| The actor—who is also a director, a rom-com fan, and a Scientologist—likes to swim in the weird.  Photograph by Steph Martyniuk for The New Yorker In roles that have helped define the prestige-TV era—including Peggy Olson, on “Mad Men,” and June Osborne, on “The Handmaid’s Tale”—Elisabeth Moss has performed with what Michael Schulman, in a new Profile of the actor, describes as “an almost alien self-possession, channelling extreme states of trauma, rage, fear, or savagery.” Yet, offscreen, Lizzie, as she is called by those who know her, exudes calm professionalism and lighthearted California cool. “Lizzie has an incredible ability to turn it on and turn it off,” one of her former co-stars, Jon Hamm, says. Moss herself talks about the importance of maintaining an air of mystery from the audience: “I don’t want people to be distracted by something when they’re watching me. I want them to be seeing the character.” Many viewers, though, are distracted by her identity as a high-profile Scientologist—and Schulman contemplates a pressing question: “What’s an approachably cool pop-culture feminist icon doing in an organization that its defectors, among other critics, describe as a dangerous cult?” —Ian Crouch, newsletter editor | 
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