Elizabeth Moss Talks About ‘Mad Men’ Season Premiere & Spoilers

If you’re like Don Draper of “Mad Men” fame, then you like hiring hookers who slap you in the face at hotel rooms and think it’s rude to talk about yourself. The season premiere of the show aired last night and we were on the edges of our seats.

Elizabeth Moss Talks About 'Mad Men' Season Premiere & Spoilers

Elizabeth Moss took the time to talk about her role in the premiere and what she thought about the episode. She said, “I was blown away by it. We have a premiere screening every year on set during lunch, and I know I’m biased, but I think it’s our best first episode ever since the pilot. There’s so much built-in drama — we really hit the reset button on the show with the agency, and it feels so exciting! Afterwards, I was walking around with a big smile on my face for like an hour. I felt like a fan, you know what I mean? It’s just so cool. And they walk into the office and that great music is playing, and you see the SCDP sign; it feels like exactly what you want to have happen.”

More of the highlights from her interview:

“Who is Don Draper?” What do you think?
Can you think of a greater opening line? And how it’s quiet and then they bring the sound in. My favorite part was the end — the end killed me. But everything about the episode is very much new. It’s a whole new agency, a whole new time period, and everybody is feeling like, okay, who is that and what’s their job here? What’s Peggy doing now? It’s all this stuff you’re trying to piece together to form a picture of what’s going on. And I think the whole season follows that thread — these characters themselves figuring out who they are.

What’s up with your new work friend? You clearly already have a comfortable dynamic with him.
I know, you don’t know how long he’s been there, you don’t know who he is. And I think that’s awesome — the first time you see Peggy is with this new character who you’ve never seen before. And of course, in Mad Men style, we don’t bother explaining anything about this, we just let you figure it our yourself.

Do you get it explained to you, at least?
Yeah, we do. We’re allowed to ask questions and get things explained. I found that I asked more questions about the first episode of this season than I ever have in any other season. I called Matt [Weiner] and talked to him about it; What happened with her? How long have she and her boyfriend been together? What’s her dynamic in the office? I feel like there’s the biggest change in her between last season and this one, and I feel like she’s grown the most, so I found myself trying to figure out all that.

Who’s your favorite character on the show?
Oh my god! That’s hard. I feel like every single one of us would say that Slattery, that guy is just such a dream to watch. You give him two lines and he knocks it out of the park. He’s the KING of stealing scenes, and he always gets the best line. And every time I’ve gotten the privilege of working with him — which has been very few times — but every time, we giggle like little girls.

Spoilers ahead! You’ve been warned…

Continued…

Don opens the premiere by talking to an “Ad Age” newspaper reporter about himself — or not. Afterward, we see the new Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce building and it’s large. The only thing it’s missing is a conference table, but that’s alright because the ad folks just love the openness that encourages conversation.

Then, we see Peggy Olson and Pete Campbell concocting a PR stunt in order to get more customers to buy hams for Thanksgiving dinner. That plan backfires when one of the actresses threatens to sue the other and they both need hush money to keep the story quiet.

The guys then converge upon Don, who failed to mention their latest account in the newspaper article. His response? “I didn’t talk about anyone”. So, who is Don Draper? According to Peggy, he’s the guy that they’re all doing this for — to impress him.

Next, we see Betty and Henry at Thanksgiving dinner with his mother. Little Sally Draper wasn’t feeling the whole Thanksgiving dinner thing and spits out her food. Obviously, Henry’s mother doesn’t approve of “living in that man’s dirt”.

Betty and Henry decide to go out while Don takes two-thirds of their brood to the hotel. She told him to have the kids back by 9pm the next night, only to be an hour late. Don says to the both of them that she needs to move out or else he’s going to have to start charging her rent. She’s appalled, naturally.

Don comes up with an advertisement for the two-piece bathing suit company, to their dismay. One of the company men says, “We’re a family company”. After they shun his ad idea, he throws them out of the building, with Pete trying to sweet talk them into giving them more time for ideas.

At the end, the camera pans to Don, talking to a reporter from the “Wall Street Journal”, exploiting his creative efforts and touting everything he’s known for.

Who’s Don Draper, you ask? Why, he’s the creative genius behind the story, that’s who. Give him a minute, he’ll light up a cigarette and tell you all about it.

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