Elisabeth Moss has revealed that she almost passed on the opportunity to act in Shell due to her surprise pregnancy. During a recent interview, she recalled her conversation with the movie’s director, Max Minghella, who’s also her co-star from The Handmaid’s Tale.
Elisabeth Moss called Shell’s director to drop out after learning about her pregnancy
During an interview with Parade, The Handmaid’s Tale star recalled finding out that she was pregnant a few months before shooting for Shell began. Moss shared how the conversation went with the movie’s director, Max Minghella.
“I had to call. He was one of the first people I told that I was pregnant,” she recalled. “We had to talk about the movie. I had to tell him because I had to be like, ‘I can’t do the movie. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to tell you, but it’s not going to happen.’ And he said, ‘What do you mean?’ And I was like, ‘Well, I’m pregnant.’”
While Moss believed that she was delivering the bad news, Minghella took the news in a positive way. “After, of course, much conversation about that, he said, ‘Well, what do you mean you can’t do the movie?’” the Emmy-winning actress shared. “And I said, ‘What do you mean, can I?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, let’s talk about this.’”
The two then reworked the film’s shooting schedule as Moss was in her second trimester at the time. Moss said, “Obviously, I wasn’t my normal body shape. So we had to think, ‘OK, how does that affect the character? Does that affect the story?’”
The Invisible Man actress continued to state how her pregnancy helped shape her character, Samantha Lake, in the movie. She said, “It was kind of perfect because, obviously, the movie deals with female image in Hollywood, and female expectations, and how you’re supposed to look as an actress, and what’s considered beauty, and this kind of old-fashioned construct.”
She further added, “We didn’t want to make it about weight or body shape or body size. That wasn’t what the shell treatment does. It’s not a weight-loss treatment. We didn’t want to make it that, but it was kind of great because I was able to play a person who was more of a normal size.”
Originally reported by Harsha Panduranga on Comingsoon.
