Elisabeth Moss did not join her fellow Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series nominees at the 75th annual Primetime Emmy Awards.
Moss, 47, was missing from the awards ceremony held at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater on Monday, January 15. Her fellow nominees included Sharon Horgan (Bad Sisters), Melanie Lynskey (Yellowjackets), Bella Ramsey (The Last of Us), Keri Russell (The Diplomat) and Sarah Snook (Succession), the latter of whom took home the title.
Moss holds a total of 15 Emmy nominations and two wins, having previously been recognized in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series 10 times for her respective roles in The Handmaid’s Tale, Mad Man and Top of the Lake. She won the trophy in 2017 following the first season of The Handmaid’s Tale.
“You are brave and strong and smart,” Moss said as she thanked her mother, who she brought as her date, in her speech. “You have taught me that you can be kind and a f—king badass.”
The Handmaid’s Tale was adapted from author Margaret Atwood’s bestselling dystopian novel of the same name. Like the 1985 book, the Hulu series follows June and countless other women in a futuristic version of the United States after their rights are stripped away. June was forced to become a handmaid and help the leaders’ families bear children amid the country’s declining birth rates.
June ultimately fled the heavily guarded country in season 4 but has since worked to help free other imprisoned handmaids. The Handmaid’s Tale also stars O-T Fagbenle, Madeline Brewer, Ann Dowd, Yvonne Strahovski, Samira Wiley, Max Minghella and Bradley Whitford.
“I’m working from a book and universe that was created by Margaret Atwood. There are some actual endings, things I think work that are good moments,” show creator Bruce Miller previously told Us Weekly in 2019 about the show’s endgame. “Do I have an end in mind? I always have a few ends in mind — I could also easily see a season 12 at the trials of Serena and Fred.”
Season 5 aired in 2022, shortly before a sixth and final season was greenlit.
While few details about the new episodes have been publicly shared, Miller did draw inspiration from Atwood’s follow-up The Testaments. (Atwood’s sequel was released in 2019, taking place 15 years later.)
“It’s so lovely to have another book to go to,” Miller told Deadline in 2022. “I think the people watch the TV show have to be comfortable with the fact that just like Handmaid‘s didn’t follow the book, The Testaments is a sequel to this TV show. So I’m not necessarily shooting for those things the way that they are in The Testaments but everybody is growing in those directions. Margaret [Atwood] and I had lots of conversations about the character [of June]. She watched some of the show before she even started to write The Testaments.”
