Carrie-Anne Moss on Her New Series Yaga and That John Wick "Throwaway Line"

Carrie-Anne Moss discusses AMC+'s new Yaga trailer, her lifelong fascination with the folklore of Baba Yaga, and how she really feels about that John Wick meta line.

Carrie Ann Moss first heard about the new AMC+ drama Yaga at just the right time. The actress, best known for her roles in blockbusters such as The Matrix, Star Wars: The Acolyte and Jessica Jones, says she independently researched the mythology behind the Yaga design just before she was brought on.

"I was actually just thinking about it a week ago," says Moss. "I loved the fact that it had a Baba Yaga story. I'm someone who's always been interested in that story. It works a lot for me, where I'm thinking about something [and] all of a sudden a script comes my way that has some kind of connection. I take those kinds of little stirrings of the ether seriously."

Yaga, which is streaming an exclusive clip that you can watch in the player above as part of IGN Fan Fest: Fall Edition, offers a modern twist on the classic legend of Baba Yaga. Based on the screenplay by Kat Sandler (who serves as showrunner here), the show follows Rapp (Noah Reid), "a private investigator who arrives in the small seaside town of Whitwick to find the disappearance of the young heir to a powerful fishery, Henry Park (Hudson Williams). A charismatic university professor with a taste for younger men, Catherine (Moss), and a maze of mysterious suspects, secret lives, and ancient magic."

Moss, who I spoke to before Yaga's Oct. 23 premiere, says her fascination with Baba Yaga — a mythical and sinister female monster from Slavic folklore — goes back decades.

"With the legends of Baba Yaga, there are many different ways to tell that story," says Moss. "And our version is inspired by [the play] Kat. I came across that story when I was in my 20s through a book called Women Who Run With the Wolves. There are so many ways to tell the story. There are so many different versions of her."

Fans who watch the show may recognize Baba Yaga, aka John Wick, played on screen by Keanu Reeves, who plays Matrix Mass. At one point in Yaga, Moss's character quips, "What is John Wick?" When the franchise is mentioned by another character. Moss says he knows fans might see the line as a meta joke, but he sees it differently.

"I'm a John Wick fan, so I'll start with that," says Moss. "And to be honest, when I read that line, because it was written in a few different ways, I'm always hesitant to go into that kind of thing. And it's not something I want to do. It's not my job. I think I shot it. I said it a few different ways, and in the end they choose what they want to put in there. So I understand that it was interesting to me." Despite that, it's a throwaway line."

Moss says she embraced Catherine's laid-back nature during production, especially when it came to her on-screen scenes with Heated Rivalry's Hudson Williams.

"I have intimate scenes with younger men in this show," says Moss. My sons are close in age to Hudson. I mean, that's what you do as an actor, right? I mean, you're comfortable with that, but at the same time, I respected it. And you feel like, I don't know, I don't want to say I'm embarrassed, but I can be his mother. And if you have those scenes, conserve your energy, because you don't want to suddenly become their mother, which can easily happen when you're a nurturer."

Yaga's cast and crew shot the show at breakneck speed, Moss says, which he prefers over longer shoots.

"I think I was there for three weeks," says Moss. "I've never experienced it being really fast. Normally when you're shooting something, you'll have a lot of down time between shots, which is really boring. There was no peace in this program. But when it was a hangout, it was definitely fun. I have to say that Noah and Clarke were like a little team the whole time and it really made me laugh since I felt like I was laughing. "My stomach, I almost feel like it's worth a year of treatment."

Moss, who has been in some of the biggest franchises of the 21st century, says that while he doesn't have a particular IP he wants to use, he remembers being so engrossed in movies as a kid that he often returned to the theater over and over again.

"I was looking at photos from when I grew up in the '70s and '80s," says Moss. "I went to see movies 17 times that I loved as an 11-year-old and 12-year-old. Grease. Rocky. The Bad News Bears. I probably would have had a baby and saved my money. That was a big part of what I wanted to do. That's how I feel when I discover a show. My husband and I have this little routine that we do sometimes, like, 'I'll stay until you love me.'" The feeling of "I can't wait." I will stay to see the next episode of a program.

To catch the IGN Fan Fest, be sure to check out IGN's website, YouTube, and social channels throughout the week for more than 90 exclusive shows across games, movies, TV, comics, and series. It's all leading up to a massive livestream on October 14th, packed with game announcements, trailers, exclusive clips, celebrity interviews and more.