Elisabeth Moss Quotes

I am unique, a sheep, intimidating, scared, powerful, beautiful, flawed, and perfect in the same moment.

People are composed of many things, and in my work, what influences me is the complexity of people - the chiaroscuro of dark and light. When I play a strong guy, I try to find, where is he weak? And, conversely, when I play a weak guy, where is he strong?

I'm definitely interested in exploring human contradictions. Contradictions are what make us human - it's what defines us as human beings. Contradictions are what make characters interesting, and I've been lucky to be presented with characters who have a lot of contradictions.

With 'Lonely Thug,' I constructed a fantasy character who was very masculine and strong and almost threatening, but his demeanor belied some complication.

People who know me know I'm strong, but I'm vulnerable.

I'm most drawn to characters who are compelling and repellant at the same time, very often right at the same moment, and who are frightening and funny all at once.

I'm always interested in what we're not being shown. So if you're playing ostensibly a quote-unquote 'baddie,' what are their good sides, and vice versa.

I like to play a strong woman, but a strong woman can also be very fragile and vulnerable at the same time.

I love playing characters who are multilayered and multidimensional and have a darkness to them, which makes them more realistic and more fun to play.

I am quite a cheerful, dark person. On the outside, I'm optimistic but I expect the worst to happen.

I like characters with character, not just pretty faces. Anyway, I think people can be both grotesque and beautiful at the same time. Look at Mick Jagger in the seventies. Look at Angelina Jolie.

As an actor, I'm constantly striving to find the darkness in the lighter characters and the lightness in the darker characters.

The best characters are the ones that somehow manage to be both attractive and repulsive at the same time. If you do that, you're at the center of the universe - if you can find characters who are more ambiguous and can raise more questions than answers.

Very few of my characters are totally heroic or totally villainous.

I love to start characters in a place where you think you know them. We can make all kinds of assumptions about them and think they have no redeeming qualities, but like everyone, they're complex.

I go back and forth between wanting to be abundantly simple and maddeningly complex.

Sometimes there is more exploration in the character for a villain.

I think that Gollum is really the character who is a very human character, and he's very flawed, like most humans are, and has good and bad sides.

I love playing characters that are bigger than life and maybe have a darker side that they present to the world. Those are good characters.

I find Jessica Jones a much more interesting character to write for than Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman is so noble and heroic, and I don't find that as interesting as one who's really damaged and flawed and has post-traumatic stress disorder.

The bad guys are not typical; they are not just bad, they are interesting. They might be good or bad.

Metallica is a very complicated, fragile thing. On the outside, it's all metal, but on the inside it's very delicate.

I like shows that are surprising and not predictable. That have deep, rich characters that are fully formed.

I like the opportunity to play characters who have these dark sides but make the audience empathize with them. You want them to think there is some kind of sweeter, softer side to it.

I like characters who are contradictory.