{"id":359097,"date":"2026-04-01T20:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T20:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/359097\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T20:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T20:10:11","slug":"elisabeth-moss-kerry-washington-kate-mara-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/359097\/","title":{"rendered":"Elisabeth Moss, Kerry Washington, Kate Mara Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t[This article contains spoilers through episode three of Imperfect Women<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

\n\tJoel Kinnaman\u2019s Robert Hennessy gives the title of Apple TV<\/a>\u2018s Imperfect Women a run for its money. In the second episode of the adapted psychological thriller<\/a>, the alcoholic widow of Kate Mara<\/a>\u2018s Nancy crosses a line that should never have been crossed<\/a> when he sleeps with Eleanor, his recently murdered wife\u2019s longtime best friend, played by Kerry Washington<\/a>. Yet it\u2019s a transgression audiences might be able to overlook if Robert shared the same decades-long longing for Eleanor as she does for him. Or if in episode three\u2019s \u201cMonster,\u201d he didn\u2019t recoil at the touch of Eleanor\u2019s hand on his arm as she relays her grand plan to put out a joint statement denying their involvement and not immediately \u201cgo public\u201d with their romance after Robert\u2019s daughter Cora catches them in the pool together and exposes them on TikTok.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s that move, and Robert\u2019s subsequent explanation that he\u2019s been advised by his attorneys to cut all communication with Eleanor, that calls into question his declaration that he\u2019s not a monster earlier in the episode when Eleanor finds a letter he\u2019d written to Nancy admitting he was aware of the affair he pretended not to know about. It\u2019s one that dredges up sympathy (if little more than an ounce) for Eleanor as well, who, through held-back tears, tells Robert she believed the connection between them was finally made real after all these years. It also provides a motive for Robert as Nancy\u2019s killer, which is exactly what the writers were going for.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe had a lot of fun making the show and constantly modulating what the audience was going to think,\u201d Elisabeth Moss<\/a>, who\u2019s an executive producer and who stars as Nancy and Eleanor\u2019s friend Mary, tells The Hollywood Reporter in the conversation below. \u201cThere are times when we wanted to push them being more suspicious of Eleanor, times when we wanted to push them to be suspicious of Robert, and really going back and forth with that, not only in the shooting, but in post and playing with that throughout the season and constantly changing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, Mara, Moss and Washington discuss not judging their characters\u2019 questionable behavior, whether the women at the center of the series are actually friends and what the show has taught them about secrets.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tElisabeth, this series began with you optioning Araminta Hall\u2019s novel. Did you always see yourself starring, and was Mary the character you were initially most drawn to portraying?<\/p>\n

\n\tELISABETH MOSS Yep. I wanted to play Mary. I knew I wasn\u2019t going to be Nancy. I knew I didn\u2019t have what it was going to take to be Nancy, so it was between Eleanor and Mary. I was very much in the middle of playing June [in The Handmaid\u2019s Tale] at the time. It was 2019, and I continued to be in the middle of that for the next six years. There was something about Mary that I just felt was different. I was very attracted to that idea, and I\u2019m very, very happy with the choice. I also loved the idea of being part of an ensemble. I loved the idea of being able to go to a great actress and say, \u201cHey, will you lead this show?\u201d I loved being able to collaborate in that way with another actress. And then of course, to have a third was even more exciting. To be able to split the show between us was something I hadn\u2019t done that I was very, very interested in.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was the experience like of finding your chemistry as these women who are worn-in friends, but also, in some ways, don\u2019t know a lot about each other?<\/p>\n

\n\tKATE MARA It was really easy for us to find our way, even though we didn\u2019t have the time to actually cultivate this chemistry or bond before we started filming. We got really lucky. I think we all had a feeling that it would work, and it was so effortless from day one.<\/p>\n

\n\tKERRY WASHINGTON I always think a big part of chemistry is respect because when you have that, then there is the freedom to spark together. There was so much respect and admiration here. The chemistry was immediate.<\/p>\n

\n\tMOSS We\u2019ve all been doing this for pretty much around the same length of time so when you watch someone\u2019s career, you get an idea of what\u2019s important to them and who they might be, especially when you\u2019re watching another woman lead a show and do press for it. We had some personal crossover as well with friends, and I think that that helped to have that feeling of, \u201cI think this is a woman I could be friends with. I think these are people I could go to dinner with.\u201d So there was a little bit of luck that that ended up being true, but there were definitely a lot of things we could look at and go, \u201cI think this is going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tKate Mara (right) with Elisabeth Moss (left) and Kerry Washington in Imperfect Women.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Apple TV+<\/p>\n

\n\tHaving Lesli Linka Glatter be a part of this show is a reunion for you, Elisabeth, but she mentioned, Kerry, that you two have seen each other out and expressed wanting to work together. What was it like having her on this project, particularly directing the pilot and setting the tone for the series?<\/p>\n

\n\tWASHINGTON When Lesli Linka Glatter said yes, we were like, \u201cWe have a show.\u201d She\u2019s such a legend. Such a legend, and she can do anything. At the time she took this on, she was the president of the DGA. She does not have to slum it with anybody. It felt like such a great affirmation that we were aiming for something really special, and the team just kept growing and growing.<\/p>\n

\n\tBy the time audiences get to episode three, it seems likely they might start to question whether these women are actually friends. What would each of you say to that?<\/p>\n

\n\tMOSS I think so. There\u2019s obviously drama that happens as part of a TV show that is maybe a bit more extreme than you would get in your everyday friendships \u2014 I certainly hope so \u2014 but that makes it a little bit more entertaining. There are so many moments in our lives where I really feel like there\u2019s a connection and a support there that Mary and Nancy have that Nancy doesn\u2019t get from anyone else. And Eleanor and Mary \u2014 some very, very complicated things to talk about, perhaps, in the future \u2014 but I think there\u2019s definitely a real friendship there. You know how there\u2019s that thing of sometimes that person you can have that fight with is the person you\u2019re actually closest to and you\u2019re safe enough to have that.<\/p>\n

\n\tWASHINGTON The exciting thing is that people are going to ask that question. We want people to be having those conversations about what friendship is and when do you cross the line? What makes a good friend, and when is it beyond repair? Those are questions we had on set all the time, like, \u201cIs this okay?\u201d So I think the idea that people will be asking that question and having those conversations is exactly where we want people to be.<\/p>\n

\n\tMOSS And whatever you think in episode three, as far as their friendship and what\u2019s happening, it\u2019s going to be different in episode four, different in episode five, definitely different when you get to six, seven and eight. So there\u2019s no one answer to that question. It\u2019s just going to change every episode anyway.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn episode three, Mary judges Eleanor pretty harshly for her choices with Robert. Did you wrestle at all with judging your own characters?<\/p>\n

\n\tWASHINGTON I think it\u2019s a really important part of your process as an actor to figure out how to have compassionate understanding for the choices that your character makes, because if you\u2019re judging them, you\u2019re outside of them. For me to really be in the body of the character, I have to understand the why. Even if I don\u2019t agree with it, I have to really wrap my heart around the why, otherwise I\u2019m doing the character a disservice because I\u2019m looking down at them as opposed to being in them or letting them be in me.<\/p>\n

\n\tMOSS Yeah, you have to understand where they\u2019re coming from. You have to see why they would do something, or you can\u2019t play it. There\u2019s no virtue in judging the character. We\u2019ve all played probably more villainous characters than this, and even then, it does not help you at all to play that by judging them.<\/p>\n

\n\tWASHINGTON No, it\u2019s more fun to go, \u201cOh wow, that\u2019s a really interesting decision I\u2019m about to make; let\u2019s figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat did working on this series teach each of you about grief?<\/p>\n

\n\tMOSS I think more, perhaps, than grief, we get into talking a lot about the power of secrets and the power of secrets in friendship and how it\u2019s that fear of being judged, that fear of someone thinking that you\u2019re not going to talk to them anymore, that you\u2019re not going to be their friend anymore, that you\u2019re going to look down on them, that keeps these women from being honest with each other sometimes. And those, unfortunately, become fatal secrets. And although I hope that I don\u2019t have to ever use any of that lesson in my real life, that is something that we talked about a lot and definitely explored in the show.<\/p>\n

\n\tEpisode three is titled \u201cMonster,\u201d and this idea of feeling like a monster and not wanting to be perceived as one comes up repeatedly. Robert says he\u2019s not a monster. Should audiences believe him?<\/p>\n

\n\tWASHINGTON Keep going. Keep watching. We\u2019re not going to answer that.<\/p>\n

\n\tMOSS Cannot. Cannot. But that\u2019s the idea. We had a lot of fun making the show and constantly modulating what the audience was going to think. There are times when we wanted to push them being more suspicious of Eleanor, times when we wanted to push them to be suspicious of Robert, and really going back and forth with that, not only in the shooting, but in post and playing with that throughout the season and constantly changing it. Once you have settled on it and you\u2019re like, \u201che did it,\u201d \u201cShe did it,\u201d We want it to be like, \u201cOh, we have to change that now.\u201d And that was really fun for us.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tImperfect Women releases new episodes on Apple TV+ every Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[This article contains spoilers through episode three of Imperfect Women.] Joel Kinnaman\u2019s Robert Hennessy gives the title of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[7074,47795,156,119162,119163,8723,111,139,69,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-359097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-apple-tv","9":"tag-elisabeth-moss","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-imperfect-women","12":"tag-kate-mara","13":"tag-kerry-washington","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz","17":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}