'The Handmaid's Tale' star Elisabeth Moss says she has full approval over her nude scenes

Elisabeth Moss she has full control over her nude scenes in "The Handmaid's Tale." (Reuters)

When Elisabeth Moss learned she would have to strip down for the Hulu original series “The Handmaid’s Tale,” she said yes — under one condition.

The 35-year-old said she needed to have full approval over her nude scenes. And she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Everyone should have it,” Moss told The Hollywood Reporter Monday as part of its Drama Actress Roundtable. “It means I have 100 percent approval over all the footage and I can literally say, ‘You cannot use that scene.’”

“The Handmaid’s Tale” tells the story of a woman in a dystopian future who is forced to live as a concubine under a fundamentalist theocratic dictatorship. Moss, who also serves as an executive producer in the series, won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her performance. The show premiered in 2017.

The show involves several sex scenes that are sometimes not depicted as consensual. Moss made sure she contractually added having full approval of the sensitive material before shooting.

“I work in a really incredibly collaborative atmosphere on my show that I have never experienced,” she explained. “I have been in television for a while, and it’s not like this usually, so I am very, very lucky. There’s no hierarchy, there’s no ego.”

Moss previously earned her first Golden Globe for her leading role in Jane Campion’s “Top of the Lake.” She insisted it was a life-changing experience, one that would impact her involvement in “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

“I was lucky in the sense that five years ago I worked with Jane Campion,” she said. “It was my first nude scene and she gave me 100 percent approval without me asking.”

But these days, the actress is excited about one particular, gruesome scene at the end of “The Handmaid’s Tale” Season 2 premiere.

“We worked really hard on it, and it was a big deal,” said Moss, adding she wanted to watch it with an audience.

“There was a general kind of outcry and people squirming, and I was literally sitting there like the devil [laughing]," she said. "We were proud of it, so I wanted to hear the screams.”

The second season of “The Handmaid’s Tale” is currently airing on Hulu.