Elisabeth Moss

“Might as well start here. Okay, so this is Arsenic and Old Lace, Frank Capra, starring Cary Grant. I… Probably genre-wise, romantic comedy or screwball comedy, things like that, those are my go-tos. And this one I actually haven’t seen. And Frank Capra, of course, is one of my favorites, as is Cary Grant. There’s no one like him. I wanted to choose mostly films that I haven’t seen, but there are a couple… It’s hard not to get the ones that are your favorites.”

“So, anyway, speaking of, here is Swing Time. So my kind of introduction to film, one of the first films I remember seeing was Swing Time and Top Hat, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers films. Holds a special place in my heart.”

“The Cameraman. Another one I have seen, Buster Keaton, but haven’t seen in a very long time. This is a just… I mean, obviously classic. I’m probably talking to film buffs here. I don’t need to explain these movies to you guys. You know more than I do. But this, for me, was definitely one that I watched in my revival-house days. I worked at the Silent Movie Theater in LA for a while, and obviously that was a very cool, romantic job. Not the cleaning of the bathroom so much, but the… And even if it’s a revival house and a silent film, people still throw their popcorn all over the floor, which I don’t understand. But it was my opportunity to see a bunch of beautiful, silent films like The Cameraman.”

“So this I’ve actually never seen, which is crazy. Holiday. Again, Cary Grant. Katharine Hepburn. Come on. The greatest of all time. I love The Philadelphia Story so much, and this is another classic from George Cukor.”

“Also a film that is very much wrong that I haven’t seen. This is Sweetie, Jane Campion. And I got the opportunity to work with Jane on Top of the Lake seasons one and two, and become friends with her, which is a great honor and privilege. She’s an even better friend than she is a director. And she’s a very good director. But don’t tell her, but I never saw this movie. I just kind of went with her other films when I wanted to work with her. But this is one I haven’t gotten the opportunity to see, so I’m excited.”

“Okay, here is another one that I could not help but choose because… Well, it’s All About Eve. Starring Bette Davis, who was my kind of first idol as an actress. I don’t… How do you describe why with Bette Davis? Just is. And All About Eve is such a great film about theater and about acting and about an actress, and this is when they knew how to write. The scripts. They do that now. They do it now. But it is not as frequent as it was then.”

“The ultimate: Broadcast News. I mean, James L. Brooks, just… How do I– I mean, I get chills talking about him. I think he’s somebody that if I met, I think it would break me. I truly… I would be so– I don’t know, I can’t even speak about it, I would be so incredibly starstruck. My admiration for him knows no bounds, and his work and his films are my favorites. So this is obviously one of the best movies ever. Speaking of dialogue and writing. Oh my God. And Holly Hunter, calling back to Jane Campion, Top of the Lake, I had the opportunity to work with her. She is so nice, so cool, and so funny and just the most beautiful actress.”

“So given that this is a sort of comedic theme, I have to go with the ultimate in screwball comedies, which is Don’t Look Now. I know that I need to watch it. I know that it’s really good. But I also know that it’s dark and I know why it’s dark, and I think that it will be something I will just have to buck up and get through. And perhaps it’s punishment for all of the times that I have made extremely dark material about children and made other people watch it. So this is my… this is karma.”