Melissa McCarthy and Elisabeth Moss: On empowerment, and their new film The Kitchen

Behind every great man is a woman cleaning up his mess. Oscar-nominated writer and director Andrea Berloff (Straight Outta Compton) is set to release her crime thriller The Kitchen later this year. Set in 1978, the film stars Oscar nominee Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish and Elisabeth Moss as three Hell’s Kitchen housewives whose mobster husbands are sent to prison by the FBI.

Left broke, with no options and nothing to lose, the women decide to take the Irish mafia’s matters into their own hands, proving unexpectedly adept at everything from running the rackets to taking out the competition… literally.

Though we’ll have to wait until September 20 to enjoy the atmospheric, action-packed thriller, we enjoyed an exclusive early chat with stars Melissa McCarthy and Elizabeth Moss, who play Kathy and Claire in the film. The actresses believe that despite their extreme circumstances and even more extreme methods of surviving and thriving, their characters are still relatable.

“It’s their complexity,” asserts Elisabeth Moss, whose recent role in The Handmaid’s Tale has proven she’s no stranger to complex roles. “The fact that they’re not drawn in black and white, the fact that they’re flawed. Sometimes weak, sometimes strong, sometimes powerful, and sometimes vulnerable. That’s very true of the all humans, I find, and it’s what makes these characters relatable.”

McCarthy, hot off an Oscar nom for her superb portrayal of the fraud-committing writer Lee Israel in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, always finds a character’s breaking point intriguing.

“I think something that everyone can relate to, is the feeling of being pushed into a corner or being out of choices,” muses McCarthy. “When that happens, who among any of us can really say what you would do in certain circumstances? That’s certainly an element of this movie, in a big way.”

For Moss’ character Claire, her breaking point and descent into criminality offers her an odd form of empowerment, after a lifetime of being abused and underestimated. While her transformation from victim to gun-brandishing mobster is extreme, Moss appreciated playing with that evolution.

“It’s funny, because I personally don’t like violence and I don’t think you should shoot people!” she laughs. “So I had to sort of figure out who this girl was and what was it inside her that made her feel that she could do that. It’s just not a quality that everybody has. There’s something inside her that enables her to be that person. I don’t think it’s necessarily a good quality, but it’s there.

“There might be a little bit of a screw loose with Claire. But what I liked about her was that, after what I imagine was many years of being abused and not being able to fight back and being hurt physically and emotionally, she was able to take control. For me it wasn’t about necessarily the satisfaction of killing somebody. It was about control, and having a purpose, having a job, having a reason to exist and a reason to be needed and important – which had nothing to do with anything else but your skill and who you were. I think that’s what she found and that’s what gave her strength.”

McCarthy also enjoyed playing with the gendered expectations placed on her character, and how Kathy both defies them and embodies them, by becoming the mother who will do literally anything to provide for and protect her family – even if that involves entering a lot of dangerous situations herself.

“As a result of Andrea Berloff’s good writing that stays focused on character, you can imagine all these scenarios, like how she was in high school,” McCarthy says of her character. “You understand there was a role she was supposed to play and the fact that she was smart enough to do more things didn’t matter. She was supposed to marry and have babies and that was her role. Then, when she had the opportunity to do more, she took it. I like that she first and foremost protected her family and was there for her children. Watching any parent do what it takes to protect their kids is very relatable. I have two kids, too, and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for them. I really hope I don’t start running the mob,” she quips. “Don’t push me.”

While neither McCarthy nor Moss are method actors, they both enjoy embodying their characters, and wardrobe and styling has always played a major role in their process. McCarthy has often worn wigs and very distinctive costumes for her roles in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Bridesmaids, Spy, The Boss and Identity Thief, while wardrobe and costuming were vital in informing Moss’ approach to Offred in The Handmaid’s Tale and Peggy Olsen in Mad Men. They found the distinctive fashion of the 1970s allowed them to understand their characters and how the outside world perceived them.

“Our costume designer, Sarah Edwards, did the most amazing job,” McCarthy enthuses, “to build a world where it doesn’t look like the wacky-wacky costume shop, but realistic, so that every day you were there, it was natural and just felt like 1978. Also small personal details, like the jewellery that got piled on as we progressed in our rise to power.” Moss also loved how each character’s individuality was expressed through their clothes.

“To have three characters that are very different, that look different and individual, but exist in the same frame in a way that makes sense, she did an amazing job. It was important to not have it look costume-y or like a comic book, but to look real.”

But sometimes, when the tension of the intense, dramatic show got a bit too much, the actresses retreated into utter silliness to lighten the mood – including some truly questionable online shopping choices.

“Both Elisabeth and Tiffany encouraged me to buy this full-size bright yellow horse,” laughs McCarthy, as her co-star confirms. “I think that was the first one that we truly bonded over,” says Moss. “She showed us a picture of this life-size horse she was considering and it was a vulnerable thing to do, and we both were like, ‘Yeah, you should do it.’”

As bad decisions go, buying a life-size neon yellow horse is indeed up there – and was accompanied by the appropriate amount of morning-after regret.

“They were like, ‘Get that horse.’ And the next day they were like, ‘Oh my God, she did it!’” says McCarthy – though ultimately, she believes this questionable enabling embodies the spirit of a film about three women becoming mobsters.

“I think it bonded us, the fact that all three of us could get behind this really bad, weird idea.”

What else are squads for?

• The Kitchen hits cinemas on September 20.