Elisabeth Moss on the Mad Men finale, Peggy's 'feminist' fate
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While Don Draper may have taught the world to sing in perfect harmony (and bought a Coke while he was at it) in the Mad Men series finale, Peggy Olson also had a pretty momentous moment herself when she finally made a love connection with longtime coworker Stan. How does the actress who played Peggy, Elisabeth Moss, feel about that ending, and does she as an actress care about the ultimate fate of her character? We asked Moss that and more when she came through Entertainment Weekly Radio (SiriusXM, channel 105) to chat about her new film Queen of Earth, and you can hear the entire interview right now on the InsideTV Podcast.
As far as Peggy’s fate, Moss says she does care deeply, but only to the point of what we saw on screen. And she feels that we did see on screen was a very feminist statement that showed women can indeed have it all. Here’s what she told us about being invested in what happened to her character:
“Yeah, for sure. I think that her ultimate fate is in the finale, though. You know what I mean. I don’t think about what happens necessarily next because it doesn’t matter. She’s gone. I did care about her fate and I actually did want her to find happiness because I thought that, you know, the career success we can bank on. She was going to be creative director by 1980, like what Pete says. That’s going to happen. We all know that is going to happen. She’s brilliant at what she does and we all saw those women rise in the ranks and end up running the company, or run their department, or whatever, so we know it was going to happen. That’s, like, fine.
“What I didn’t know was going to happen was she was going to find personal happiness. And whether or not that personal happiness lasts doesn’t matter, because it’s over — to me. But I was happy that she found it in the end because I liked the statement that you can have personal happiness and work happiness. They’re not mutually exclusive. And I liked that. I thought it was actually kind of a very feminist statement.
“I felt like if we had just had her have some massive promotion or land a big account or she had some major career success but then didn’t find personal happiness it would have been some kind of sexist statement, like, oh, she can’t have both? She has to sacrifice her love life to have a career? That doesn’t seem very feminist. So I liked that she had both. Does not matter what happens next. She’s dead. Peggy’s dead. Sorry. It’s the truth, though. She’s been dead for a year.”
Wow. Elisabeth Moss just killed Peggy Olsen. Brutal. But an otherwise pretty insightful take on the character and her final scene. Listen to the entire interview by clicking on the audio player below. (The Elisabeth Moss interview begins at the 35-minute mark.)
But first we have two other must-listen interviews for you. First up, Kim Dickens chats about her starring role in the most anticipated new show of the year, Fear the Walking Dead. She reveals why she first thought she wasn’t right for the part and what it’s like joining the Walking Dead family. And then Patrick Wilson tells us about playing young Lou Solverson for season 2 of Fargo, as well as his new movie Zipper, in which he plays a man who becomes addicted to escort services. (Yowza!)
You can listen to the whole podcast below. Or, since we’re on iTunes, you can subscribe for free and take the podcast with you. No iTunes? No problem. You can also download the entire podcast right here. To send a question to the InsideTV Podcast team, follow us on Twitter @InsideTVPodcast. And to hear more interviews and television discussion and debate, check out Entertainment Weekly Radio on SiriusXM, channel 105.
[AUDIO http://pdl-stream.timeinc.net/EW/podcasts/audio/2015/08/InsideTVcast_20150821_dl.mp3]
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