If Elisabeth Moss shows up onscreen, you know you're about to go through the emotional wringer. For fans of " ," "Top of the Lake," or "Shining Girls," a close-up shot of Moss' face — the expression in her eyes typically an affecting mix of fear, pain, and defiance — is synonymous with prestige television. One of Moss' signature loaded glances can communicate years' worth of a character's complex trauma (and secure a steady stream of awards nominations in the process).
The 41-year-old actor has had decades of practice in professionally pretending to be traumatized. One of in an NBC miniseries required her to scream upon discovering her mother, played by Sandra Bullock, dead and bloodied in a pool — not that a then-seven-year-old Moss was at all spooked by the experience. "It was fun," a chipper Moss tells Business Insider.
"I knew it was a job. I knew it was acting." That ethos is a key part of how Moss stays sane while taking on an endless array of emotionally taxing roles, from a woman fighting off her abusive ex in " " to the tortured title character in the fictionalized horror biopic " " "I just kind of looked at it the same way that I do now," Moss continues.
"I don't get confused as to what's real and not real." Her latest role on the FX spy thriller "The Veil" has all the hallmarks of a typical Moss project, from the prestige network to the dark and twisty plot. Moss smolders with intensity as Imogen Salter, a skilled MI6 agent who forms a relationship with a sus.