This week, Elisabeth Moss and Lindsay McManus celebrate the debut of Apple TV’s “Imperfect Women.” This is the first project the pair took up after launching their Love & Squalor production banner six years ago.
Moss, who stars in the Apple TV thriller series alongside Kate Mara and Kerry Washington, told Variety: “The book ‘Imperfect Women’ was the first time we talked about our partnership, several months before we made it official.”
While no agreement had been signed, no contract had been signed, and there were concerns that McManus would team up with another partner (“I won’t say who, but once I heard it, I thought, ‘She’s definitely going to choose them,’ but I think it’s really funny now,” Moss said), Moss sent McManus an Araminta Hall novel in the fall of 2019 in hopes of working together someday.
McManus, who previously ran Diablo Cody’s production company Vita Vera for three years and previously worked as a TV scriptwriter and talent agent at WME, read the film, liked it, and encouraged Moss to acquire the rights. Two months later, “that became the first thing we brought to a studio or a network,” Moss said.
“It was all email-based,” Moss said. “There’s a vibe,” McManus interjected, adding, “We were in the room together and we were just adding to the atmosphere.” “People would say, ‘How long have we been together? Three weeks!'” Moss said.
The pitch process took place during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the television and film industry, like nearly every other sector, came to a screeching halt. This meant a long road for “Imperfect Women” to the screen, but McManus and Moss spent a lot of time building their creative vision for “Love & Squalor.” It still relies heavily on “atmosphere” and rather shows the importance of trusting one’s instincts and collaborating with like-minded people.
“We did what people do, which is just meet all the people we like, whether it’s someone like Paul Mescal who hasn’t hit yet or a conversation with Julia Garner,” Moss said.
“Anyone we could think of, we emailed our contact or their contact and said, ‘Hey, would you like to have a meeting with us?'” said McManus, Love & Squalor’s president of film and television.
That led to partnerships and mentorship with Hollywood actors such as Dennis DiNovi, Warren Littlefield, Lucky Chap, Simpson Street, Red Hour, Great Scott, A24, and Appian Way.
From 2020 to now, the “Mad Men” alum has produced or executive produced six films, three of which he co-produced with McManus: the TV series “The Shining Girls” and “The Veil,” and his first feature film “Shell,” directed by Moss’ “Handmaid’s Tale” co-star Max Minghella. (Working together over the past five years, Moss and McManus each took on a new kind of project: each became first-time mothers.
Several more projects are in the works, Moss says. She and McManus have first-look deals with Hulu and Disney’s 20th Television through Love & Squalor, but they’re not just adding EP credits for kicks.
“From the beginning of ‘The Handmaids,’ I wanted to be a real producer and really be involved in things and really learn,” Moss said. “So we really wanted someone to do that. We didn’t think of it as just helping with this vanity title.”
According to Handmaid’s Tale EP Warren Littlefield, Moss was an executive producer even before he was officially credited in the title, and during the first season of Hulu’s Emmy-winning adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel, Moss was deeply involved in production, going far beyond his role as an actor.
“Never underestimate Lizzie, because her hunger to learn and grow is amazing,” Littlefield told Variety. “I remember accepting an award on behalf of the show at the Producers Guild Awards after that triumphant first season. I remember looking out at that crowd and saying, ‘Lizzie Moss, the actor, that’s not bad. Lizzie Moss, the producer, take care.'” And there was such a huge applause and a sense of understanding and admiration that it meant a lot to her. But she earned the word, and that was evident in season one. We could have given her a co-EP for another season after that, but we just went to MGM and said, “No, you know what?” She is an EP. She is completely even and in terms of her achievements, the second year should accelerate it. And everyone agreed. ”
Littlefield, who has worked closely with Moss for years as an actor, producer and director of The Handmaid’s Tale, will team up with her and McManus on the sequel series Testaments, which opens April 8, and another Hulu project, Conviction.
“Lindsay brings her own knowledge and experience to every discussion of the material and its presentation, but somehow manages to be completely in sync with Lizzie,” Littlefield said. “I think that’s the definition of a partnership.”
With multiple projects in development at Love & Squalor, and some already released since the company’s founding, McManus and Moss see the debut of Imperfect Women, six years later, as emblematic of the company’s commitment to persevering in the name of quality.
“There’s always been a creative aspect to this book, and that’s what makes this book so great. And it has a very specific structure in that it’s told from these three different perspectives. Whether we figure it out, find someone who can figure it out with us, or find a home that needs that version of the book, that was something we had to figure out,” Moss said, noting that Apple was involved “very early” in the process.
Complicating matters for “Imperfect Women,” Moss was committed to appear in the final season of “The Handmaid’s Tale” as rebel handmaiden June Osborn, which wiped out her schedule until it ends in February 2025. After that, McManus and Moss’ attention may turn to completing Imperfect Women, in which Moss co-stars with Kerry Washington and Kate Mara.
McManus and Moss are promoting the launch of “Imperfect Women” on Apple TV on Wednesday, while also gearing up for the April 8 release of the Chase Infinity-led “The Testes.” For this “Handmaid’s Tale” project, Moss has overseen aspects of production that he has become an expert on over the years, including Hulu’s version of the dystopian world of Gilead.
“Even though Testament is so new in many ways, it’s much more YA-oriented as far as being able to put yourself in that world,” Moss said. “Obviously it’s almost a completely new cast, and it looks a little different. There are definitely things that are intentionally changing a lot, but we had a previous existing IP and we had a lot of the same crew, so it was easy to be like, ‘You guys are good, right?’ The best thing about having a partner for me is that sometimes I get to work less. I have an acting job, so for ‘Imperfect Woman,’ I had to work another job to be in it. “I’ll let you make that preparatory call, and I’ll let you participate in that meeting. I don’t have to participate.”
That idea expanded as Love & Squalor grew, and Moss and McManus added Maura Toye as director of development and Carlota Pino as director of operations.
“Our goal is to continue to make things and take ownership,” McManus said. “For example, if there’s something above the doorway, it’s ‘Make Stuff.’ We’re very lucky — not lucky, because lucky is actually the wrong word — and we’re very grateful that we’ve been able to stay in business consistently since we started this company. Since we started this company, we’ve never stopped production, but we know that’s rare.”
