'A Gentleman in Moscow' Star Mary Elizabeth Winstead on the Eroding Mystery of Anna Urbanova

Even among Muscovites of the early 20^th century, Anna Urbanova is notable for her secrecy. The actress, played on A Gentleman in Moscow by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, isn’t without her troubles—chief among them a career stalled by a lack of enthusiasm for her work on the part of Joseph Stalin—but despite her relationship with Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov (played by Ewan McGregor, Winstead’s real-life husband) and residence in the Hotel Metropol, where Rostov is imprisoned, she never makes a habit of dropping her guard. That is, until now.

In the series’ sixth episode, which airs this week (today on Paramount+, Sunday on Showtime), Urbanova not only finds a way to save Rostov when he faces certain tragedy, but she also drops her cool façade just enough to hint to viewers that the years Rostov has spent admiring her haven’t been in vain. For Winstead, it was an opportunity to delve into a different side of the character and to use some of the show’s incredible design elements to help bring a softer—albeit not yet entirely soft—Anna into the spotlight.

Here, she tells T&C about creating the character, the importance of flat shoes, and the hotel in which she’d most like to be trapped for a lifetime.

What made playing Anna something you wanted to do?

It was such an amazing opportunity. Every aspect of it just sang with potential to be the best thing possible, beginning with the novel, which I had read already, and knowing that Ewan was attached to play the Count. I knew that that was going to be something magical. It felt like a real no brainer to want to be involved on top of the opportunity to play an incredibly fabulous character. Also, I got to be with my husband for six months and work on something that excited us both. There’s nothing better than that.

In the sixth episode, which airs this week, we finally see Anna—who’s been so mysterious—let down her guard just a bit.

In the novel, she remains mysterious throughout. You get to hear about what she's going through a little bit from the Count’s perspective, and you get to feel the blossoming love between them from his perspective, but you don't really get to peek behind the curtain, and to see who Anna is. It was unexpected for me, as the episodes were coming in, to see how much time we were giving her character. It made me feel even more for her and made me that much more excited to play her in these scenes. Even though she’s a bit of a hustler and she toys with people, particularly the Count, she has this unexpected emotional evolution. She becomes somebody very different than she expected.

Is it a relief to get to crack her open a bit, or did you miss those episodes where she’s all frosty glamour?

I love playing someone who is very guarded. At the start, she’s kind of wearing a mask, and then over the course of the season that mask slowly falls away, and her vulnerability slowly becomes exposed. It was beautiful for me to get to play that woman and find her cracks; she’s had a very hard life, so it’s difficult for her to let anybody in, but it was wonderful to feel her kind of cracking open.

To create the character, did you use materials beyond the script or the book that inspired it?

The book, of course, was an amazing starting place; Amor Toles wrote such incredibly wonderful characters. In addition to that, I wanted to have something that I could hang my hat on in terms of the history of real actresses at that time, and the real

Russian women of that day who were in her position. It’s a bit difficult to find a lot of information, but I did find a few. One was named Alla Nazimova, and I felt she resembled Anna the most—she was also the most fascinating to learn about. She had an incredible backstory that was quite heartbreaking, and I held onto that for Anna.

Is there anything about the production—which has these incredible sets and costumes—that you hope audiences notice? Any kind of Easter eggs we should be looking for?

There are subtleties, especially in the wardrobe, hair, and makeup. Obviously, we go through different eras, which is fun to see, but for Anna, I thought it was so lovely to have not only the evolution in terms of time but also of her as a person. She becomes so much softer, and we see her wearing knits and flat shoes; she’s letting herself get softer, and the clothes reflect that in a beautiful way.

Finally, if you were to be trapped for a lifetime in a hotel, which one would you want it to be?

I really love the Soho Hotel in London. I love being close to Covent Garden and Soho, and I have great memories of being there. That’s a place I’d love to be.

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