How Gershwin Superfan Elisabeth Moss Became a Punk Singer in ‘Her Smell’

TheWrap Oscar magazine: “I have great pictures of me in my ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ costume playing a guitar,” says Moss of her preparation for the Alex Ross Perry drama

Elisabeth Moss
Elisabeth Caren for TheWrap

A version of this story about Elisabeth Moss first appeared in the “Dark Horses We Love” section of the Actors/Directors/Screenwriters issue of TheWrap’s Oscar magazine.

It started with an image — a female rock star, at the top of her game but addicted to drugs, holding a baby — along with the idea to start not with the rise to fame, but with the descent.

Those were the keys when writer-director Alex Ross Perry and actress Elisabeth Moss first started talking about “Her Smell,” a harrowing rock ‘n’ roll fever dream that stars Moss as Becky Something, a self-destructive ’90s riot grrrl/punk singer whose world falls apart over three chaotic, assaultive and extended scenes, and who tries to figure out if she deserves redemption over the film’s final two acts.

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