I never stepped foot into a Brooks Brothers before 'Mad Men.'
Matt Weiner is very perceptive; there's something about the rhythms and the way people speak that is very authentic to the actor. But there are qualities that are dissimilar. The characters on 'Mad Men' are struggling with pretty profound unhappiness, but I can tell you this is a happy bunch.
To be honest, I owned one suit before I filmed 'Mad Men' - the one suit that you have to have as an adult. Outside of that, I never really felt comfortable in a suit.
Yes, I've heard of the 'Mad Men' comparisons, but I like to think 'The Hour' has its own distinctive voice. Although it is set in 1956, I have tried to give it a contemporary edge, and its themes of love, passion, romance, fury, professional jealousy, and personal failure are universal, I think.
What happened with 'Mad Men' was I had just had my child, I was in a very literally and creatively fertile time in my life, and I wasn't leaving the house much. So when 'Mad Men' came along, I was so excited to leave the house. Like, I get to go do this beautiful thing.
I worked for 10 years before 'Mad Men,' and what was great is that when people saw my work, I was just loving working, so it wasn't about anything else than that.
For people worried about the Great Recession and the uncertainty of what is coming next, the characters of 'Mad Men' are good company.
Set in the advertising world of the 1960s, 'Mad Men' is stunning to look at - a Camelot-era parade of smartly dressed professionals lounging around on midcentury modern furniture.
To a generation beaten down by skyrocketing unemployment, plunging retirement savings, and mounting home foreclosures, 'Mad Men' offers the schadenfreude-filled message that their predecessors were equally unhappy - and that the bleakness meter in American life has always been set on high.
In 'Mad Men,' we watch a group of people who live in a prosperous society that offers happiness and order like never before in history and yet are full of anxiety and unease. They feel there is something more, something beyond. And they feel stuck.
