MONDO EXTRAS

CB: Was there anything about the period you were surprised to learn, or that was especially interesting for you?

RS: Yeah, I mean…I think I was taken aback by the same thing that the viewers seem to be taken aback by, which is the rampant…freedom, I guess? The freedoms of drinking and smoking at work, or saying completely horrible things to whoever you want with no repercussions, and doing horrible things to people with no repercussions. I don't…I don't believe that's how every person in 1960 was, but I do believe that there were offices not unlike Sterling Cooper, where the people were loose of morals and with vice and freedoms.

CB: So in the pilot, one of the theories advanced is that society as a whole has a death wish, and that's used as a possible explanation for the mass appeal of smoking. And that seems like one of the points that today could still hold up -- tons of people still smoke.

RS: Oh, sure.

CB: Now do you think there are other examples of the show's messages still being applicable today? Or do you see it as more of a period piece?

RS: Oh, I think it's…I mean, it's a period piece in the way it takes place then, but I think it's so clearly being written in 2007, you know what I mean?

CB: Yeah.

RS: I feel like it's not, this show -- even, let's say, just for a kick, that it were a true story, and every character in the show was exactly how they are, I think if it were written in 1960, it would be so different, you know what I mean? The feel of it wouldn't even be anything like it. So I think that there are…there are lessons, sort of -- I mean, I don't feel like it's necessarily meant to teach any lessons, but I do feel like there are definitely, you know, things like, "When you're mean to women, you look like a jerk." [both laugh] You know, et cetera. I mean, there's more to it, but I think that…it's a drama, you know? And I think it's about lying for a living, and how people pay for those lies, and how the line between their professional lives and their personal lives is so blurred that you can't even make a distinction.

CB: So let's talk some about Harry. At the beginning of the season, I think it's fair to say that he was lumped in as one of the fellas.