Elisabeth Moss And Producing Partner Lindsey McManus On How A 'Together Through Everything' Mentality Brought Imperfect Women, The Testaments, And Conviction To The Screen

As "The Handmaid's Tale" heroine June Osborne, Elisabeth Moss spent the better part of a decade as the face of fictional resistance. It was a job that heightened the "Mad Men" alum's critical acclaim, offered her first series executive producer credit, and delivered a bunch of awards — not to mention made her a cultural figurehead for smashing the patriarchy.

"Handmaid's" was a fulfilling experience in many ways, Moss says. But it was also a lot of work. Like, a lot of work, both in front of and behind the camera. (Did we mention she also directed several episodes?)

So when Apple TV's "Imperfect Women" — which premieres today — became the next project on Moss' docket, she was very much looking forward to not being front-and-center in nearly every scene.

"When we started [developing this show], I was very much in the thick of 'Handmaid's,'" she tells me with a wry chuckle. "And the idea of doing an ensemble was very, very appealing."

"Imperfect Women" is based on Araminta Hall's 2020 novel about a trio of longtime friends with equally long-held secrets. When one is killed early in the series (as the trailer makes clear), the surviving pair is rocked by the ensuing investigation and what it reveals.

So Moss chose to play Mary opposite Kerry Washington ("Scandal") as Eleanor; Kate Mara ("House of Cards") rounds out the trio as the doomed Nancy. The ensemble also includes Joel Kinnaman ("For All Mankind"), Corey Stoll ("Billions"), and Leslie Odom Jr. (Broadway's "Hamilton"). Annie Weisman ("Physical") serves as showrunner and executive producer.

In addition to being Moss' next on-screen series, "Imperfect Women" is a from-the-ground-up production from Love & Squalor Pictures, the company she launched in 2020 and named after a J.D. Salinger short story. Past Love & Squalor productions include Apple TV's "Shining Girls" and Hulu's "The Veil," as well as the feature film "Shell." Moss starred in all of them; her "Handmaid's" co-star Max Minghella directed the movie.

Business at Love & Squalor is bustling: In addition to "Imperfect Women," its upcoming slate includes the "Handmaid's" sequel series "The Testaments" — premiering Wednesday, April 8 — and the recently announced legal drama "Conviction," both at Hulu.

Moss' partner in production is Lindsey McManus, Love & Squalor's president of film and TV. A former WME agent, McManus had been working with Diablo Cody on development at Warner Bros. when a mutual acquaintance suggested talking to Moss, who was putting together her own shingle. The pair met and instantly clicked. "It was like we went on a date and never went home," McManus says, laughing.

Moss was shooting Season 3 of "The Handmaid's Tale" at the time. She'd been promoted from co-producer to executive producer the season before, "and she was starting to get all these incoming calls, and it was more than she could deal with," McManus recalls. "It was just totally right time, right place for both of us."

She adds: "We had lunch one day, and that night we started emailing, and about a week later, she sent me the book 'Imperfect Women.'"

Here's how the working relationship goes: McManus loves pre-production, Moss thrives in post.

"She lives in the edit," McManus says. "People can't believe how involved she is in post and editorial on every single episode. Music cues and color grading, that is her jam. For me, I am boots on the ground, first week of pre-production, first person in the production offices, scouting, all of that, and setting shows up" — often while Moss is wrapping up their previous project.

And then during production, "it is just 100%, every day, together through everything," McManus adds. (The company also recently hired Carlota Pino as director of operations and Maura Towey as director of development.)

McManus "fit the bill far more than I was even asking for," Moss recalls. "I don't think I even knew how talented she was and how good she was going to be at stuff that I wasn't good at."

"Handmaid's" executive producer Warren Littlefield has been working alongside Moss for years. "Early on, I was amazed," he says. "Her appetite was so great that I never had to put the governor on that gas line. I learned very quickly: Never underestimate Lizzie." He chuckles. "There's not an hour of the day or night that I haven't spoken to her or texted with her. I think it's a little bit of a contest. Like, 'Yeah, I'm up. Are you?'"

And McManus " just slips right into the vision," he adds, "and we get s**t done."

Though she and Moss have spent many hours together over the past several years, McManus says there's one thing she can't understand about how the Emmy winner works.

"I"m mesmerized by this: She has no acting process," McManus says. "We will be on the side of the set. We'll have our phones out, being like, 'OK, this is the stroller that I had, and you need this,' literally shopping baby gear together and looking at outfits." (Moss' child was born toward the end of the "Handmaid's" run; McManus' kids are 3 and 1.) "And two seconds later, she is, like, as-tight-as-it-gets frame on her face, full of tears, most intense scene you've ever seen in your life. And then, 'Cut!,' snap back over. 'OK, so we'll order it?' It's amazing."

Moss giggles when I ask about her apparent ease slipping in and out of character. "Yes, that is true," she says. "After thirtysomething years of doing this, I have a very acute awareness of where I need to be when I'm doing a scene like that. And for me, sometimes it's better if I can, when we say 'Cut!', throw it away. Throw it off. Laugh, joke, talk about lunch, look at my phone... If there was a process, that actually is part of my process."

"The Testaments," based on Margaret Atwood's book, takes place years after the events of "The Handmaid's Tale" and focuses on a younger generation of women who've come of age under Gilead's rule. This time around, Moss will focus her efforts on producing, though helming an hour or two proved tempting. She was planning to direct the "Testaments" series premiere, but then the production schedule of the last two "Handmaid's" episodes — which she did direct — made the decision moot.

"There was a crazy moment where we were all kind of like, 'Wait, could I do it? Could I direct and act in the finale of 'The Handmaid's Tale' while prepping the opening of 'The Testaments'?" she says, laughing. "And then I was like, "No, no, Lizzie, you physically f**king can't.'"

Mike Barker, who directed 12 "Handmaid's" episodes, stepped in to helm the first three instead. "To me," Moss says, "that's way better than me directing it."

"Conviction," Hulu's adaptation of Jack Jordan's 2023 legal thriller, marks another collaboration with Littlefield, Fox 21 Television Studio, and Hulu. "[Hulu head of drama] Jordan Helman said to me a few years back, 'The number-one goal in development for this company is to find Lizzie Moss' next show,'" Littlefield recalls. In early 2024, Littlefield read "Conviction," which follows a lawyer whose involvement in a major murder case becomes compromised by an anonymous blackmailer. The producer instantly knew who had to play her. "I was like, 'Oh s**t, this is Lizzie Moss!'" he says.

Littlefield sent her the book while she was filming "Shell." "For me to read something while I'm shooting is so unusual," she says. "But I read this book in, like, maybe 48 hours, tops. I texted him back and said, 'I'm in.'" David Shore ("House," "The Good Doctor") later signed on as showrunner ("He's the real deal," Moss fangirls). Hulu issued a series order in February 2026, and casting is underway — "It'll be very fun to figure out who the men around her are in that show," McManus says with glee — with an eye to shooting this summer in New York.

While she can't say much about the project right now, Moss excitedly described her character, Neve Harper, as "extraordinary."

"It's so different from June. It's so different from ["Mad Men" ingenue] Peggy. It feels very much like something I've never done before, but in the great tradition of mostly male antiheroes," she adds. "Sometimes you just feel like something is special, and I think this might be a special one."