I reviewed the Sundance movie Listen Up Philip at the Los Angeles Sundance Next Fest in August. Jason Schwarzman plays Philip, frankly a total A-hole but a damn entertaining one. Elisabeth Moss plays his girlfriend Ashley, one of the many characters who endures his abuse. Told in chapters, the film shifts focus to Ashley as she regains her independence. Moss toughed it out while she was suffering from a cough to talk to me by phone out of New York about her film, which opens in New York this weekend, and Los Angeles on October 24.
Related: Best Episode Ever: ‘Mad Men’
CraveOnline: You may remember meeting me at PaleyFest this year. I told you I write a column called “Best Episode Ever” and for “Mad Men” I picked “The Suitcase.”
Elisabeth Moss: Oh, you know what, I do remember. Thank you again.
You’re welcome, and I’m glad you agreed with me.
I did, I did. I always agree with anyone picking “The Suitcase.”
Is there any episode in the final run of “Mad Men” that can rival “The Suitcase?”
Ooh, that’s a tough question. I can’t answer that, not because I’m trying to be secretive, but because I want the audience to judge that. I don’t want to give them any ideas. I don’t want anybody to be looking based on that.
So much of Listen Up Philip is people reacting to Philip’s behavior. Was that apparent to you, that that would be the performance of this?
Yeah, for sure. I thought it was a really unique way to show this protagonist who is such a misanthrope, to not just show him going around just being bitter at everyone and him just being mean to everybody. But to show what effect does that have on the people around him, and how do they react to him and how does it snowball and effect everyone else? Then you have Jonathan Pryce’s character who kind of represents what Philip might end up becoming if he continues along this path. I thought it was a very unique way to tell this story rather than just, “Well, here’s this guy and here’s what he does.”
Does that give you a responsibility to convey that reaction, what a normal person would do in the presence of Philip?
I mean, I think for me I don’t know if I felt an enormous sense of responsibility, any more than you usually feel on a film when you’re trying to do a good job and you’re trying to make sure that you’re not failing everyone with your performance. [Laughs] I just felt that my story was a little bit of a different one and a little bit of showing a person that doesn’t get sucked into Philip’s [behavior], who says, “Hey, you can’t act like that. I’m not going to take it.”
So much of what we see in Listen Up Philip is in closeup on your face, did you have to be especially sensitive to the nuances of what you were conveying?
No, because I don’t really ever see the camera. I’ve been doing this for so long that I don’t really see it anymore. When you’re doing anything emotional, anything that requires any kind of concentration or going to a place that is not where you normally are, the last thing you’re aware of is what the camera’s doing, so no. Plus, you don’t know how close it is to you. Just because it’s far away doesn’t mean that it’s not [zoomed in] really close. So they tell me.
Do you not even want to discuss that with the director so you don’t even know where he’s shooting?
I mean, the only thing I ever kind of want to know sometimes is are we doing it again? Is there going to be another shot? Is there going to be a close up? That kind of thing, is it this? Is this is all we’re doing or basically do I have another shot at it? But no, I don’t really care. It doesn’t really even matter to me. I’m not one of those actors, I don’t save it for the closeup. I give the same thing because I can’t do it that way. I just don’t know how to do it that way. And sometimes it sucks because I do things in the master or other shots and you can’t get it back because you already did it, but I don’t know how else to do it. You give everything you can every time.
When you finally tell Philip off, I think you can see the relief wash over your face.
Thank you. That was an important moment to me because I really wanted to show how complex the feelings you have can be. It’s not just one emotion. It’s not just happy or just said. You could have a feeling of deep sadness but there’s also anger and there’s happiness. And then I wanted to show that she was proud of herself too. She felt relief but also she was proud that she finally did it. It was a hard thing for her to do and I wanted to show all of those emotions that one experiences in that sort of moment.
I think we’re proud of her too because a lot of us may have been there. It is hard.
Right, exactly. Exactly.
Have you shot the last episode of “Mad Men” yet?
Yes, we’re all done.
So how do you feel?
I’m really happy with it. I couldn’t imagine a better ending for Peggy’s story so I’m really happy with where it ended for her. I think there’s no telling ever what an audience is going to think but our audience has been with us and been pretty supportive. They’ve been pretty much on our side so I think that they’re going to be happy with what we’re giving them.
It looks like you have a lot of movies coming out, but would you sign on for another TV series?
Yeah, absolutely, definitely. I think TV’s got the best material out there a lot of the time. I love the idea of developing a character over years and really getting to know a character and really getting to know that world. It’s a format that I loved and I’ve been really lucky. I’ve done some good ones. I’ve been doing this long enough that I remember when television wasn’t considered the place to be. I remember when TV was considered a notch below film and kind of frowned upon and not as respected. Everything’s changed now. Now it’s something that’s almost more respected than film sometimes. I feel really lucky that I’ve come of age in a time when you can do theater, you can do small films, you can do big films, you can do a miniseries, you can do episodic and it doesn’t matter. It’s all really good material. So yeah, I definitely would but I’m going to let “Mad Men” finish first.
I remember one time you made a guest appearance on “SNL” when I think Jon Hamm was hosting, in a “Mad Men” sketch. And there were so many other “Mad Men” guest stars, I think the audience didn’t realize it was really you as Peggy. Is that what happened that night?
Oh, I’m sure because we were also really new at that time so I don’t know how familiar the audience was with us at that point. I was called in as a last minute replacement for Amy Poehler who went into labor that morning. I was doing Speed-the-Plow on Broadway at the time and my friend Casey Wilson, who was on “SNL” at the time, texted me, “Can you come be on the show?” I’m like, “What do you mean, tonight?” She was like, “Yeah.” So I went over there in between shows and did a rehearsal, missed the dress rehearsal because I was doing my play at 8PM, so I only had one tiny rehearsal and they changed everything. I had to go on live television and do it with no rehearsals, just absolutely mind bogglingly terrifying, so I barely remember it.
So were you bummed you didn’t get to see Amy Poehler’s impression of you?
Yes, I still want to see it! I think she would’ve done a much better job than I did. I’ll never get to know what her impression of Peggy was. It’s kind of a bummer.
You mentioned you’ve been acting for a long time and you have a technique. Early in your career, was Girl, Interrupted a very significant role?
Yes, that was sort of my first big film role and it was all of these women. Obviously Winona [Ryder] was extremely iconic and Angelina [Jolie] was just coming into her stardom. Even speaking about it, it’s so funny, it feels like so long ago. It was scary for me. I was with all these women who were much more experienced than I was. James Mangold was a dream, so lovely to work with. It’s definitely one of those things where you feel so lucky to be a part of it. I was only 15 or 16.
And it was a true story, so did that weigh on you at all?
Yeah, and it was a book that meant so much to so many women. I don’t know if I had as much of a grasp of that at the time as I do now. I read the book but I don’t think I knew how meaningful it was to so many women until after the film came out, and of course now 15 years later I know.
What’s coming up for you in the film world?
The first thing I did after “Mad Men” ended and probably the first one that’ll come out is Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise. That was definitely a challenge. He’s such an unusual filmmaker. He’s such a unique filmmaker. It was like nothing I had ever done. I was thrown into the situation. It was just so crazy and fun and weird. It was truly so different from anything that I had ever done and Ben is so funny and out there. I played eight, nine months pregnant. I had a British accent, in the ‘70s. It was definitely a challenge. I started that two weeks after we wrapped the season, so that was definitely really, really fun to do. I think that’ll probably be the first one that comes out of the three that I’ve done.
I trust you’ve seen Kill List then?
Yes, I have. This film is very much a Ben Wheatley film, but bigger which is I think really cool for him and going to be cool for his fans. His sensibility is all over it. It’s going to be his movie, but it’s like if you gave him more money and more power.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
