Jessica Jones Star Carrie-Ann Moss on Facing the End of the Road, Representation, and More

Carrie-Ann Moss has been a part of Marvel Television‘s mini-universe on Netflix since the very beginning. Though she can primarily be seen in all three seasons of Jessica Jones, her character — the tough, cutthroat attorney Jeri Hogarth — has also popped up in Iron Fist, Daredevil, and The Defenders. In her most recent appearances, Hogarth is faced with a debilitating illness, which totally uproots everything we know about the character.

In the lead up to Jessica Jones Season Three, we spoke with Moss about her character in the closing moments of the Netflix show. Here’s what she had to say about Hogarth’s time coming to an end, and more.

ComicBook.com: Season Two was pretty big for Jeri Hogarth, of course. Some could say that Hogarth perhaps maybe had one of the deepest, richest character arcs of the season. By the time the third season rolls around, where’s Hogarth’s mindset at? She’s this stone cold attorney, but ALS isn’t one battle she can win.

Carrie-Ann Moss: Well, she’s struggling and she is coming to terms with her isolation and her aloneness, I guess. She’s very alone. So, she reaches out to Jessica at a very pivotal moment and then, as Jeri does, she tries to control the uncontrollable. She reaches out to an old love from her college days to bring someone into her life that reminds her of better times. But in all of it, she’s still Jeri. She’s struggling and she’s manipulating, and she’s always trying to win. She’s up against her greatest foe, which is the diagnosis of ALS.

You mention the relationships. Jeri’s often closed off, so it was very unique to see in Season Two because she opens up her home to someone she thought she could trust, which is subsequently shattered. Despite having ALS, is that a moment from season two that impacts that character moving forward? Does that lay strain on some of her other personal relationships?

Yeah. I think all of it builds towards who we see in the third season and what she’s been through all impacts all of it. She’s a fighter though. She’s always trying to find a way to be in control of it and we definitely see some vulnerable moments with her. But yeah, I think that season two and all that she went through of course impacted who she is in season three for sure.

You bring up the vulnerability and reaching out to a former lover. Is there anything you can kind of tell us about that?

Well, I think she’s looking for someone that she feels she knows, that she can trust, who she remembers in a good way that represents a better time, who represents goodness. I think there are lots of reasons why she reaches out to this old love. And she doesn’t get what she wants even. This isn’t an easy win. Jeri has a lot of cards stacked against her in season three. She’s constantly trying to win like she always does, and she does some pretty extreme things to win, and deals with the ramifications of that.

Absolutely. At one point the character was concerned about the legacy she would leave. There was a really, really good line…something about her saying that the only thing she’d leave would be the name on the door to her office.

Yeah, I love that line.

Is that what she’s still concerned about? Looking death in the face has a profound impact on all of us. Has that changed her look on her legacy at all? What does she want to leave?

Well, that’s still important to her and she’s not going to give up, although she has moments where she wants to control how that’s going to play. And I think yeah, she still wants that legacy and to be respected, but she’s in a whole different sort of phase of her illness, so she’s starting to really feel her mortality and what that looks like for her and what that feels like for her. She’s all alone and I think that really is a thing in season three that I enjoy.

I haven’t seen it all, so I don’t know how it all comes out, how it’s all going to look at the end of it. But I just remember feeling like, “Wow, she’s really alone.” But what do you do? And she’s tough, man. Tough. She has some moments in season three where she feels that love again and that tenderness and that exhale, I guess you could call it. For her, that’s kind of huge, because she’s living in such a different kind of experience of life where it’s just the dog, dog, beating people, and manipulating, and doing whatever it takes.

What you know of the show so far, is there one word or phrase you could kind of use to describe it?

I don’t know if I could find a word, but I think we really get to see why the characters are who they are, especially with Krysten’s character. You get to really see why they are the way that they are. And with myself and my character, you just see her struggle. The woman at the top of her game struggling to stay there.

You’rere one of the very few people to appear, I think,in four of the Netflix shows. With this set up to be the end of the Netflix corner of this Marvel universe, is what do you want to say to the fans that have kind of followed you along all this time?

It’s been such a great experience and I didn’t really understand the love of the Marvel fans at first. Getting to play the first lesbian character in the universe, openly gay character has been really an honor too. And the fans are just so unique and great. It’s been such a wonderful experience, I’m so grateful. And I hope they like season three, and I hope it feels like an ending.

*****

What have you thought about Hogarth’s arc so far? How do you think it will end? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or by tweeting me at @AdamBarnhardt!

Jessica Jones Season Three hits Netflix on June 14th. The first two seasons are now streaming.