Kiernan Shipka goes from ‘Mad Men’ to a witch in ‘Sabrina’
Kiernan Shipka, best-known as Don and Betty Draper’s daughter, Sally, on “Mad Men,” is learning a lot as the star of the new Netflix series “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.”
One of those lessons: She’s allergic to cats, which can be a challenge if you portray a teenage witch whose black cat, Salem, is essentially her sidekick.
In a recent interview, Shipka mocked a cradling motion and said, “There’s a still (photo) of me picking up Salem like this. That’s the exact moment I truly learned that me and cats are not compatible . ... I feel like ants are crawling all over my face.”
She said she first tried taking a Benadryl to combat the reaction and jokes it was so potent, she doesn’t even remember filming that day.
Shipka is the latest in a number of “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” iterations over the years. The most recent being a 1990s comedy with a laugh track starring Melissa Joan Hart. Shipka said she’s never seen the Hart version but does intend to watch it one day.
“I’m curious to see it. I definitely think one day I will go back and watch it. I sort of just wanted my own separate Sabrina.”
In “The Chilling Adventures,” this Sabrina is a teen struggling with her identity. In the first episode, we meet her on the eve of her 16th birthday when she’s supposed to choose to go full-on witch or live a normal life.
“I think that a lot of her struggle is figuring out a way to balance her worlds in a way that isn’t catastrophic, and that’s a humongous undertaking because the witch world and the mortal world just don’t mix really.” /