Kiernan Shipka Says ‘Mad Men’ Crew ‘Protected’ Her ‘Innocence’

Almost 10 years after her run as Sally Draper ended, Kiernan Shipka has taken a new look at the character.

The Mad Men alum recently reflected on how the AMC show’s cast and crew “were so protective of me” while filming the ’60s-set series, which ran for seven seasons from 2007 to 2015.

Although she “definitely had context” for what she was reacting to, Shipka explained on Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s Dinner is on me podcast that she was ultimately protected from some of the show’s more risque material.

“They were so protective of me and my kind of innocence and didn’t expose me to things that, you know, were sensitive or more adult,” Shipka said. “I always knew what I was reacting to. Like I always knew what (my character) was getting into. I just didn’t need to see it over and over again.”

She continued: “I think at a certain point I was like, ‘Guys, I know what this is.’ Like I’m fine. I’m fine.’ But I really like, admire and respect the way they handled it. But I think in my head I probably thought, ‘I’m mature. I’m an adult. I know what’s going on here. Like, it’s fine, guys.”

Since Shipka was 7, when Mad Men began, she was rarely allowed to watch the episodes when they originally aired. But the actress noted that she had the chance to binge the entire series during the COVID-19 pandemic, which gave her a new perspective on the character.

“I saw (Sally) go through things that at the time (during filming) I felt in a really natural way. But now, as a kind of adult, I can psychoanalyze and say, ‘Oh, no, she was grieving there and playing out.’ And at that point, I think I understood her as much as she understood herself,” she explained. “And as I get older, I understand her in a way that I hope she, you know, would understand himself a day of therapy.

“And there’s something really wild about seeing that because it was like, it wasn’t that I didn’t know what was going on, but I didn’t know what was going on, that we don’t know what was going on. with us for later too,” added Shipka.

Created by Matthew Weiner, Mad Men follows New York advertiser Don Draper (Jon Hamm) as he juggles his work life at a Madison Avenue agency, as well as his family life with wife Betty (January Jones) and their children, plus several extramarital affairs. The series received 16 Emmy Awards during its run.