Wednesday, February 26, 2014

MAD MEN Stars Dish with The Saturday Evening Post About Audition Tapes, Childhood, and Fan Reactions

As cable television readies itself for the first half of the final season of AMC’s acclaimed period drama MAD MEN, The Saturday Evening Post interviews Jon Hamm and five other key cast members as well as series creator Matt Weiner.

In March/April 2014's cover story, legendary Hollywood reporter Jeanne Wolf sat down with the cast, asking how they've grown and why fans project so much love and hate on their characters. The Post complements the story with a cover based on a Norman Rockwell illustration that appeared in its Sept. 17, 1960 issue (see below). Fans will enjoy the bonus section following the interview. In "Real Mad Men at Work," the Post throws open the doors to its archives to presents a look back at the “new” look of vintage '60s-era art and advertising.

Below are excerpts from the article.

John Hamm on Don Draper: “Don Draper is a guy that looks good in all appearances and yet is essentially a disaster.”

January Jones (Betty) on fans’ reactions to her character: “People come up to me, and they
straight up say that they dislike me.”

Vincent Kartheiser (Pete Campbell) on his wildest post-fame purchase: “The wildest thing I’ve bought is a Japanese toilet, a Toto, a fancy and expensive toilet … The Ferrari of toilets.”

John Slattery (Roger Sterling) on seeing his audition tape recently: “You watch yourself on the audition tape and flashback, ‘Oh my God, I started out and my kid was six years old, and he’s in high school now.’ You change, especially physically. I feel like I’m 100 years older than when we started.”

Elizabeth Moss (Peggy Olson) on character judgments: “The only time I heard a problem was people questioning my character’s choices in dating. Which I have in real life as well. But I’m always like, ‘Really? You never made a mistake in who you dated?’ And that’s Peggy’s story. She keeps making her mistakes over and over unfortunately.”

Christina Hendricks (Joan Harris) on the new attention focused on her: “I’ve had days of anxiety or panic about being looked at or being talked about, and that’s made me just want to stay home.”

Executive Producer and series creator Matt Weiner on fans’ investment in the show: “It’s been an education for me to realize that what a lot of people find entertaining is feeling superior to the activity that’s going on on the screen. They want to have their values reaffirmed; they want to have this sort of narcissistic gratification of ‘I know what’s going to happen.’ ‘I know how this world is going to work out.’ Or, ‘Thank God I’m not like that.’”

Hamm on the secret to the show’s success: “There are so many variables. At any point in the development of the show, somebody could have made a decision that ruined it. They could have put a flaw in it and magnified over time, but it didn’t happen. Instead, everybody made the right decisions, because everybody is in it for the right reasons.”

2 comments:

  1. Gave up on MM after Betty flew off with the baby and the old guy. Some great performances but the "its the 60s, isn't it crazy" gimmick wore off for me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I didn't even realize that the Saturday Evening Post was still published!

    ReplyDelete