FATEC 2009/2

The Climber

John Slattery ─ actor in just about everything ─ finally rises through the ranks in ‘Mad Men’ 

Veteran TV actor John Slattery spent last year dividing his time between two very different shows about the American íd: Mad Men and Desperate Housewives. One pays well, but the other is the revelation. In AMC’s Mad Men, set in a 1960s Madison Avenue ad agency, vodka-and-milk passes for breakfast, secretaries take alt the wrong kinds of dictation, and the happiness-for-sale modern era is forged. Slattery is Roger Sterling, an aloofly confident boss (“My name’s on the building,” he says) with a taste for everything under the sun ─ except family. As Slattery plays him, you’d love to have a drink (or seven) with the guy. Slattery explains how he pulls it all off . 

• On simultaneous roles in Mad Men and Desperate Housewives: “I had just bought a house. The Housewives producers said, ‘Do you want to do a year on the show?’ The men don’t get as much interesting material as the women, but it’s watched by, what, 20 million people a week? I had a good year.” 

• On the fate of his Mad Men character, Roger Sterling: “The last time you see Roger in season one, he has his second heart attack. I said to [creator] Matt Weiner, ‘What the hell?’ He said, ‘Don’t worry. My uncle had six heart attacks.’ I was like, ‘Okay, right. Fantastic.’’’ 

• On the Mad Men set: “It’s a lot of props: You’re doing dialogue while lighting cigarettes, dealing with the clothes, pouring drinks ... But my sister could roll a joint while driving a Volkswagen Bug, so I thought, Hell, I can do this.” 

• On playing a politician with a urine fetish on (yes) Sex and the City: “Sex and the City probably has a lot of alumni with erectile dysfunction or latex fetishes or whatever. We should all compare notes.” 

(WILL WELCH - GQConnects Aug08)