Kiernan Shipka says working as child actor on 'Mad Men' was 'pretty intense'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Any fan of 'Mad Men' will remember Sally Draper from the series! The role of the eldest daughter of Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and Betty Draper (January Jones), Sally, was played by 23-year-old Kiernan Shipka. In an interview, Shipka, who was first cast for the role in 2007 at the age of seven, revealed that working on the series was "pretty intense."
The 'Chilling Adventures of Sabrina' actress starred in seven seasons of the series until the AMC period drama ended in 2015. At the special screening of her new HBO series 'White House Plumbers' last Monday, April 17, Shipka spoke to a global news outlet about her role in the series.
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Talking to Page Six, the ‘Mad Men’ alum said, “I’m surprised because I wasn’t really thinking it was heavy duty at the time.” After sharing that she was quite young to understand her role, the ‘Wildflower’ actress shared, “I didn’t know anything else,” before adding, “That’s what I did. But looking back, I go, ‘Yeah, well, that was really intense”
Indeed, the character she played had the opportunity to display a wide range of emotions as Sally witnessed the acrimonious divorce of Don Draper and Betty Draper in season three and received the news of Betty's terminal lung cancer in season seven.
However, she is very grateful for the opportunity that made her a star in her early years, as she said, “I got really lucky as a kid,” before adding, “Just to be trusted with the performance and not really doubted.”
The ‘Let it Snow’ star further continued, “And I think in turn, I just didn’t really doubt myself and I found my abilities in ways that I might not have if they were stifled or people tried to shape or shift them in some kind of way.” She was “thankful” to be on that set as she said, “They let me be on that set,” and later adding, “and I’m so thankful for that.”
'I’m not done with Sally'
Earlier in an interview to Entertainment Tonight in 2022, Shipka revealed her desire to reprise the iconic character as she said, “I’m not done with Sally”. Explaining her reason, she continued, “I don't think she’d be in New York. I think she’d do LA… But I’m not done with her at all.”
Shipka also accidentally met her former on-screen dad Hamn at an Oscars party. About the meeting, Shipka said, I always love seeing him,” she said of their latest encounter. “I’ve run into him so much lately. It’s so funny.”
Shipka, who is now 23, said it was, of course, "with a drink in my hand," adding, "It was a weird thing that we had to work through. But we're on the other end of it. We speak like adults now. It's great."
Shipka on her role at ‘White House Plumber’
‘White House Plumbers’ deals with “the true story of how Nixon's own political saboteurs and Watergate masterminds, E Howard Hunt and G Gordon Liddy, accidentally toppled the presidency they were trying to protect,” according to IMDb synopsis. Shipka played the role of the daughter of Hunt, one of the masterminds of the Watergate scandal. The ‘Riverdale’ actress revealed that she knew the “bare bones” of the scandal that toppled Nixon’s presidency but “I learned so much, delving in there. And learning about the execution and the characters behind the scandal was very surprising.”