Mad Men’s Vincent Kartheiser: “The words kind of do the work for me”

From Vanity Fair:

Bruce Handy: I’m curious what your discussions were like with [series creator] Matt Weiner about Pete, when you first signed on. In the pilot, it feels like Pete’s going to be the villain of the series, the young snake-y executive. And probably on a lot of TV shows that’s what he would have been. But he’s become much more complicated and interesting than that.

Vincent Kartheiser: I think one of the things Matt [Weiner, the show’s creator] really wanted with Pete was someone who didn’t villainize him from the inside out. Take the pilot, that scene with Peggy, where Pete’s kind of dressing her down—he really thinks he’s being helpful and actually we had to do that scene quite a few times just to get that tone right for me. It was something that Matt and [director] Alan Taylor kept trying to finesse with me, to get to that point where it is rude but it’s really said from this helpful place. But I’m constantly reminding myself with Pete Campbell that the words kind of do the work for me. I don’t have to add any sort of emphasis to it—it’s there. I was reading quotes by Marlon Brando the other day, because I’m a dork, and he has one where he’s talking about his character in On the Waterfront and he says it’s virtually actor-proof. Roles like that show how much of the acting the audience actually does, because the character is so well written that it sings to the audience and the audience fills in the blanks with their own emotion and their own life. And that really sung to me about this project, because the characters are written with such humanism. So even though, like you say, Pete comes from this place of being a villain, that’s something Matt carefully writes away from.
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Bryan Batt (Sal) talks about his role on ‘Mad Men

Elisabeth Moss talks 'Mad Men', picking roles and Broadway

From Yahoo:

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: MATT WEINER’S NEGOTIATION FOR A NEW DEAL WITH (PRODUCER) LIONSGATE AND AMC GOT PRETTY HEATED LAST FALL. WAS THERE A POINT WHERE YOU AND THE CAST THOUGHT YOU MIGHT HAVE A NEW BOSS THIS SEASON?
Elisabeth Moss: We were standing on the sidelines. We all talked about it, as you’d speculate on whether you’re going to have a job. We were unanimous in feeling that this was Matt’s show and we wanted him to get what he wanted, but at the same time, we wanted to go back and make more (episodes). I think we all would have followed Matt wherever he went, but we also love working with AMC. I am just happy it worked out.

THE GOSSIP MAGAZINES RECENTLY PUBLISHED A PHOTO FROM THE SET OF THE DRAPERS HOLDING A BABY, WHICH MUST HAVE REALLY TICKED OFF WEINER. HOW TIGHT IS HIS GRIP ON PLOT DETAILS?
Moss: It is so important to Matt, and to the way the story is told, that things remain secret if possible. But I can say that (this season) Peggy starts becoming more of Don’s protege and moves up in that world. She goes down paths that are wrong for her, but she is just trying to figure out what it means to be in her position in that man’s world. I don’t honestly know if she is going to figure it out. Does she have to be like Don, or can she be her own person?

FOR ALL THE ACCLAIM, SOME HAVE SUGGESTED THAT THE SHOW COULD GROW ITS AUDIENCE IF IT DIDN’T UNFOLD AT SUCH A DELIBERATE PACE. HAVE YOU NOTICED ANY CHANGES THIS SEASON?
Moss: We have our way of doing things. We like to not give people what they want right away, and it makes us what we are. It seems to have worked so far, so I think we’ll keep going.
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Mad Men Cast Biographies

JON HAMM
“Donald Draper”

Jon Hamm plays the lead character of ‘Donald Draper’ in the award-winning, critically-acclaimed AMC original series “Mad Men,” created by Matthew Weiner, about the professional lives, social mores and sexual exploits of advertising executives on Madison Avenue circa 1960. Among his many accolades for his performance on the show, Hamm won the 2008 Golden Globe® Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama, and has been nominated for an Emmy® Award for Lead Actor in a Drama Series and Screen Actors Guild® Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series (the cast received the award for Best Ensemble in a Drama Series at the 2009 Screen Actors Guild Awards).

Hamm will next be seen starring opposite James Franco, Mary-Louise Parker, Jeff Daniels, and David Strathairn in the indie feature Howl, about poet Allen Ginsberg, directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman.

Hamm recently starred opposite Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly and Kathy Bates in the sci-fi remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still directed by Scott Derrickson. He also completed work on the independent thriller The Boy in the Box, with Josh Lucas. Additional film credits include Kissing Jessica Stein, We Were Soldiers and Space Cowboys.

Hamm recently completed a three-episode arc on the Emmy-winning comedy, “30 Rock,” in which he played a love interest to Tina Fey, as well as a critically acclaimed hosting debut on “Saturday Night Live.” Other television credits include the popular Lifetime television series “The Division,” as well as “What About Brian,” “The Unit,” “Numb3rs” and “CSI Miami,” among others. He landed his first big role in the NBC series “Providence” where a cameo performance turned into an 18-episode run.

Hamm received BA in English from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

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Rich Sommer spills the beans on this season's 'Mad Men' (ok..not really)

Rich Sommer, who plays Harry Crane on the incredibly awesome Mad Men, did a Q&A with the Washington Post recently.

Here are the goodies.

From the washingtonpost.com:
Kalamazoo, Mich.: Half the fun of watching “Mad Men” is figuring out what Matt Weiner really meant. Does the cast do that, too? And, was there an episode that puzzled all of you?

Rich Sommer: I have no idea what Matt means in many of these scripts, but I don’t think it matters. I had a professor tell me in grad school that theme is not the actor’s job, so I took that to heart.

Sometimes, Matt will grab me and say, “you know this episode is about X, right?” And I will say, “sure, sure.” And it’s always enlightening, because it feels like a code being cracked. But I don’t work too hard on trying to figure it out on my own, because I’m not that smart.

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Mad Men Season 3 Preview

Jared Harris: You know who he is… right?

You’ve probably seen Jared Harris and not even know it. The son of Richard Harris, the character actor has appeared in over 60 TV shows and films, including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

From Movieline:

As hard as it is to believe, though, the actor still isn’t quite a household name. But this could be the year when things “finally catch up” to Harris, as he puts it: He played the seafaring Captain Mike in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, relishing his key role as the man who introduces an adolescent-convolescent to the simple pleasures of whores and whiskey. (If you missed it, Button is out on DVD and Blu-Ray today.) And in another exciting development, he’s just been announced as the newest addition to AMC’s Mad Men. Joining the cult-worshipped show in its third season, Harris will play Lane Pryce, Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency’s new financial officer.

You’ve had an incredibly prolific career. Did you set out to have a career where you appear to be in so many places at once? And I know you’re called a chameleon a lot — is that something you actively sought out?
A couple years ago I went in for an audition for a film Danny DeVito was directing. And I walked in the door, and he goes, “I couldn’t wait to meet you! I was so excited to watch you walk in that door, because I’ve seen all the stuff that you’ve done, and I had no idea what you were going to look like. So I was really fascinated to see who was going to walk through the wall. It’s amazing, all the things that you’ve done.” So I said, “Thank you very much.” And he said, “I’m not sure if that really is a compliment.” And I said, “Sorry?” And he goes, “That’s a big risk, buddy.” I said, “What do you mean?” He says, “Well, you gotta hope that it catches up to you.” I said, “I don’t know what you mean.” He said, “Let me explain to you. A successful actor is a recognizable actor. You’re different in everything you do. You start from scratch every single time. It’s damn risky, but good luck to you. It’s ballsy.”

So I hear exactly what you’re saying, and it’s been a hindrance in that sense, in that people can’t put a name to the face. But at the same time, that’s what I love about acting. I love getting into the character and being unrecognizable. I think I just thought that eventually it would catch up, but it seems like it’s taken quite a long time to do that.

When are we going to see a film revolve around you?
Yeah, I mean you know. Again, that happens. The way that films are financed nowadays is that they’re financed on the back of your two or three famous leads, so if you’re not at that level of recognition, then you’re not going to be playing those parts.

Some people might not remember that you were in Far and Away. Any memories from that shoot?
I remember standing next to Tom Cruise on a hillside on the west coast of Ireland, and we were trying to figure out how to end the scene, and we decided we’d end it by using him to plow the fields — by grabbing each of his legs and dragging him. And he goes, “That’s a great idea! We’ll end it like that.” [He laughs.] But the whole field was covered in goat shit and donkey shit. So Tom says, “So…they’re uh, going to clear out all the … goat shit, right?” And Ron goes, “Um…I think, you know, that would take a week. We don’t have the time to do that.” So Tom says, “Right. Well what if they just drag me on my back, then?” He didn’t really want to go face first, which I completely understand.

`Mad Men' stars have fun as anxious Pete and Peggy

Airing on AMC Sundays at 10 p.m. EDT, the Peabody Award-winning “Mad Men” now is in its second season. Vincent Kartheiser and Elisabeth Moss, who star in the splendid ’60s-era drama talk about the show in a joint interview.

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