How Elisabeth Moss Found A Second Love Directing The Handmaid's Tale
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With the fifth and second to last season of The Handmaid's Tale recently released, fans are noticing some big changes. Most notably, Alexis Bledel's absence from the show. But as early as the first episode of season five, some things have proven to be a constant. Most notably, the presence of Elisabeth Moss.
The outlandishly successful actor is basically the face of a show that's gone through an assortment of major evolutions. But this is a good thing as it's provided the talent to do the same. This includes Elisabeth who took on the role of director for three episodes of season four ("Progress", "Testimony", and "The Crossing").
This was her very first time behind the camera and she quickly proved herself to be a natural. In an interview with Vulture, the otherwise private actor shed some light on her transition from actor to director.
Why Elisabeth Moss Became A Director
In her interview with Vulture, Elisabeth admitted that her desire to become a director has been a "slow burn". Unlike the likes of Steven Spielberg (who is just about to release a movie about the origin of his career -- Meet The Fabelmans), Elisabeth took a while to discover her other passion.
"It was something that I thought maybe eventually I would try in my career because I’ve been acting for a long time, and at a certain point, you want to find ways to deepen your experience and deepen your knowledge of filmmaking as well," Elisabeth explained to Vulture.
The idea started to become a reality when she started filming the second season of The Handmaid's Tale.
"It was like, Maybe next year. Then it didn’t work for our schedule to do it in season three. I was the one who made the call to [executive producers] Bruce [Miller] and Warren [Littlefield] and said, 'I’m going to pull the plug on trying to make this work, because it just doesn’t make sense for our schedule, and as an EP, I can’t endorse this'," Elisabeth said.
"Then in season four, we were like, 'Okay, we should definitely try to make it work this year.' It just worked out really beautifully. And I thought, Well, if I’m going to try my hand at this for the first time, what a gift to be able to do it on something that I know so well, that I’ve been prepping for for three seasons in a way."
Which Episodes Of Handmaid's Tale Has Elisabeth Moss Directed?
Aside from the three episodes in season four, "Progress", "Testimony", and "The Crossing", Elisabeth has also directed the first two episodes of season five. This would be the recently released "Morning" and "Ballet".
At the time of this writing, it's unknown if she will be directing more than the first two. Given her success directing on the show, it wouldn't be surprising if she earned a few more episodes.
But during an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Elisabeth stated that she has also directed a couple of episodes of AppleTV+'s Shining Girls. But her first experience as a director ever was the episode "Progress".
Elisabeth Moss Thinks This Is The Hardest Part Of Directing
In her interview with Vulture, Elisabeth stated that the easiest part of directing an episode of Handmaid's Tale is directing herself.
"It’s actually the easiest part for me, because that’s the part I’ve done for over 30 years, is acting and being conscious and aware of my performance, and being aware of where the camera is and aware of what’s going on around me. That I’ve done for the longest amount of time. I’m just not an actor who is completely unaware of what I see or of the effects that I’m creating," Elisabeth stated.
She went on to say that the reason she chose season four's "Progress" as her first episode was because her character (June) was in it so much.
"I thought, 'Well, okay, there’s this one element of it, the acting of June, that I really know how to do. Let me give myself a leg up here and know that there’s a huge part of this episode that I know how to do.' The hardest thing is not directing yourself in the scene when you’re acting; it’s directing the other actors in the scene when you’re acting."
"We all have a lot of respect for each other, and they really wanted me to do well. They gave me everything they had. They pushed themselves — I think a bit more in a way — because I was there on the other side of the camera. But you do have to compartmentalize in a way that’s very interesting, because you’re in a scene and you want to give them the performance that they need from you as June so that they can react against that in their performances. But you’re watching them in a way that you’re remembering something that you want to tell them when you say 'Cut!' Which is a very funny part of it, by the way, that no one will ever see and no one will ever get to experience: the very strange thing of me being in a scene, playing June and being very, very, very dramatic and then saying, 'Okay, cut.'"
Elisabeth's ability to switch her directing brain on and off while acting in a scene clearly gave her a major leg up as a newbie. In her interview with Vulture, she claimed that this is because she thrives when she has a lot to think about. But also because she feels she has learned to think like a director.
"I discovered after doing three episodes that I never realized how much I think like a director. I think there are actors that are brilliant, that are in their lane and they come in and they give everything, just to their job and that scene that day. And that’s a wonderful thing. I’ve always been a different kind of actor, who is aware of where the camera is. I edit in my head while I’m acting in a very clinical way. I know when we’re going to use that shot. I’ve always thought, in a way, that is actually the way a director thinks. I just never realized it."
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