Elisabeth Moss Says She Took the Role on <i>The Handmaid’s Tale</i> To Block Another Actress

On Friday, Elisabeth Moss made an appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show where she reflected on being cast on her hit show, The Handmaid’s Tale. The Hulu favorite, based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name, is finishing its story this year with a final season. When it first started production, Moss had just ended her long run as Peggy on Mad Men.

Moss explained that she was hesitant at first to commit to a new project that could go on for seasons.

“I wasn’t quite sure if I was ready to make that commitment again, so I actually passed the first time they offered it to me,” Moss said. “I know, it seems insane now. I’m so glad I’ve corrected that. And then they came back, and they very nicely offered it again, blah, blah, blah. Then the thing that clinched it was—they leaked it to me, obviously on purpose, who they were going to offer it to if I didn’t take it, and I was like, ‘Over my dead body.’”

Moss added, “It was the thing that made realize that I needed to do it. I couldn’t stand the idea of anyone else playing that role, you know what I mean? That was the thing that made me realize how badly I wanted to do it.”

This is the sixth season of The Handmaid’s Tale, so Moss was right to think it might go on for quite some time. But it seems as though she knows now that it was the right move. The penultimate episode aired last week and featured the re-recorded version of Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do.”

In an interview with Billboard after the episode aired, Moss talked about getting one of her favorite singer’s songs on the show.

“I’ve been wanting to use a Taylor song for many years on the show and we finally found the perfect spot for a track from her, and I’m so glad we waited because there could not be a more perfect song for a more perfect moment,” Moss said. “Taylor has been such an inspiration to me personally. As a Swiftie myself, and I think I can speak for [co-star] Yvonne [Strahovski] and our entire cast as well, who are all Swifties, it’s such an honor to be able to use her music in the final episodes of our show.”

She continued, “I said to my editor, Wendy, ‘I really want to find a place for a Taylor track in the last two episodes of the show,’ and we wanted to find a music queue for the opening of 9, and all the credit goes to Wendy for picking this track for this moment!”