Elisabeth Moss enters new stage with 'Heidi'

NEW YORK — As Peggy Olson on AMC's Mad Men, which begins its final run on April 5, actress Elisabeth Moss has traversed much of the tumultuous '60s. Her character has changed with the times, evolving from a Plain Jane secretary into a stylish, ambitious advertising copywriter.

In the new Broadway revival of Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles, Moss, 32, plays a member of the next generation, a Baby Boomer. The Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning play traces art historian Heidi Holland's journey over 24 years, from her high school days to 1989, the year Heidi premiered.

Perched on a chair backstage at the Music Box Theatre before a preview performance, Moss — who has an easy smile and a warm, girlish presence — notes the differences between the roles. Heidi is "more introspective, more self-aware," she says, "actively a protester" but also "able to make fun of herself and the people around her."

Peggy is more "unwitting ... bumping her head against the glass ceiling" in going for what she wants. But, she says, "I think if you're a woman, you've dealt with similar issues (to those) Peggy deals with and Heidi deals with."

Moss first and last appeared on Broadway in a 2008 staging of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, to positive notices. When approached about Heidi, "I pretty much said yes right away. There's just no way somebody asks you to be Heidi in The Heidi Chronicles and you say no."

The production, scheduled to run through Aug. 9, also presented the actress with another opportunity to develop a character over a period of time. "Doing films, you're in and out after a month, or a few weeks," says Moss, whose upcoming movies include Meadowland, with Olivia Wilde and Luke Wilson; Truth, with Robert Redford and Cate Blanchett; and High-Rise, with Tom Hiddleston, Luke Evans and Sienna Miller.

Heidi has been, Moss notes, "the first thing I've really spent a lot of time on" since wrapping Mad Men last summer. "I was feeling bad about not getting to play Peggy anymore," says Moss, who has been a central character on the acclaimed AMC show since it began in 2007. "Because I really, really liked her a lot — she was a good friend of mine. As sad as that sounds." Now, "I have a new friend."

Moss was particularly drawn to her new pal's lifelike contradictions. She points to a monologue in the play in which Heidi speaks of feeling both "worthless" and "superior" to a group of women she encounters.

"I've never put it in those terms," Moss says, "but I like the idea of playing strong women who are also weak and vulnerable — playing smart, confident women who are also insecure and sad. Because I think that's very human. It's not just women; it's what we feel as people."

Moss, who is single, hopes to continue making films — she cites the Coen brothers, Alexander Payne and Wes Anderson as directors she admires — but wants to incorporate more stage work, even "one day do a musical."

Her cats, Lucy and Ethel, prefer life on the East Coast anyway: Moss adopted them after a producer of her 2014 film Listen Up Philip found the felines roaming the streets of Brooklyn.

"I think Los Angeles made them uncomfortable, just like their mom," Moss says. In New York, "they can look out the window and make sure everything is done correctly in their city. But most of the time they want to sleep. Again, like their mom."