Women crack the whips
It’s a man’s world on but it would be nothing without the women played by Elisabeth Moss, January Jones and Christina Hendricks, writes GUY DAVIS.
Yes, the title of the show is Mad Men. And yes, many of the central characters in the 1960s- era pay- TV drama about the adver tising industr y and the professionally gifted but personally adrift people who work in it are male.
For seven seasons, fans of the show have tried to solve the riddle that is the enigmatic, unknowable Don Draper ( Jon Hamm), revelled in the joie de vivre of silver fox Roger Sterling ( John Slatter y) and ... well, wanted to punch Pete Campbell ( Vincent Kar theiser) in the face. More than once.
Looking back over the stor y, however, it’s clear that despite its ver y masculine milieu, Mad Men is just as fascinated – if not more so – by its female characters, the way the workplace and society in general regarded them and the ways in which they worked to sidestep and overcome sexism and discrimination.
Mad Men is in its final stretch – there is only a handful of episodes left to air on Foxtel channel Showcase – and so there’s no better time to cast a glance back at three of the show’s most interesting women.
Don Draper’s first wife Betty, played by Januar y Jones, has been one of the drama’s most divisive characters. Just as complicated a personality as Don, the times she lived in did not allow her the same oppor tunities to express herself as fully, and she was subsequently seen as chilly or moody. And let’s face it, sometimes she was chilly or moody.
But Jones and series creator Matthew Weiner often dug a bit deeper, looking beneath Betty’s immaculate surface to investigate the sad, angr y, complex person underneath.
“I don’t think she’s necessarily emotionally mature but she’s more emotionally mature than she was when we star ted,” Jones said.
Christina Hendricks initially saw her character Joan Holloway, who went from office manager to par tner in the firm, as a bit brassy, an impression that changed the more she got to know her.
“To me, Joan was this woman who liked to be in charge, who seemed incredibly confident, who liked attention, who was a bit bossy, who seemed to be a know- it- all,” she said.
“So I was doing, you know, one to two or three scenes with these clues. And I think for the first season and into the second season, you saw a lot of those qualities in Joan and you noticed that maybe Joan was a bit meddling and a little controlling.
“But the beautiful thing about being on a show for this long is that these characters slowly star t to unravel and reveal themselves, and Joan became so much more.”
The most interesting woman on Mad Men, and the one who has gone on the most interesting journey over the show’s seven seasons, is Peggy Olson ( Elizabeth Moss), whose skill as a copywriter was noticed and nur tured early on by Don – their combative but respectful relationship has been the hear t of the series.
“Peggy had challenges no other character faced,” Moss said. “She was tr ying to do something no other character was – being treated as an equal in a man’s world.”
Monday, 8.30pm, Showcase ( pay- TV)