the way, on Mad Men, we look at it the way that we look at it now, but at the time, it wasn’t a runaway success, right? It’s not like, “Oh my God. This is a classic.” It wasn’t like that. It obviously took off very well, shortly after that, with the Golden Globes and stuff. That was our first thing. That, for us, wasn’t like, “Oh my god, we’re good.” That was like, “People are watching?” It was like, “Has anyone even noticed that we’re here?” That is the only way I think I can describe it. I hope that makes sense. There’s a beautiful, special, unusual feeling. But you just feel like, well, I don’t know if anyone else is going to get it.
George Edelman
Oh, we did. We did. Do you have any updates on The Testaments, as you’re an executive producer on it? Since The Handmaid’s Tale ended, I’m curious if you have any updates for fans or what’s coming next?
Elisabeth Moss
Obviously, I’ve seen a lot of it as a producer, and it’s moving along in the post process. It’s been really interesting watching it, because normally when you finish a show, you have this sense of, “Well, that’s the end of that,” and you shut the door. You say goodbye, and it’s all very final. Then this unusual thing happened because of The Testaments, where I feel like I get to keep, at least as a producer, working with a lot of the same people and see the story keep going. That doesn’t happen very often. I get why people go do a movie, like a Breaking Bad movie and Downton Abbey movies, because it’s wonderful to be able to keep going and keep telling the story. So that’s been a great part of it. I never really had to say goodbye.
I will say this, right when I saw the camera test for The Testaments, I cried, because seeing these incredible young women inhabit these characters and new costumes and seeing the story carry on in this younger generation… I was very moved by it, and I didn’t realize I was going to be moved by it. But that’s kind of the feeling behind the show as well. There’s this younger generation who’s going to carry on with this fight, and that was just very moving to see. I think the balance has been finding something that, obviously, there’s a built-in audience of Handmaid’s Tale fans, and you want to fulfill the promise of that for them, but also bring it to a new place, because you don’t want to make the same show. So you want it to be different. I think that everyone has done a really good job of leaning into making it a new show that can stand on its own.
And Chase [Infiniti] and Lucy [Halliday] are incredible. I just have to say that too. They are so good. So that’s really going to be exciting for people. Shell is in select theaters and on digital on October 3, 2025.
Shell
- Release Date
-
October 3, 2025
- Runtime
-
100 minutes
- Writers
-
Jack Stanley