Christina Hendricks

MR: It’s been kind of crazy to see all the press attention the show is getting this season

CH: It’s been extraordinary. I’ve never been on a show that people just don’t have anything bad to say about. I’m not scared to read the reviews for once. They tend to be positive, so that’s a really good feeling.

MR: It’s one of those things where I’m like, I want the second season to be good, but I’m almost afraid that it can’t be as great as the first season.

CH: I’m not just saying this — I really think it’s better this year. I think the scripts are extraordinary this year. Last year they were as well, but because now we already know these characters to a certain degree, these scripts are just opening up their worlds and it’s revealing more about them and you’re learning more about them. I just think that’s so interesting.

MR: Yeah, watching Season 1 again on DVD, I thought a lot about that – that you really don’t know these people all that well, we go glimpses of who they are, but there’s still a lot to learn about who they are. It kind of set the stage…

CH: Yeah, exactly. There are a lot of characters on the show. In Season 1, each person had an episode to shine, and some more than others. But there were little things revealed, enough to make the characters really rich and to create this world that they’re living in. Now we’ve got the opportunity, now that the background has been laid out, to show more.

MR: Right, Joan is someone we got to know to a degree, but there were all these things you learned about her that you just went, “What?” She could be so awful but then she could be so kind too. Sometimes I don’t know what to make of her.

CH: Sometimes I don’t either [laughs]. I think the nice thing is that these characters are really well rounded characters. Sometimes you don’t like Joan. There are things that she does in the office and things that she says and the way she treats Peggy in particular makes people dislike her. And a lot of people could dislike her for having an affair. But then you see how tender she is with [Roger Slattery] and how girlish she is. And she’s just a girl. And then you see her with her roommate – she’s a good friend, but she’s confused. There are all those elements of Joan.

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I remember when I first got the script where [Joan’s] roommate came to the office and she’s just been fired. And Joan says, “Sit down, tell me everything that happened.” And I remember going, “Wait a minute, I don’t know how to play this scene – Joan is being really nice.” And [Matt says], “But she is nice. That’s her roommate, and Joan likes her.” “But Joan’s never nice!” It was just another side of her I hadn’t seen yet, I had to figure that out.

MR: There are a lot of great scenes between Joan and Peggy – there’s that one where Peggy says, “I think I understand now. You’re actually trying to be nice.”

CH: It’s true. I think Joan really is trying to be helpful. And Peggy’s behavior is dumbfounding to her. It’s like, “Every other girl came in here and listened to what I had to say. You’re not the first girl to be walked around the office and told what to do. Every other girl is doing that and been just fine.” Here’s this young girl who is not listening to me and I know my advice is good. So it’s really frustrating for Joan.

Joan MR: One thing I’ve been thinking about is, Peggy and Joan are not that different. Maybe both of them are eventually going to get married, but neither of them is on this path to get married and have a house in the suburbs. Neither of them is really pursuing that.

CH: Right, they’re both career-driven in different capacities. Joan is, to her, at the top of her field and that’s exactly where she wants to be. Peggy wants to go in a different direction, but they’re both ambitious and career-driven. I don’t think a woman in 1960 would be office manager and running the whole place and telling everyone where to go if she wasn’t driven. And Joan could go out and find a husband quite easily. She’s an attractive, smart, successful woman but she’s not pursuing that. She’s doing things that are safe to a certain degree, because she can’t marry a man who’s already married.

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