FROM THE HANDMAID’S TALE AND THE INVISIBLE MAN TO HER NEW TV DRAMA SHINING GIRLS, ELISABETH MOSS SPECIALISES IN PLAYING TRAUMATISED CHARACTERS. AS SHE TELLS EMPIRE, THOUGH, HER WORK IS BRIGHTER AND MORE HOPEFUL THAN IT SEEMS

WORDS BOYD HILTON

PHOTOGRAPHY RAMONA ROSALES

ELISABETH MOSS IS NOT AFRAID OF THE DARK.

In a break from her role as violently enslaved and abused June, aka Offred, in ongoing dystopian TV epic The Handmaid’s Tale, she chose to play… the survivor of a terrifying knife attack, whose experience is so painful, her entire world turns into a bewildering puzzle where none of the pieces fit. This character, known as Kirby, is the focus of intense, eight-part psychological thriller Shining Girls, which Moss’ new production company has made for Apple TV+.

Kirby follows on from the relentlessly tortured Cecilia in writer/director Leigh Whannell’s masterful 2020 movie version of The Invisible Man; before that, there were two series of Jane Campion’s off-kilter crime drama Top Of The Lake, in which Moss played Robin Griffin, a detective who not only investigated cases of sexual assault, but had herself been assaulted. Yet the remarkable thing about this run of characters seemingly defined by their suffering is that they are all so different from one another. As different, in fact, as they are from the first defining role of Moss’ career — the indomitable Peggy Olson in Mad Men.

As she tells us, though, the lighter roles she plays are not necessarily more fun. In frank and eloquent detail over a Zoom call from Toronto, where she’s deep in production on Season 5 of The Handmaid’s Tale, she explains why she’ll always be drawn to the pain.

Kirby in Shining Girls is the latest of many roles you’ve played where the character has experienced terrible trauma. Is it secretly fun to play someone going through all that?