Elisabeth Moss said Jon Hamm moved her to “real tears” during an improvised scene in Mad Men.
Moss, also known for her roles in The Handmaid’s Tale and Shining Girls, played Peggy Olsen in the hit AMC series and grew close with co-star Hamm during filming.
Recalling a scene in season five, Moss said: “It all felt very real”.
“I have a very close relationship with Jon,” she said in an interview with Vanity Fair.
“There was, sort of like, a mentor-protegé relationship there, very older brother-little sister and so it meant something to the both of us when we did this scene.”
The scene in question follows Olsen as she tells her boss Don Draper, played by Hamm, that she is leaving the agency they work for.
In the scene, which originally aired in 2012, Draper kisses Olsen’s hand upon hearing her news and she cries as they say their goodbyes.
“That right there is real, that’s actually, those are real tears, which you know, hate to break it to you but often we’re faking it,” Moss continued.
“He held onto my hand and didn’t let go and then kissed it. None of that was in the script, and he did it on my close-up. That right there is real Jon — the veins in his head, I can see him in that moment.”
Moss also shared that she only kept the costume from that scene from her time on the series.
“The only costume I have from Mad Men from all seven seasons, 90-something episodes, they asked me what costume I wanted to keep, and I said I wanted to keep that one because of that scene,” she said.
“I don’t think it fits me anymore, but I have it.”
Moss currently stars in The Handmaid’s Tale, with episode two of season five the hit series airing on Sunday (30 October) in the UK.
