published on in News Update

Jessica Par was ready to move back to my parents place before Mad Men

JP2

I don’t know if Jessica Paré annoys me, or if it’s just the character of Megan Draper. Or both? I guess that I sort of like Jessica but since I’ve only seen her in Mad Men, I don’t know what her range is and whether she’s really as annoying as Megan Draper, who is… well, she’s just not as interesting as her screen time warrants. Anyway, Jessica has a photoshoot with Esquire and the photos remind me of Fiona Apple’s music video for “Criminal”. I know I’m dating myself. But seriously – did they photograph her in the same house? You can see the full slideshow here (it’s SFW) and here are some highlights from the interview:

The obsession with her teeth: “You can’t get a lot of s–t stuck in these teeth,” she says. She’s right. Those teeth are a flosser’s dream—standing straight, close but not touching, like coworkers forced into a company photograph. They’re also just teeth. Effective and normal, highlighted simply because she chose not to dump twenty grand into having the exact same mouth as every other actor.

Being Canadian in LA and needing a work visa: “I really struggled,” she says. She applied for a green card to solve the sponsorship problem, but “what was supposed to take three months took nine. I couldn’t work or travel, and any momentum that I had gained from Jack & Bobby just dissipated.”

Finally getting a gig on Mad Men: “I was ready to move back to my parents’ place, ready to get a job at my friend’s bar back home and just pack it in. I had nothing left to lose. I went into the audition thinking, This is it. If you don’t like it, that’s fine. Nobody else has.”

Megan was supposed to only last for four episodes: She expected to entail a four-episode arc and what appeared to be a clear-cut ending: Her character would have sex with Don Draper, the kiss of death on a show with a main character who goes through women like tissues. Some of the show’s crew members even said goodbye when they found out. But instead of being cast aside, that lowly secretary became the next Mrs. Draper.

[From Esquire]

I remember hearing that Matthew Weiner had no plan in place for Megan – like, he didn’t know that this secretary would end up marrying Don, and that he was just playing around with the idea of it. Which might explain why the past two seasons have seemed so random and like… why the hell are they focusing so much on Megan? Because Weiner is winging it. Megan wasn’t part of the original plan. And instead of giving Peggy and Joan more screen time, we’re being forced to give a crap about Megan (and it’s still not happening). Anyway… that’s not Jessica’s fault. She’s just happy to have a job.

JP1

Photos courtesy of Esquire.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmbG1naIF3e8meqqyhk5assa3RnpawmaOUv6atw7KWraePory3sb6bmJyjj6m8oLnYmKeaqpWjwbSrz6WYnJ2Pl7Knu9GelqaZlJS6prqO