Elisabeth Moss, an Emmy-award-winning actress, suffered a severe spinal injury while executing a stunt for the FX on Hulu miniseries, “The Veil.”
The accident, which resulted in Moss fracturing a vertebra, took place during the shooting of a scene on a rooftop above Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar in Turkey. Despite the seriousness of the injury, the production resumed shortly thereafter, highlighting the inherent risks and challenges in filming intense action sequences.
Moss, who is renowned for her role in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” discussed her severe injury in an interview with Variety.
During a demanding stunt sequence, Moss’s character, Imogen Salter, an undercover MI6 agent, fights off an attacker. The actress collided with a wall during the first take of this scene, leading to her injury. She recounted the agonizing aftermath, being stuck on the rooftop for about two hours while she was examined by medical personnel before being taken down from the roof.
“The [scene] you see in the show is actually the second time we shot it, about six weeks later,” Moss revealed in the interview. “The first time we shot it I hit a wall the wrong way, let’s just say, and ended up lying on the roof for a couple hours.”
Despite the intense pain, Moss returned to the set the next day to continue filming, showing her dedication to her role. She humorously suggested to the production team to use a green blanket to mask her and remove her later in post-production, underlining her initial concerns about continuing work in her physical condition.
Denise Di Novi, the producer of “The Veil,” praised Moss’s resilience and highlighted the difficulty of the stunt she performed. “Elisabeth is underselling how hard a lot of the stunt was that she did,” Di Novi said, drawing attention to the physical challenges Moss had to face.
The incident underscores the physical demands and potential risks actors face while executing their own stunts. The production team supported Moss’s decision to continue filming and later revisited the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul to reshoot the scene, ensuring the series’ creative standards were met without compromising Moss’s health.
“The Veil” casts Moss as Imogen, who gets entwined in a plot to prevent an ISIS terrorist attack on the United States. The series combines espionage and high-stakes action, promising riveting narratives and intense physical performances.
Moss is filming the sixth and final season of “The Handmaid’s Tale” this summer. The show, which first aired in 2017, is set in a dystopian world where low fertility rates result in women being assigned to men to bear children.
Moss announced she was pregnant with her first child during a January appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! When host Jimmy Kimmel jokingly asked, “Are you pregnant or just an incredibly committed method actor?” Moss responded, “A little bit of both.”
She didn’t reveal her due date (or the father of her child), and there’s been no media update about when or if she has given birth. Nonetheless, she informed Kimmel that the much-anticipated final season of The Handmaid’s Tale was set to begin filming in the summer, suggesting her due date is well ahead of that timeframe. She also said that she looked forward to bringing her infant to the set during filming.
Moss was previously married to Fred Armisen for about a year. Their divorce was finalized in 2011.