On May 17th, the "Mad Men" that has been broadcast for seven seasons is about to usher in the final episode, the TV series that has been with us since 2007 has come to an end, and the main creators of the show, Matthew Wiener, and the male protagonist Joe Hamm, will share their feelings with everyone at the end of this season.
Some people say that there is no unbroken feast in the world, and good things are even more so. As an AMC award-winning series, Mad Men has ushered in its final season.
According to the design of matthew Wiener, the show's writer, director and producer, Mad Men fictionalizes the story of a New York advertiser named Don Draper, who is charismatic and ambitious, and although he has a perfect realization of the American dream — with a good income, a spacious house outside the city, a beautiful wife, and two healthy children, he also has a secret in his heart. Set in the vibrant 1960s, when anything seemed possible, Mad Men took viewers on a glimpse of that era.
Although the audience has long discovered Don's secret, throughout the play, Don is still a mysterious character, he drinks, has a feud, divorces, drugs, he marries his female secretary, he lies again and again, he loses customers, he wins back customers, he always smokes...
Mad Men soul character Joe Hamm
As the end of the series draws nearer, Joe Hamm (as Don Draper), along with his co-stars Christina Hendricks (as Joan Harris), Janurey Jones (as Betty Francis), Elizabeth Moss (as Peggy Olson), Vincent Caserser (as Pete Campbell), John Slarry (as Roger Sterling), and Matthew Wiener attend the Meeting of the American Television Critics Association. During this period, they looked back on the experience of shooting "Mad Men" for several years, and with this drama, they won awards, became famous, and won many fans from all over the world.
When Mad Men began airing in 2007, it chose the lesser-known AMC, but it soon became one of the most iconic episodes in the history of the series. Just like "The Sopranos", "Six Feet Below", "Breaking Bad", "Mad Men" unfolds its story at its own pace (shooting 7 seasons in more than 9 years), with its own wonderful script, excellent production, gorgeous lineup, set a benchmark for high-quality TV series.
Mad Men group portrait
Matthew Wiener, 50, recalls when he wrote the screenplay a decade ago, in the 1960s, when portable electronic devices weren't as ubiquitous as they are today, and Wiener often speculated about how people lived 50 years ago from the context of modern life. "I just signed up for a G-mail email," Wiener said, recalling when he first started writing the script for Mad Men. "There were no iPhones, no iPods, Netflix was still something to be acquired by email, and the longest video you could see online was only 3 minutes... It was so different then than it is now. So whenever I feel anxious about how the world has changed, I write that feeling into the script." "I only know the times I live in, I'm not a historian.".
Naturally, after so many years of filming together, the actors have treated each other as family. At the same time, of course, when the show is about to end, the actors' feelings are also mixed.
"Every scene in the final season was heart-wrenching to me," explains Joe Hamm, who wears a beard and dresses casually, not at all like the stiff-suited advertiser he plays in the show. "We are a very compatible team and they have been the only constant thing in my life for the last decade. I'm glad the show aired, and I don't need to pretend I don't know how the show ended or make up some ridiculous stories about robots or zombies. I'll probably never have a similar experience again, and that feeling makes you sad."
Elizabeth Moss plays Peggy Olson, who has gone from being a female secretary to an advertising planner, "I've been amazed over the years, I've never seen anything real, but every time I read the script, I feel like I'm going to read something important, and it feels like 'the previous 12 episodes have been slowly accumulating this sign, and I've been turning a blind eye'".
Elizabeth Moss plays Peggy Olsen
Peggy Olson's character is smart, but it's always a bit unlucky when it comes to relationships, and Elizabeth Moss says she's most surprised by her role is that the role has changed little over the years. "I think it's the same as a lot of other characters," she says, "and a big part of the story was that the characters were changing, but unfortunately in many ways they didn't change." Many of Peggy's traits at the beginning of the story have been preserved, some of which are good and some of which are bad. ”
Another actress, Christina Hendricks, who plays the full-bodied sexy beauty Joan Harris in the play, also agrees with Moss. She played a role from a female office manager to a company partner, successfully breaking into the previous management that was completely dominated by men, but still maintaining the same temperament as before. "I would say I'm really amazed at how, after all these years, we've kept Joan's story consistent, including her trajectory at the company, her relationships. How Matthew managed to bring so many characters into Joan's life and make them so full is incredible."
Jones, who plays Don's ex-wife, Betty Draper, who resembles Grace Kelly, recalls reading the script of the last season at home and can't help but feel sad as she read it. "It was so hard," she admitted, "that I was almost a mess for those weeks, and anything could make me cry." It's a really beautiful story, and I read the script over and over again and really don't want it to end like that."
Slatry plays Roger Sterling, a silver-haired firm partner
Slattery, who plays Roger Sterling, a silver-haired partner in the play, also said that it was "so surprising that it was time to end." Cassese, who plays the account director Pete Campbell in the play, said a witty remark, "I am not surprised at all, everyone will have their own response, I hope everyone is not the same."
The Mad Men series deals with many important historical events in the United States, including the assassination of Kennedy, the landing on the moon, the Vietnam War, etc., which appear more in the form of backgrounds than core events in this series. Wiener explains, "The play conveys the idea that most of your life and human history are independent of each other, and that the big history affecting an individual's life is often just an accident."
Don Draper and Peggy Olson
"I'm now looking back at the first scenes, how we got together, how we wrote the script, how we explained to the TV station how new and different it was." "AMC and Lionsgate allowed us to end the show the way we wanted it to be, and that's a really great thing." Matthew Wiener says the final episode will be a natural ending, without deliberate design. "I especially want to know what the audience thinks," Wiener says, "and I've always tried to make them happy and satisfied, rather than annoying them." I don't want them to walk away from the TV with resentment."
For Joe Hamm, seven years in the role of Don Draper changed his career forever, not just providing him with a stable job in the precarious industry of actors, in fact the role made him an international star.
"I can't imagine a single picture that compares to what really happened to us," the 43-year-old actor said as he reflected on his own process of filming the show. "There were good parts and bad parts of the experience, but most of them were good and they have become a very important part of my life. It's hard to expect a lot of work to have that much impact, at least as an actor, and the experience was certainly wonderful for me, and I'll miss it. ”
On May 17, US time, "Mad Men" will usher in the final episode. Prior to this, producer Matthew Wiener and lead actor Joe Hamm had a half-hour conversation with host Elvis Mitchell, revealing what it was like to be the creator at the end of such a long and fruitful work.
Joe Hamm and Matthew Wiener
Mtime: Why did you come up with Nancy Sinatra's You Only Live Twice as the soundtrack to the show?
<b>Matthew Wiener:</b> We had been listening to the song before the show started, and I thought I could put it at the end of the film. James Bond was influential in the 1960s and was an important cultural icon of the time. "007 Thunder Valley" was released in 1967, and "007 No" (1962) happened to be at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and there were so many interesting things about James Bond, but about the song "You Only Live Twice", I wanted to use it when the plot happened to be at that point in time, and it was really consistent with the emotions we wanted to convey through the show.
Mtime: Joe Hamm wasn't very famous before he took on the show, and after shooting scenes together for so many years, what surprised you the most about him as an actor?
<b>Matthew Wiener:</b> As a screenwriter, you often have to write a cumbersome script because you want everything in the play to be expressed clearly and perfectly. But when you write a line like, "Don, are you lonely?" Then add the description, "Don looks up at the other person," and once you see Joe Hamm on set expressing all the meaning you want to express with just a simple, quiet look, you'll understand that the next line you've written is no longer useful, and he can completely merge with the character.
Mtime: There are several details of Don's toothache in the play, and these details seem to be unremarkable, what kind of consideration did you have when you created it?
<b>Matthew Wiener:</b> We chose this detail because toothache is something that everyone can experience, and dental medicine has made little progress since then. In fact, it is a figurative embodiment of the pain, anxiety and other emotions in Tang's life. Many of us also don't like going to the dentist and choose to avoid it, and Don does what he does for many things in life.
Joe Hamm answers questions
Mtime: Mad Men is coming to an end, how do you feel?
<b>Joe Hamm:</b> It's a little hard to accept, it's like going to high school, every year there are long vacations, we will do our own things during the holidays, and we will have a good time, but we will always say to each other, "See you next year." But this time, there is no "next year". So even though we've finished the last season, we still feel a huge loss in our hearts when they air.
Mtime: Is it possible for Mad Men to return in the future as a movie or spin-off?
<b>Joe Hamm:</b> I've always tried to avoid words like "definitely" or "never." I think the show has reached a stage where it is suitable for a break, and most of the clues in the play have a satisfactory ending. But it's all up to Matthew, who is the creator of the show.
In addition, under the auspices of Elvis Mitchell, the famous fashion designer Jenny Bryant also had a discussion with 15-year-old Kieran Sipka (played by Don's daughter Sally Draper) about the play "Mad Men":
Kiran Sipka and Jenny Bryant
Mtime: There is an episode in the play, Don won an award, the costumes of the characters present can be said to be very exquisite, is it challenging to design these costumes?
<b>Jenny Bryant:</b> There were so many characters in that episode that there were countless characters at various receptions, dances, and other events. I love this episode, there's a scene where Sally goes shopping with Megan's mother and daughter, and you can see three generations of women standing together, Megan's mom is dressed more classically and more elegantly, and Megan is more modern. I've always been in favor of a design in the show where Megan would have a big impact on what Sally dressed, so the scene meant that time flies, and Sally grew up a little too fast for Don. All the stories and vignettes in the play have characters dressed to help show them.
Mtime: Kieran, the play sometimes highlights a few of your emotionally strong actions, such as the emotional phone call you made, is it difficult to shoot such a scene?
<b>Kiran Shipka:</b> Absolutely. When you shoot a phone call scene, there will be a person who talks to you, usually this person is not the actor you played against, so you can only use your imagination as much as possible to make up for it. It's a real challenge, and a lot of times this conversation is one-sided and you're just talking into the air.
Sister Flowers answers questions
Mtime: What do you think of the relationship between Sally and her neighbor Glenn Bishop (played by Matthew Wiener's son Marten Wiener)?
<b>Kiran Shipka:</b> Over time, Sally gradually lost trust in adults, and she treated adults as liars and disgusted with what they did. Glenn was her only friend, the only one she could trust and speak from her heart. So I feel like their relationship has always been special and I really like the friendship between them.
Mtime: What was the inspiration for the costumes you designed for the show?
Kiran Sipka and Jenny Bryant with the host
Jenny Bryant: For me as a costume designer, work always starts with a script. I can learn a lot about the characters from what they say, and the conversations with Matthew Wiener have helped me a lot, and he knows these characters better than we do. From this point of view, I went back to collecting information about that era: watching old movies, flipping through old magazines, old newspapers, looking at old photographs, and so on. All of this helped me get into the era in which the character was. For Don, I always saw him as a somewhat mysterious person, and the same was true for himself, for his family, for the women around him. I would think of his suit as his armor. That's why I especially like to design suits for him in different shades of color, and I see his dress as a way for him to escape the world. Overall, I wanted his costumes to be less colorful and masculine at the same time. When designing costumes for Mad Men, the first old movie that inspired me was North by Northwest, and I loved Gary Grant so much that his taste in dress was extraordinary and very eye-catching. Because North by Northwest was released in 1959 and the mad men story began in 1960, there are many similarities between the two in terms of fashion taste and clothing design style.
Mtime: How did the change in the two scenes in The play, New York and Los Angeles, affect your work?
<b>Jenny Bryant:</b> I spoke to Matthew Wiener deeply, and he wanted California to be a place of freedom for Don. My approach is to change the color of his outfit slightly to make sure he looks more relaxed from what he wears. It's a very interesting exploration.
Note: Some of the images are from WireImage and Film Independent