Why we're Mad for Elisabeth Moss

Someone always wants to shake up the status quo.

On TV's Mad Men, that person is Peggy Olson, the lone female copywriter at a male-dominated, '60s-era ad agency.

The same could be said about the Emmy-nominated actress who plays her, Elisabeth Moss.

In the critically acclaimed series, which kicks off its fourth season Sunday (10 p.m. ET, AMC), Peggy muscled her way out of the secretarial pool on her smarts and ambition. In real life, Moss, now 28, nearly 10 years ago ditched the security of life in her native Los Angeles for an uncertain acting future in New York. More recently, she married an “older man.”

At 43, her husband of nine months, Saturday Night Live's Fred Armisen (aka the show's resident Barack Obama), is 15 years her senior. But except for sometimes drawing a blank on a band he's talking about, the age difference is not an issue, Moss says. “We've always said that we meet in the middle,” she says with a laugh. “I'm probably a bit older than my years, and he's probably a little more youthful.”

When she's home in New York, Moss, who spends the summers in L.A. filming Mad Men, says a perfect day off includes staying in her pj's, watching her favorite TV shows (Nurse Jackie, Damages, Breaking Bad, Glee) and going out to dinner with Armisen. Does she ever cook at home? “No,” Moss quickly replies.

Of course, as a newlywed, Moss is working on her own romance. “You're still two different people, but now you're a team,” she says. Calling motherhood “the hardest job in the world,” Moss says she wants time to make sure she's “ready for that job. Maybe I'll try a cat first.” Then she pauses to reconsider: “Maybe I should start with a plant.”