A Knoxville, Tenn.-born actress whose dreams of stardom date to her theatrical debut as a 9-year-old in a Twin Falls, Idaho, staging of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Christina Hendricks, 37, started as a trained ballerina who first dyed her blond locks red after reading Anne of Green Gables at 10.
After nearly a decade spent modeling for catalogues and fashion magazines, Hendricks began filling her re?sume? with smaller roles in such TV projects as the late Brandon Tartikoff ’s Beggars & Choosers [pictured], ER and Joss Whedon’s Firefly.
Hendricks was initially asked to read for the part of Peggy, the overearnest 20-year-old secretary role that ultimately went to Elisabeth Moss.
“I thought Joan was such a bitch, and I struggled sometimes trying to make her as real as possible because I thought, who would be so mean?” Hendricks says, recalling how surprised she was that viewers found Joan to be empowered rather than cruel.
Five years later, Hendricks, who spends what little free time she has between Mad Men and film roles (she most recently appeared in Drive) knitting, cooking and being with friends, can’t find enough good things to say about the character or the impact playing her has had on her career.
“It was like two old prizefighters sitting there,” Weiner says of Don and Joan sharing a drink during the May 20 episode.
“The question is, what would you do to protect your family? Joan is raising her son all on her own. She has no help from anybody. So is it noble? Is it slutty? I don’t know,” says Hendricks, who admits she has felt compelled to justify Joan’s actions to the many friends and family who reached out after the show.
“People always ask me if I’m worried about being pigeonholed as Joan, but there isn’t another character like her,” says Hendricks. “The show takes place in the 1960s and has such a specific mood and quality to it.”
“The women we see on TV are solving crimes, kicking ass, standing up to men, getting what they want. Sometimes I go to TV to see that, but I feel like there has to be something that exposes the other side — the real conflict that’s going on in the world right now,” says Weiner, surrounded by his Emmy-winning cast.
To hear showrunner Matthew Weiner tell it, Hendricks brought to the character of Joan “all of this power, sexuality and confidence” that made him reconsider his initial plan to have Joan’s role be little more than a vehicle to introduce Peggy.