[IMG:L]Between playing Gabrielle Solis’s politician lover on Desperate Housewives and a 1960s ad man on AMC’s original series Mad Men, John Slattery must have enough free suits to last him a whole year of weddings and bar mitzvahs (he even wore a suit to speak to reporters, which if you’ve met reporters, is not actually necessary). Fans of the silver haired hunk can enjoy a double dose of his powerful men when he returns to Desperate immediately following his run on Mad Men.
AMC’s edgy new series casts Slattery as Roger Sterling, the boss of Madison Avenue ad firm Sterling Cooper. Before the politically correct movement or even feminism, the power players made no bones of hitting on secretaries and racially profiling their clients. Sterling is a married man, and his TV wife is played by the real Mrs. Slattery, Talia Balsam.
Hollywood.com: So what’s with all the guys in suits?
John Slattery: No kidding, right? I want to play a guy in a dress. That’s all I want, if you’re out there, casting people. I don’t know, I guess people think of me as a guy in a suit. Not a particularly nice guy in a suit. That’s good.
HW: Is it a thrill to play these powerful men?
JS: Focusing on this show, because I just think it’s so interestingly written and complicated. It’s just really fun to play someone that goes places you don’t expect, that you don’t already know. Most jobs, you go, “Okay, this is a guy that’s gonna do this and he’ll probably end up doing that and he’ll probably piss somebody off by doing that.” This thing goes places that I never expected and it’s a total enjoyment to play it. And I never feel that way.
HW: Compared to Desperate Housewives, Mad Men must have more male energy on the set…
JS: What I will say about the differences in those two jobs is that I was in on the ground floor of this, and I went in wanting to play Don Draper but smartly they hired Jon Hamm before I’d gone in and that was explained to me. They said, “This is the part we want you to play and this is why and trust me, this guy is going to go places that you never expected.” And he’s been at least as good as his promise. But being in on the ground floor of something, you start out, you take a flyer. You never know what’s going to happen. Especially in a television series because you get, “Well, he’s the boss. This is the advertising firm and this is what it is.” It could turn out to be garbage. A couple of weeks into this thing or a short time into this, you could see, you could feel it. Everybody looking up and saying, “Am I crazy or is this really good?” It’s a rare feeling.
HW: Is there something about you that lends itself to the ‘60s era?
JS: I guess I like the period. I like the language. I feel like I’m pretty good with language and Matt [Weiner] writes language and the suits and all these sort of accoutrements, you escape into it. It’s like a mask or something. You get to hide behind all that stuff, the language, the costumes, the period, the smoking, the drinking. It just helps you become someone other than yourself.
HW: Do you have smoking and drinking habits now, thanks to your character?
JS: No. I used to smoke like crazy and I had to quit. They don’t allow real smoking, cigarettes. It’s cut up rose petals or something and they taste like shit. So far, my smoking jones has not returned.
HW: Had you ever worked with your wife before?
JS: Never worked together before. It was a little weird. It was great, though. She’s been acting since she was 16 years old and she comes from a family of actors, so she knows her way around a set. And in the first scene we did, we were on a banquette. You’re doing a scene and I was saying something and she was disagreeing with me but we weren’t really looking at each other. She was talking to January [Jones] and I was talking to Jon [Hamm] telling some story and she’s like, “Oh please, don’t pay any attention to him.” We realized we got out of the scene, we weren’t even talking to each other. But we’ve done scenes since then that were really emotional. It was actually great to see someone you know walk in a room and you have to be emotional. There are so many feelings you feel about somebody that it actually was easier than it would be if just some stranger walked in.
HW: Are you pissed at Tony Parker for stealing Eva Longoria from you?
JS: I’m furious! I never met the guy. I used to be a Celtics fan and they’ve kind of fallen on hard times. So the Red Sox is my soul focus.
HW: Aw, don’t give up on the Celtics!
JS: No, I’m not. I always think they could have gotten the top draft choice. Anyway, I watched as a result of Eva keeping me up on the team. I started to watch the playoffs. Man, he is something else. I’d like to meet him. I hope I get to meet him.
HW: So you’ll be back on Desperate Housewives?
JS: Yeah, this thing started the day Desperate ended. I ended Friday and I was supposed to start Monday but I think I got pushed a couple days. It’s conveniently been situated so that I can do both. This actually happened before Desperate came along and when I realized I could do both, that’s when I sort of signed on to Desperate Housewives…It’s been great. It’s a lot of fun. They’re very nice people. I know there’s sort of news of sturm und drang but it runs like a clock. And Eva couldn’t be more fun to work with. She’s great.
HW: Why do you think Gabrielle attracts these dominant men?
JS: You know, she’s pretty hard to dominate, though. She might attract men who think they’re dominant but she tells them what’s up.
HW: You’ve been acting over 20 years and are just now emerging as an actor audiences recognize by name. Do you feel like you’ve paid your dues and now you’re over the hump?
JS: I feel like I’ve made some choices that probably weren’t the obvious choice. I could have done more television. I could have done less theater. I could have made choices of movies I didn’t think were as interesting but probably would have been more successful. You do the parts, at least I always thought, you do the parts as an actor that you have a connection with. Sometimes they’re going to get seen and favorably criticized and sometimes they’re not, so I’m happy. I work. I’m lucky. I work a lot and I get to do good things. James Mason said, “You do one for the soul, one for the travel and one for the wallet.”
