Actress Christina Hendricks.CHRISTINA HENDRICKS DRIVES ‘EM MAD
By
Alex Simon
Born in Knoxville, Tennessee and raised in Twin Falls, Idaho and Fairfax, Virginia, actress Christina Hendricks made her debut in the TV movie Sorority in 1999, following a successful modeling career in London and New York. After appearing in dozens of television productions, including recurring roles on hits like ER and Firefly, Christina landed the plum role of seductress secretary Joan Holloway on American Movie Classics’ lauded original series Mad Men. Created by former Sopranos scribe Matthew Weiner, MM takes place in 1960, and follows the denizens of fictional Madison Avenue advertising agency Sterling-Cooper, led by eponymous characters played by John Slattery and Robert Morse, respectively, with the main focal point being rising hot-shot Don Draper (Jon Hamm), a dynamo whose checkered personal life and shady past come to light in each new episode. The show is a delicious blend of drama, comedy and social satire, beautifully capturing a time and place on the cusp of major social, political and cultural change.
As secretary, and mistress, to the firm’s number two man Roger Sterling, Christina’s Joan Holloway echoes screen sirens from years past, such as Ava Gardner, Kim Novak, and Marilyn Monroe: curvaceous beauties who have more than one ace up their sleeves when dealing with the men in their lives.
Christina Hendricks sat down with us recently to discuss her life, work and adventures with AMC’s bad boys of Madison Avenue, circa 1960.
The first thing that strikes me upon meeting you, in addition to how young you are, is that you speak in a much lower register in character on Mad Men.
Christina Hendricks: You know, I think that’s true, although I haven’t really been that conscious of it. Most people say “My gosh, you’re a baby,” when they meet me because the period clothes and hair make me look a lot older. We’re used to seeing our parents and grandparents look like that: very stiff and teased and powdered down. (laughs)
Tell us about life on Mad Men.
I feel like the luckiest actress in the world to be on what everyone, including our cast and crew, thinks is the smartest show on television. I was a big fan of Six Feet Under and I remember crying during the last show, because it was so sad, and also because the acting and the writing was so extraordinary. I remember thinking “If I could only get cast on a show like this…” (laughs) I feel like Mad Men has given fans of shows like that, and The Sopranos, something to move on to.
Christina Hendricks as seductive secretary Joan Holloway in AMC's Mad Men.I also like the fact that it tackles mature subject matters, and presents it in a way that seems to assume its audience has an IQ.
Well, I’m embarrassed to say I watch a lot of TV, particularly reality TV, but when my boyfriend and I were watching an hour-long network drama, which will remain nameless (laughs). I turned to him at one point and said, ‘Why is the writing so bad?’ He just laughed and said, “Because you’re spoiled!” I realized he was right. That this was “normal” TV, and it just sounded so phony to me. I was like ‘God, I hope Mad Men never ends!’
The great thing that the writing in Mad Men captures is that the most important interactions between human beings is subtextual: it’s about what isn’t said.
You know, Matt Weiner said something interesting in an interview, that John Slattery, who I think is an extraordinary actor and person, that John has the ability to take the jokes that I write for Roger, and make them Roger’s jokes. And then I went back and watched a few of the shows, and realized that the characters were making jokes, things that we find funny now, but were playing them entirely seriously.
Sure. They had no clue how cheesy and superficial they were. I remember that generation that came of age in the late ‘50s, which were most of my parents’ friends, and them interacting like that when I was a kid.
Yeah, the whole “Hey there!” kind of attitude. (laughs)
Right. And Mad Men captures that whole late Eisenhower-era, WASPy phoniness perfectly. For me, the most telling exchange in the show, which summed up that period, was between John Slattery’s character and yours when, after his heart attack, he tells you that you were “the greatest piece of ass I’ve ever had.”
(laughs) Right! And the pathetic thing is, to that man, in that era, that’s the ultimate, most heartfelt compliment he thought he could pay me. John’s such a fine actor that you realize, at that moment, that that’s about as deep as Roger gets. But he was really trying to say “You were special to me,” even though the only way my character could be special was if she was objectified as “a great piece of ass.” (laughs)
Tell us about Joan.
I think Joan is a very smart woman, and I think she knew how to play (Roger) and be very calculating with all the other people in her life, as well. I think the men in the office play with her almost like she’s one of the guys. They can say sexually-crude things to her and know she’s not going to go home and weep. It’s more like fun banter, as opposed to harassment. I think the men respect Joan as being smart, and also realize she’s someone you’d better be careful with. If you make the wrong move, she can ruin you in that office! But, she is a woman regardless, and in that world at that time, you’re lower on the totem pole because of it. Still, she’s a master manipulator, and it serves her to a certain extent.
If she were a contemporary woman, I could see her being a studio executive or on Wall Street.
(laughs) Yes! That’s just what I think, too. In 1960, Joan is stuck behind a typewriter. But in 2008, she’d be running the show. She’s sort of a precursor to some of the really powerful women that came to prominence a decade or so later. She’s ahead of her time, in a sense.
But you can also tell that the character of Peggy, who really is a budding feminist in the workplace, is both a fascination and an albatross to Joan.
Definitely. Here’s a young woman who decides to downplay her prettiness, and is going after a “boy’s job.” And this is just baffling to Joan! (laughs) “You’re doing it all wrong! You’ll never get ahead this way.” Joan doesn’t understand.
Yeah, Peggy’s the precursor to the Hillary Clinton-era feminists of the early and middle ‘70s who wore no make-up, pantsuits, and purposely deglamourized themselves because they refused to be objectified, and wanted to be recognized for their intellect and abilities.
Right. It was almost like ‘I dare you! I dare you to tell me I’m not pretty.” Or just “This is me. Accept me as I am, or don’t be part of my life.”
How did you research your role as Joan? Did you speak to women who were Joan’s age in that era?
Not really. I didn’t feel like it required all that much research, because they’re just characters reacting to their environment. I did read Helen Gurley Brown’s books, because Matt told me that my character was loosely based on some of her writings. Boy, was I in for a treat when I picked up those books! My plan was to highlight and dog-ear all the pages of relevance, and when I was done with the books, every page corner was turned down, and virtually every sentence highlighted! (laughs) She’s an amazing woman. I also re-watched a lot of Hitchcock films from that period, also films like The Apartment, and a couple others from that period. It was helpful with the hair, the make-up, the clothes, and also how those women carried themselves. Very different from today.
It’s funny you mention Hitchcock, because when I first saw you as Joan, the first thing that popped into my head was ‘My God, that’s a red-haired Kim Novak from Vertigo!’ Gosh, thank you! (laughs) She’s a really amazing archetype in that film. It’s funny, Matt told me when he wrote the part of Joan, he had a very different idea of who she was going to be. When I was about to audition for the part, I remember going through my closet…and you never want to go to an audition dressed in character, but you do want to get the essence of who the person is. I wore this really tight black sweater with a big bow on the front, a la Channel, and a really tight black skirt. And now that I look at Joan, that’s what she dresses like. She’s not the girl who wears the Jackie O dresses. She has this kind of feline thing going on, so we kept that because we realized it was perfect for Joan, especially in contrast to Peggy. And I also wasn’t written as a series regular in the beginning. It was supposed to be a guest spot. Then Matt realized “Peggy cannot exist without Joan, and vice-versa.”
Tell us about Matthew Weiner. It sounds like the guy is just a creative waterfall.
We have so few writers on the show, and he is in the room with them in every single meeting, so it’s hard to say how much of it he writes alone, and how much is a group effort. What’s great is when we point out a really great line to Matt, he says “Oh, that was Robert,” and always gives credit to who came up with it. “Wasn’t that great? Lisa Albert came up with that.” That says it all about Matt. I’ve never met anyone quite like him. Whenever he watches dailies and sees something he likes, he’ll call me up and say “You’re so good. You’re so good!” (laughs) When your boss calls you and tells you that you’ve done service to what he wrote, it doesn’t get much better than that.
Let’s talk about John Slattery, who you have most of your scenes with.
It’s amazing, because if you turn on the television, John is everywhere! He’s done so much amazing work, and it’s always being shown. John is one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. He always seems to play these very serious, severe characters, but he’s really a nut! He’s really smart, generous, just a terrific guy and a real pro. We’re all such good friends on the show, and I’ve been on other shows where that hasn’t always been the case. A couple years before Mad Men I was on a show called Kevin Hill, where we all became so close, and we’re still extremely close, and I wasn’t sure if I’d ever have that kind of professional and personal experience again. When I started Mad Men, a friend called me and asked how it was after my first day of shooting, and I said ‘Well, it was great. Everyone seems very nice, but I don’t think it will be like it was on Kevin Hill. We’re all just very different.’ Within a month, we were all inseparable. The thing I like about this cast is that we’re all incredibly tight, and joking all the time, but as soon as we’re on-set, we’re serious. One of the make-up people said to me the other day “This is the most professional cast I’ve ever worked with.” I agree with her. You can’t wing it with the sort of material we have on Mad Men. I’ve done work where everyone is like “Okay, what are we doing today?” (laughs) and it shows. We can’t do that here.
Let’s talk about your background. You were born in Tennessee, and raised in Twin Falls, Idaho and Fairfax, Virginia. What was that like?
Twin Falls was awesome. It wasn’t super small town, but at the time I lived there, probably about 30,000 people. It’s a fairly religious community. My family wasn’t religious, which could be a little strange as a newcomer, but also provided a very strong community feeling. There were lots of very strong families, but there also wasn’t a lot to do, so you had to be creative. My mom got my brother and I involved in a community theater group, so we could create our own fun. And that’s where it all started for me. I spent my whole childhood with this theater called J.U.M.P. Company: Junior Musical Playhouse. It was amazing how many talented kids there were in the group, and also how many people in the community jumped into volunteer to direct, to build sets, whatever need to be done. We’d put on these shows at the community college, and half the town would show up! So it was great. It was the happiest time of my life.
What do your parents do?
They both just retired, weeks ago! My mom was a therapist, and my dad worked for the U.S. Forrest Service.
You spent your teenage years in Virginia.
Yes, and that was not so fun. I had the worst high school experience ever. People literally spit on me. I was a Goth girl, and in preppy Fairfax County, that did not go over very well. My friends and I were all weird theater people. Some of us were gay. And everyone just hated us. The school was a strange mix of wealthy families and lower income families. When you throw all those people into a high school together, you have people with Confederate flags on their shirts sitting next to the sons and daughters of powerful government employees, who drive new cars to school. You also have mace in the air ducts and barbed wire around the school. It was like Heathers, identical to that film. It was our favorite movie, because it showed people like us finally getting revenge! (laughs)
Did you go back to your ten year reunion, so you could show everyone how you’ve blossomed?
No. I wasn’t invited, first of all. Plus, none of those people would know who I was. They would never equate me now with who I was then. (laughs) It’s funny, I was answering questions for this British magazine the other day, and they asked me a great one, which was “If you could go back to your 14 year-old self and tell yourself something, what would it be?” I said, I would say ‘Don’t worry. You’re going to be doing exactly what you want to be doing, and all those people who are assholes to you now, are still going to be assholes in 20 years, and you can’t change them. So just let it go!’ (laughs)
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