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'Mad' Star: 3rd Season Will Not 'Disappoint'

Denise Warner
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Elisabeth Moss
AMC

Elisabeth Moss plays the sweet, innocent yet deeply complicated Peggy Olson on 'Mad Men.' The Emmy-nominated actress, who is engaged to 'Saturday Night Live' star Fred Armisen, is best known for her work on the show, as well as her turn as the President's daughter Zoe on 'The West Wing' and her role in this summer's Broadway hit 'Speed the Plow.' Moss chatted with PopEater about her Emmy nod, what's in store for Peggy on the upcoming season of 'Mad Men' and what she's watching on TV now. Read It Below
First let me say, congratulations on your Emmy nomination. How does it feel?
"It's obviously an honor and everyone at the show is excited, it's great."
It's wonderful that the women are starting to get recognized for 'Mad Men.'
"Totally. It's really cool. I think we feel that way as well. The women are very happy to see it."
What can you tell us about the third season?
"There's definitely a feeling that things are sort of rising to a head, there's definitely a lot going on, a lot going down. I think the first couple seasons were really setting a lot of stuff up and now it's time to show the kind of change that?s happening you know -- from the old going out and the new coming in. As far as Peggy goes, this season for her is really about kind of figuring out who she is and what her place is in this world and who she kind of has to be ... and she hasn't quite figured it out yet. So she's making a few mistakes, but she's trying."
Season one and season two ended with pretty big surprises for Peggy's character. Are we in store for more?
"I have no clue what?s going to happen, or how it's going to end. I'm just as interested as everyone else. I was happy to have this kind of great story lines in the first and second season and the third season has been the same ... The rumors that I hear, I'm telling you I hear just rumors, I think it's going to be an exciting ending."
Both of them were mind blowing, you just hope it keeps going.
"I think [Season three has] a little bit of a grander scale sometimes, a little bit deeper and a little bit bigger. It's going, if anything, it's going up not going down. Every episode that I've seen so far has been really great. Every script I've seen has been amazing. I don't think it's going to disappoint."
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Elisabeth Moss
In this Oct. 23, 2008 file photo, actress Elisabeth Moss attends a post party following her performance on opening night of David Mamet s Broadway show "Speed The Plow" in New York Thursday Oct. 23, 2008. Moss was nominated for and Emmy award for best actress in a drama series for her role in "Mad Men", Thursday, July 16, 2009.
AP
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Do you have a favorite episode or scene from the series?
"There's a lot of scenes obviously that I love. I loved during the scene in episode 13 [Meditations in an Emergency], with Pete [played by Vincent Kartheiser] where she confesses to him [about having his baby.] I love the scene with Don [played by Jon Hamm] in the hospital with the flashback where he gives her ? advice ? and she's just listening, I love that scene. I love the scene, I think it was from the first season, where ... she says to Don, she's talking about how unfair life is and ... she says something really simple like "It's just not fair." And I just thought that was really great because ... only Peggy could kind of get away with saying something that was so true and sincere and yet so simple. And that's basically what she's saying. She's saying, "All of this, this man-woman thing is not fair."
You and Jon Hamm have such great chemistry together. Did that come naturally?
"Definitely naturally. I think one of the great things about the show is that they always take things in a different way than you expect them to. So what they did with the sort of Don-Peggy relationship, rather than taking it a much cheesier ... way, taking it to become a mentor-protege relationship, I think is really interesting. I think it just sort of developed naturally like that, I never would have expected it to go that way. But now that it is, it's making so much sense. The fact that they have these sort of parallel lives and yet they're such different people. But she's sort of morphing more and more into a sort of female little version of him, but in her own way."
It's great that it's not romantic.
"Totally."
It seems like no one would want that to happen for the characters.
"I think people don't. I think from the very first episode, form the pilot, I think that was really very smart [not to go in that direction.]"
Did you expect the show to turn into the phenomenon that it has?
"I would say absolutely not. It's one of those things where ... you love the show. We all thought it was great and we hoped for the best, but you never, you can't really ever expect this kind of thing. I think the fact that it sort of caught on so much and kept going, I mean I can't believe we're in season three. It's very strange."
There?s a big thing online now, you can Mad Men Yourself.
"I haven't seen this. From the caricature artist?"
Yes, it's on AMC's Web site.
"Oh that's so funny. (Laughs.) That's really cute. I want to do it and just see if I came out different from Peggy."
You've done TV, film and theater, do you have a favorite medium?
"I like them all for different reasons ... Film and television I think are getting more and more similar just because the quality of television now rivals film if it doesn't exceed the quality of film sometimes ... So I think that line is getting really blurry. Theater is obviously different from anything behind the camera ... Theater is much more of an investment ... it's a longer process but it's immediately rewarding when you are on stage. Film is ... faster but at the same time you don't get the rewards for a long time."
What shows are you watching on TV?
"That's a really good question because my fiance [Fred Armisen] and I are obsessed with watching television DVDs."
That's the best way to watch.
"Oh yes ... We just finished all five seasons of 'The Wire,' which is an incredible show, we love that. As far as things currently on television, we watch 'Friday Night Lights,' 'Breaking Bad,' that's kind of all we've been watching ... besides what's on normally during the year like '30 Rock' and 'Parks and Recreation' and 'The Office,' stuff like that. And now we're watching the British version of 'The Office.'"
So are there any shows you'd like to guest star on?
"Probably 'Friday Night Lights' or 'Breaking Bad' ... Every once in a while I bug someone from AMC about getting on that show, we all do. Everyone on 'Mad Men' wants to be on 'Breaking Bad.'"
You'd think it would be easy.
"You would think right? It's so not easy, they have no interest in us."
Will we ever see you on 'SNL' again?
"I'm not sure. I wouldn't necessarily rule it out, but I have no plans to. I've sort of been lucky enough to be on twice, I almost can?t ask for anything more."
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2009-07-30 11:31:37