IN CONVERSATION
Being on Mad Men and The Handmaid’s Tale and playing these fiercely feminist characters, people have criticized you for being a Scientologist, which some see as being at odds with the themes of those shows—particularly Handmaid’s. I’m sure you’ve heard those criticisms before, but what do you say to those criticisms?
Listen, it’s a complicated thing because the things that I believe in, I can only speak to my personal experience and my personal beliefs. One of the things I believe in is freedom of speech. I believe we as humans should be able to critique things. I believe in freedom of the press. I believe in people being able to speak their own opinions. I don’t ever want to take that away from anybody, because that actually is very important to me. At the same time, I should hope that people educate themselves for themselves and form their own opinion, as I have. The things that I believe in personally, for me, The Handmaid’s Tale, and the ability to do something that is artistically fulfilling but is also personally fulfilling, I’ve never had that. The Handmaid’s Tale lines up so perfectly parallel with my own beliefs in freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the things that this country was actually built on.
I once spoke with Neil deGrasse Tyson about Scientology and he argued that much of the criticism it receives is because it’s newer and weirder. But I’m sure you’ve heard the criticisms of Scientology—from “disconnection” to the sums of money some adherents have been forced to fork over to it. Is the argument, then, that what it’s doing is not worse than, say, what the Catholic Church has done with its systematic abuse of children? I’m curious where you stand.
Right. It’s funny, there’s two things you’re never supposed to talk about at a dinner—politics or religion—and of course I’m doing The Handmaid’s Tale, which is politics and religion, so it’s a strange situation where you’re going to be asked about these topics. I choose to express myself in my work and my art. I don’t choose to express myself about it in interviews. I don’t choose to talk about not just religion, but my personal life—who I’m dating and that kind of thing. So for me, it’s so hard to unpack in a sound bite or an interview, but I will say that the things that I truly believe in are the things that I’ve mentioned, and I think that they’re very important. I think people should be allowed to talk about what they want to talk about and believe what they want to believe and you can’t take that away—and when you start to take that away, when you start to say “you can’t think that,” “you can’t believe that,” “you can’t say that,” then you get into trouble. Then you get into Gilead. So whatever happens, I’m never going to take away your right to talk about something or believe something, and you can’t take away mine.
Scientology—especially in L. Ron Hubbard’s writings—has a history of being quite anti-LGBT.
Which is not where I stand. It’s like, it’s a lot to get into and unpack that I can’t do. But that is not my bag. I am obviously a huge feminist and huge supporter of the LGBTQ community and believe so strongly—I can’t even tell you—in people being able to do what they want to do, to love who they want to love, to be the person that they want to be—whoever that is. To me, it’s a huge reason why I love doing the show. That’s all I can say. I can’t speak to what other people believe, I can’t speak to what other people’s experiences have been. That’s where I stand and the only place I can speak from is my own.
The Handmaid’s Tale does seem remarkably in tune with the times. Just last week there was the case of an Alabama man suing an abortion clinic on behalf of an aborted fetus, as well as Georgia’s controversial “heartbeat bill.” And that powerful Super Bowl ad really brought home how much the show is seen by many as an act of resistance against this administration, and the assault on reproductive rights.
It’s an honor. We went to D.C. and shot at the Lincoln Memorial, and I find it incredibly moving what Lincoln stood for, what’s written on the walls, what those monuments stand for. The principles that this country was built on are important and we’re losing them—and perhaps we’ve already lost them. You feel a sense of responsibility and you feel honored telling this story at this time. When you’re kneeling on the steps in front of the Lincoln Memorial, you’re looking at where MLK gave his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, you’re in the outfit of complete lack of freedom, and your president is a few blocks away arguing about putting up a wall, you can’t help but feel that you have the responsibility to tell this story, and I feel honored to be able to express what I think, what I feel, and what a lot of other people feel through what I love doing. For me, it’s an unfortunate thing. I wish this was crazy, and I wish Handmaid’s Tale was insane Game of Thrones shit and pure fantasy. I wish that were true. But it’s not.
And you’re the face of the show, which in and of itself is a tremendous responsibility.
I’m not a politician—I’m just a person, and a woman. I believe that June stands for any person—man, woman, whatever you want to identify as, whoever you want to love, whoever you want to believe—who’s had their human rights taken away, who’s been abused, or who’s felt like they didn’t have a choice, or felt like they couldn’t live the life they wanted to live. You can take the personal and make it political very quickly, and that’s my job: to put a face to the people who don’t have that, and to give a voice to the people who don’t have a voice. What’s really gratifying to me is when someone in another country—that’s far closer to Gilead than we are—who’s gay comes up to me and says, “I feel like I’ve watched the show and it’s given me hope; I feel like I’m not alone.” That, to me, is what I value. That’s important to me.
Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson on 'Mad Men'
AMC
You were brilliant on Mad Men. Have you thought about how the show’s aged, amid #MeToo, Time’s Up and our current cultural climate?
It wouldn’t be so cute now, would it?
It seemed there were different camps of Mad Men viewers. There were people like myself who watched the show and respected these courageous women pushing back against this patriarchal system, and there were people who watched it as some sort of cultural wish-fulfillment fantasy, and wished America could return to those times where men behaved badly with impunity.Totally—except I think the thing that Mad Men did is we actually did show the consequences of that behavior. We did show the consequences of drinking, smoking, infidelity, and harassing women. I think Mad Men lines up perfectly with the #MeToo movement and Time’s Up because it’s a feminist show, and if you watch the entire thing, Don starts out as the hero, the sex symbol, the guy on top, the guy you want to be, and near the end, he’s broken, he’s alone and he’s miserable. And it’s Peggy who has it all. So for me, there was a way to go with that show which is what you just said, which was like, “Oh god, that’s not very feminist!” but I think the way that Matt [Weiner] did it was brilliant because he told the story accurately and he gave the women the power.
I need to re-watch it now and see how it’s aged, but I agree.
Same with Joan, too—Christina Hendricks’ character. It’s one of the most powerful female characters ever written and one of the most harassed. That’s something that will make that show timeless, and I’m so glad it went that way. And that’s the truth: women fought back, women started to demand equal pay, women started to say “you can’t do that anymore.” Women did that. So we just followed history.
Listen, it’s a complicated thing because the things that I believe in, I can only speak to my personal experience and my personal beliefs. One of the things I believe in is freedom of speech. I believe we as humans should be able to critique things. I believe in freedom of the press. I believe in people being able to speak their own opinions. I don’t ever want to take that away from anybody, because that actually is very important to me. At the same time, I should hope that people educate themselves for themselves and form their own opinion, as I have. The things that I believe in personally, for me, The Handmaid’s Tale, and the ability to do something that is artistically fulfilling but is also personally fulfilling, I’ve never had that. The Handmaid’s Tale lines up so perfectly parallel with my own beliefs in freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the things that this country was actually built on.
Whatever happens, I’m never going to take away your right to talk about something or believe something, and you can’t take away mine.— Elisabeth Moss
I once spoke with Neil deGrasse Tyson about Scientology and he argued that much of the criticism it receives is because it’s newer and weirder. But I’m sure you’ve heard the criticisms of Scientology—from “disconnection” to the sums of money some adherents have been forced to fork over to it. Is the argument, then, that what it’s doing is not worse than, say, what the Catholic Church has done with its systematic abuse of children? I’m curious where you stand.
Right. It’s funny, there’s two things you’re never supposed to talk about at a dinner—politics or religion—and of course I’m doing The Handmaid’s Tale, which is politics and religion, so it’s a strange situation where you’re going to be asked about these topics. I choose to express myself in my work and my art. I don’t choose to express myself about it in interviews. I don’t choose to talk about not just religion, but my personal life—who I’m dating and that kind of thing. So for me, it’s so hard to unpack in a sound bite or an interview, but I will say that the things that I truly believe in are the things that I’ve mentioned, and I think that they’re very important. I think people should be allowed to talk about what they want to talk about and believe what they want to believe and you can’t take that away—and when you start to take that away, when you start to say “you can’t think that,” “you can’t believe that,” “you can’t say that,” then you get into trouble. Then you get into Gilead. So whatever happens, I’m never going to take away your right to talk about something or believe something, and you can’t take away mine.
Scientology—especially in L. Ron Hubbard’s writings—has a history of being quite anti-LGBT.
Which is not where I stand. It’s like, it’s a lot to get into and unpack that I can’t do. But that is not my bag. I am obviously a huge feminist and huge supporter of the LGBTQ community and believe so strongly—I can’t even tell you—in people being able to do what they want to do, to love who they want to love, to be the person that they want to be—whoever that is. To me, it’s a huge reason why I love doing the show. That’s all I can say. I can’t speak to what other people believe, I can’t speak to what other people’s experiences have been. That’s where I stand and the only place I can speak from is my own.
The Handmaid’s Tale does seem remarkably in tune with the times. Just last week there was the case of an Alabama man suing an abortion clinic on behalf of an aborted fetus, as well as Georgia’s controversial “heartbeat bill.” And that powerful Super Bowl ad really brought home how much the show is seen by many as an act of resistance against this administration, and the assault on reproductive rights.
It’s an honor. We went to D.C. and shot at the Lincoln Memorial, and I find it incredibly moving what Lincoln stood for, what’s written on the walls, what those monuments stand for. The principles that this country was built on are important and we’re losing them—and perhaps we’ve already lost them. You feel a sense of responsibility and you feel honored telling this story at this time. When you’re kneeling on the steps in front of the Lincoln Memorial, you’re looking at where MLK gave his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, you’re in the outfit of complete lack of freedom, and your president is a few blocks away arguing about putting up a wall, you can’t help but feel that you have the responsibility to tell this story, and I feel honored to be able to express what I think, what I feel, and what a lot of other people feel through what I love doing. For me, it’s an unfortunate thing. I wish this was crazy, and I wish Handmaid’s Tale was insane Game of Thrones shit and pure fantasy. I wish that were true. But it’s not.
And you’re the face of the show, which in and of itself is a tremendous responsibility.
I’m not a politician—I’m just a person, and a woman. I believe that June stands for any person—man, woman, whatever you want to identify as, whoever you want to love, whoever you want to believe—who’s had their human rights taken away, who’s been abused, or who’s felt like they didn’t have a choice, or felt like they couldn’t live the life they wanted to live. You can take the personal and make it political very quickly, and that’s my job: to put a face to the people who don’t have that, and to give a voice to the people who don’t have a voice. What’s really gratifying to me is when someone in another country—that’s far closer to Gilead than we are—who’s gay comes up to me and says, “I feel like I’ve watched the show and it’s given me hope; I feel like I’m not alone.” That, to me, is what I value. That’s important to me.
Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson on 'Mad Men'
AMC
You were brilliant on Mad Men. Have you thought about how the show’s aged, amid #MeToo, Time’s Up and our current cultural climate?
It wouldn’t be so cute now, would it?
It seemed there were different camps of Mad Men viewers. There were people like myself who watched the show and respected these courageous women pushing back against this patriarchal system, and there were people who watched it as some sort of cultural wish-fulfillment fantasy, and wished America could return to those times where men behaved badly with impunity.Totally—except I think the thing that Mad Men did is we actually did show the consequences of that behavior. We did show the consequences of drinking, smoking, infidelity, and harassing women. I think Mad Men lines up perfectly with the #MeToo movement and Time’s Up because it’s a feminist show, and if you watch the entire thing, Don starts out as the hero, the sex symbol, the guy on top, the guy you want to be, and near the end, he’s broken, he’s alone and he’s miserable. And it’s Peggy who has it all. So for me, there was a way to go with that show which is what you just said, which was like, “Oh god, that’s not very feminist!” but I think the way that Matt [Weiner] did it was brilliant because he told the story accurately and he gave the women the power.
I need to re-watch it now and see how it’s aged, but I agree.
Same with Joan, too—Christina Hendricks’ character. It’s one of the most powerful female characters ever written and one of the most harassed. That’s something that will make that show timeless, and I’m so glad it went that way. And that’s the truth: women fought back, women started to demand equal pay, women started to say “you can’t do that anymore.” Women did that. So we just followed history.
DAILY BEAST APRIL 2019
EXCERPT
READ THE REST HERE
ORIGINALLY SCIENTOLOGY PROMOTED RELIGIOUS FREEDOM BECAUSE IT WAS NOT CLASSIFIED AS SUCH ANYWHERE ELSE BUT THE USA WHERE ANYONE CAN CREATE A NOT FOR PROFIT RELIGIOUS CHARITY FOR ANY PURPOSE, INCLUDING WORSHIPPING THE GREAT SPAGHETTI MONSTER.
IT WAS AND IS DESCRIBED AROUND THE WORLD AS A CULT, THOUGH IT HAS SUCCEEDED IN SOME COUNTRIES IN BEING DEFINED AS A RELIGION INCLUDING CANADA BUT NOT GERMANY.
BUT OTHER COUNTRIES STANDARDS OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM THAT RESTRICT SCIENTOLOGY BUT ACCEPT CULTS LIKE JEHOVAH WITNESSES, MORMONS, PENTECOSTALS, ETC. ETC. ARE ENGAGING IN RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION AND WOULD PROBABLY RESTRICT WICCANS, PAGANS AND OTHER NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS.
No comments:
Post a Comment