Months after her seminal book adaptation The Handmaid’s Tale came to a conclusion, Elisabeth Moss has now joined forces with Kerry Washington for another book, Araminta Hall’s Imperfect Women, being adapted into a show for Apple TV. Ahead of the season finale in India on April 30, the two actors and executive producers open up to SCREEN about the power of collaboration and playing flawed women.Elisabeth, you’ve directed episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale and Shining Girls (2022). Did you ever consider directing Imperfect Women too?Elisabeth: Oh, I did consider it. But to be honest, when we were getting down to directors for Imperfect Women, I had just directed the first two and the last two of the final season of The Handmaid’s Tale three months after having my child. So I was like, I’ve got to take a little bit of a breather this summer, and I’m gonna be a part of a wonderful ensemble, and I’m gonna let somebody else do that job. So, it was very specifically a no for that reason. Elisabeth Moss in The Handmaid’s Tale.Is directing tough to let go of now when you’re just an actor on set?Elisabeth: I rarely do something that I don’t produce now, although I will say when I do walk in and am just being an actor, it is an absolutely lovely experience when you can work with people who know what they’re doing.Kerry: Are you like, hmm, why are they putting the camera there?Elisabeth: A little bit sometimes. A little bit. Absolutely. It’s a little hard to let go. The cool thing about this one that was different from my normal producing experience is that I had Kerry. And I have never had another actor in a lead role who is also an EP. I’ve usually been the only actor who is a producer, so to have that partner was so good. It was so luxurious and helpful and just like to be able to sometimes kind of divide and conquer. Sometimes there’re things that she’s better at. Sometimes things that I’m better at. Although it’s mainly her being better at things.Story continues below this adKerry: No, no. I have to thank Reese Witherspoon for kind of teaching me what that could look like, because Little Fires Everywhere (2020) was the first time I had had that experience, and I was like, this is incredible! There is so much power in partnership.Elisabeth: She’s the person that made me wanna basically be a producer. She’s the one who I saw doing it, and I was like, huh, I could do that too. Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon in Little Fires Everywhere.Elisabeth, has directing made you a better actor?Elisabeth: The main, big thing that directing changed in me was I appreciate acting so much more (laughs). Because I’ve been doing it for so long, and I was like, “It’s not that hard to do.” And after becoming a director and seeing what an actor can do for you and how they can bring something to life, they can save you, they can make something that wasn’t working. How they can just bring you to your knees when you’re watching the monitor. I may get chills just talking about it. Like, the first episode I ever directed had Ann Dowd (who plays Aunt Lydia Clements in The Handmaid’s Tale). And I would just sit at the monitor when I wasn’t in a scene with her, and I just would bawl and just be so grateful for what she was giving me. So it was post-directing that I realized actors are amazing. They’re so important.Story continues below this adKerry, you were a part of a huge ensemble cast in your previous release, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025). Do you enjoy that as much as being a parallel lead on a show like Imperfect Women?Kerry: The centering of women, and women’s stories and not being the accessory to a male story, is important. And I do love playing supporting characters as well, but when I’m looking for complexity, understanding that this person is at the centre of the story is a part of it. And I love that for this show, you have three women who sit at the centre of the story at different times. That’s so, so cool. And the title, I think, speaks to the complexity in terms of the imperfections. Our characters do pretend, and then we get to reveal the truths underneath their pretense, which is really exciting.Also Read — Pritam on 20 years of Gangster: ‘Still in disbelief that both KK and Zubeen Garg are gone’Elisabeth, you’ve headlined book adaptations like The Handmaid’s Tale, Shining Girls, and the upcoming one on Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments. What got you hooked to this book?Story continues below this adElisabeth: I read the book in 2019 and decided to buy it and develop it into this show. And the main thing that I loved was the comment or the exploration of friendship, and the fact that it felt really honest. I loved the idea of exploring how a female friendship wasn’t always perfect, and wasn’t always just about sitting around and braiding each other’s hair. There were real people involved, and that was very exciting to me.