Being on the internet, it can sometimes feel like we’ve all made a pact to never support Scientologists, especially Scientologist actors. I mostly adhere to that pact, except with Elisabeth Moss. I can’t give up Elisabeth Moss. That would mean giving up Mad Men. Moss is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated actresses of her generation, from Mad Men to Handmaid’s Tale to that terrific miniseries she starred in and executive produced, Shining Girls. She’s currently promoting The Veil and the final season of Handmaid’s Tale. She’s also pregnant, although she is not sharing any details about the father or how far along she is.
Moss works so consistently and in such a diverse array of projects, it’s easy to forget that she’s been working nonstop for three decades. One of her earliest film roles was in 1999’s Girl, Interrupted. She was probably only 16 or 17 years old during the filming. She got to work with Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Clea DuVall, Whoopi Goldberg, the late Brittany Murphy and more. She played Polly “Torch” Clark, the girl with a burned face and body. As Moss was promoting The Veil, she was asked about Girl, Interrupted:
Elisabeth Moss is recalling how “intimidated” she felt on set next to the “cool girls” while making Girl, Interrupted.
“There were two kind of camps. There was the Winona Ryder camp and the Angelina Jolie Camp,” Moss, 41, said of the two stars of the film, during the most recent episode of Kelly Ripa’s Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast.
Moss went on to explain that the “camps” were “off camera but based on what was on camera.” “I was in the Winona Ryder camp and the Angelina Jolie camp was really cool. Those were the really cool girls. I was so intimidated by the Angelina Jolie camp. I had no thoughts of ever being able to be in that camp. It was so cool. It was all the cool girls.”
“Did you say to [Jolie], “Why did you not let me into your camp?’ ” Ripa asked her guest.
“No, I never brought it up. I’ve never brought it up, and I’m sure she would have no idea what I was talking about anyway,” Moss said. “I’ve spoken to Angelina since then, and she’s lovely, but at the time, it was just incredibly intimidating. I’ve never brought it up and I’m sure she would have no idea what I was talking about anyway. But I was just not — I was definitely not cool enough to be in her camp.”
As a longtime Jolie stan, it helps to remember how badass Angelina was in the 1990s. Like, very few celebrity women were doing it like her, with the tattoos, knives, drugs, a Vegas marriage, leaving her husband for a female costar, and on and on. Like, she was incredibly cool and intimidating. It was probably an age thing too – Moss was just too young to hang out with Jolie and all of her grown-woman drama. I’d like to think that Moss and Jolie could probably be quite friendly now though.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.