Irish Eye on Hollywood: Elizabeth Moss is Typhoid Mary

In the wake of the critical and popular success she had starring in the Hulu series The Handmaid’s Tale (based on Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel), actress Elisabeth Moss is turning next to a true-life Irish American tragedy. Moss is partnering up with BBC America to turn Mary Beth Keane’s novel Fever into an extended series. The series will chronicle the journey of one of the most notorious figures of the early-20th century – the Irish immigrant who came to be known as “Typhoid Mary.”
Aside from starring as Mary Mallon – a cleaning woman who denied she was the source of the disease that mysteriously killed several people she had come in contact with – Moss (who won an Emmy Award for her portrayal of Peggy Olson in AMC’s Mad Men) will also serve as executive producer. No word yet on when BBC America will air Fever.
“I look forward to telling this story about one of the most infamous women in America… a woman whose true tale has never been told,” Moss recently said. “She was an immigrant in turn of the century New York, a time of huge change and progress in America. She was incredibly unique, stubborn, and ambitious and in fierce denial of any wrongdoing until her death where she lived out her days imprisoned on an island just off of the Bronx in New York. She is incredibly complicated, something I seem to enjoy playing.” ♦