-- director james campion. it has been declared to -- compared to twin peaks. >> you know you are not in any trouble. kid, and i am just trying to help. >> i don't need help area did -- i don't need help. >> how do you think you will be going three months from now? >> good. what do you think is happening to you. why do you think your tummy is getting bigger?

you know, don't you? you know what that means. like this is a series for the , and the otherl series you are a part of is doing pretty well. >> it is doing ok. elisabeth moss what is it about you to it?as calling >> before i even read the script it was jane campion's involvement, and she is not only a prolific director, but she is known for female performances she gets out of actresses. of amazinglong list roles, so to get the chance to work with her and see how she

did that, i was really excited, and then i did the episodes, and they were so good. it was not a formulaic detective story. it had a twin peaks vibe, and the character is different from my day job as a d. --as peggy. , really wanted to be involved and then i look forward to congratulating the actress who ends up doing this role. i did not think it was going to be me. luckily jane saw something in a and took a little bit of risk i think, and it turned out ok. elisabeth moss you said a couple things i want to go back to. number one that it is different from the role you play on mad men. how important is it to distinguish yourself by doing

things that are dramatically different? >> it is not the first thing on my mind, because there might be a really good role that has similar elements to peggy, and you do not want to do it he does itis really good, but when comes along and i get to look cool and shoot guns and be tough and angry, it is appealing. as an actor. it is not so much about career. it is about me getting a chance to try something different. me getting a chance to stretch and show myself i can do as ahing different. career move it is nice to be able to show you can do different parts, but for me the most important part is how the project is.

i would keep playing peggy over and over if the projects were good. that is fine. the other thing i want to go back to is this notion you were going to congratulate the actress who got the part. it would bethink you. i want to get at what it is that allows that kind of doubt gst to invade your being when you know how good you are and you know how much success you have on mad men, yet you thought someone else might get the part. what is that about? >> you are getting very therapeutic. i like it.

this is great. matter of being almost more realistic than doubtful about your self. i played apart for six years that has become well-known, and that is amazing, and and i can see people would be not necessarily able to see me in something different. i do the same thing when i watch tv shows. i identify with the character and think it is them. i totally get it, and i think i felt like jane was feeling a bit of the same thing. she told the story. when she heard me, she was like, she is great, but i cannot see her necessarily in this role, so i think it comes more from a place of being in the business for a long time, knowing it is hard for people to change their

minds. it is hard for people to take that risk, and you just need one person to do it and to be able to prove you can do something different. then you are in, but it takes that one person. that person was jane. >> a year ago we had a and isation on this set, was not sure if i was going to be able to see matt as the writer of this particular show. you were not sure if it was going to come back or not. you remember the conversation. i did not know what the future of mad men was going to be, but it is coming back for a sixth season. i raise that, because your point of people being used to seeing you as peggy, earlier you suggested if you could keep playing peggy forever, you would. the flipside is if you play

peggy forever we could never imagine you playing any wing other than peggy -- anything other than peggy. when you are in the zone and you want to show all the accolades and all the awards, but do a tough business, you ever stay up at night inking about when the time is to leave a particular character so you do not get so at in our minds that we will not let you do anything -- so etched in our minds we will not let you do anything else? fax i have the doing it so long i do have a sense that it is amazing to have a job. .ou never lose that i talked to so many actors who are nervous about when they are going to get the next job, so happy when they do and already worried about when they are

going to get the next one, and you kind of lose that. i think there is a sense of long, i will stay here as as they need me. i have a job, and it is not only a job. it is an amazing job. people often leave tv to go do amazing serious work, and that is what we are doing on the show. we are very fulfilled, but at the same time you say, i hope i am given the opportunity to do other rings, but i would not have the opportunity without laying peggy on mad men. a combination of things rather than one thing, but it is not something i like worrying about. >> you have got to find a way to be at peace with what you are. >> if madmen was going and other five years, how could i

say no to that? it is an amazing show and an amazing job. we are lucky in that we get eight months off to do something else, to go to new zealand and work on something completely different. we only shoot for four or five months. it is kind of a great deal. >> i want to come back to this project era good -- to this project. i am answering my question as i am asking it. >> i can go home then. i am thinking about the way matthew writes this stuff. you do not know half the time what he is working on until he gives it to you. not know your character was going to be this empowering woman in the way she has become. i am not going to ask how

important that is to you. what do you make of the fact that you are playing this character on television. i am thinking about the backdrop of this conversation today. you have these women going at it. arianna huffington. this whole conversation of women in the work lace is a really big deal. what do you make of the fact that in this moment you are playing this woman who really is an empowering kind of being? >> it is an honor. it was not my idea, so i cannot take a lot of responsibility for it. inc. thate time, i match knew it was going in that direction. .y on naïveté brought something

maybe she did not feel she would end up that way. for me it is a great story to tell. is important,it but it is so interesting. what i learned from her unique brand of feminism is that is how most women feel it. she just kind of kept bumping against it until it roque. broke. there were those making big vocal stance, and there were those like peggy, who say, i am good at what i do. i am amazing, and i should be given a chance to do it, whether i am a woman or not. that is still happening.

that is still going on, and it butgotten so much better, it is still an important story. it makes it so much more interesting. it makes it so much more complex that she has grown. it is something i would have never dreamed of. >> we will see what happens in the coming season now that you have moved onto something else. i know you're not going to tell me, so i will not waste my time. i want to come back to this wonderful project because jane campion is a wonderful writer. i think i knew this intuitively, but when i read it it came back

to me, the high caliber of people you have worked with over your career. ,avid e kelley, martin sheen jane campion. that has got to be a blessing to be able to work with that level of talent. that is an actor's dream to be able to work at that level consistently. >> i am lucky to work not only with amazing people, but they are different. david e kelley is so young. -- i was so young. aaron sorkin was a huge influence on my life. there is not a more unique style than aaron sorkin. thes 17 when i started on west wing.

david mamet i got to do a play of his on broadway, a whole different style of writing. i have such a huge respect for writing. something i cannot do. i can text. i am very good at texting, but i cannot write. people love to do improv and that kind of thing. to get to try different things for me has been helping me so much as an act or are to have scope to what i can do. i have such respect to every one of them for different reasons.

>> i want to get back to this new project about the character you play. -- >>s i play detective i play a detective. i am 5'3". i. i do not look like i can take down a perpetrator. elisabeth moss -- elisabeth tavis: i was in a conversation. she was barely five foot tall. here she is taking all these people, and she is diminutive.

if harriet tubman can take freedom. that is all i am saying. >> that is what i would like to do. we are very similar in our work for humanity. i guess height has something to do with it. robin griffin,e rapeorks with children and cases and more of that than robberies. , and shery strong

really falls down the rabbit hole, and she gets way too involved in the case, and you find out why it gets so personal. she ends up finding herself with this search for the little girl, having to face everything she has been running away from. ?> why is it set in new zealand >> jane has a link with new zealand. real new zealand girl, and i think that is the story she was telling. she has said this was her best work. i agree. is there is a

personal connection with that landscape. she is so in love with that country and that world, and you can see it. personal, even though it is completely fiction, totally made up, and the story itself does not have anything particularly to do with new zealand. ,t could have been anywhere but i think she wanted to tell this story and she wanted to tell it in her landscape. >> the piano being one of the best she has done, holly hunter is in this. >> it is their reunion after 20 years. wass very cool, because it a really great way to start, because it really felt like a passing of the torch. she has such a personal relationship with jane, and i was just embarking on my own

journey with jane, and now we are really close. it felt like someone from home to ouring me off wonderful jane. >> you have been doing this so long. would you be doing if you weren't doing this? >> i would be a dancer. 10rained in ballet for years seriously and still did it for a few years afterwards, so i definitely would have been a ballet dancers somewhere. tavis: how was the switch made to being a thespian? >> it was interesting. it was kind of a slow burn. tavis: it usually is. while i always acting

was dancing, and i kept both going, and there was a time when i had to concentrate intensively on ballet. i did this tiny film, and it was the first time i got a chance to lay someone who was not someone's daughter, to have a role. >> with another major player. >> it was so wonderful. he is such a great man, and he told me these amazing stories, and he was the coolest. it was this amazing experience, being on set at 15. it was being part of this family for six weeks and getting to do something i love and being so rewarded by that. i talk to my mom, and we agreed that was the way to go.

that was where my heart lay, and it was going to be a better life, too. it is hard to say acting is the more practical choice. tavis: what did you take from regio -- what did you take from ballet that has helped in your act in? >> i grew up working really hard. i grew up being self-motivated, judging myself more than worrying about others judging a really hard life. it gives me so much if on act and. acting can be a tough life. try being a dancer. it is a short career. you are lucky if you do not get injured.

no money. it is a hard life. people complain about acting. this is fantastic. this is great. this is a wonderful life. >> she is living a wonderful life, and her work on mad men underscores that. the new series will air on the sundance channel. you want to check that out. do you know who's birthday it is today? jones.delight isn't that a great middle name? >> that is his middle name. own.y jones is cool on its that is awesome. a.vis: happy 80th i did not want to close the show without a great pitcher.

we love you. happy birthday, quincy. that is our show for tonight. until next time, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with book.ackson about his new that is next time. we will see you then. >> there is a saying that dr. king had that said there is always the right time to do the right thing. i try to live my life every day by doing the right thing. we know that we are only halfway to completely eliminating hunger and we have work to do. walmart committed $2 billion to fighting hunger in the u.s. as we work together, we can stamp hunger out.

>> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. pbs. ♪

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