Making a mark on Mad Men

PAUL KALINA

As fans of Mad Men know, underestimating the characters of the award-winning retro drama is a mistake.

And none more so than Peggy Olson.

On the eve of the critically lauded show's fifth season premiere in New Zealand, actress Elisabeth Moss recalls her first impressions of her character were of a naive, inexperienced, shy, bumbling and homely 20-year-old.

Peggy was the quintessential ingenue. Then, unexpectedly at the end of the first episode, she bedded her work colleague Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser). She became pregnant, eventually giving the child up for adoption.

"I think that's held through for the past five seasons," Moss says. "The characters are presented in ways that you think something's going to happen in a certain way and they end up surprising you."

Promoted from Don Draper's (Jon Hamm) secretary to copywriter, Peggy is the only female in the company's creative department, eventually rising to second-in-command on the basis of several successful pitches. She is repulsed by the culture of her hard-drinking, womanising bosses and resents being the butt of their insults and practical jokes.

One of the slow-burning storylines is the relationship between Peggy and Don.

While so far it's platonic, it's clear that the two have a great deal of love and respect for each other. And this, Moss says, is how it should remain.

"The titillating question of `Will they, won't they?' is interesting and, hey, if it keeps people watching ... the tension and connection that is not sexual is what makes it so interesting. When you think about it, how many friends does Don have, real friends who know him, know his real past, know his faults and love and accept him with those faults?

"That friendship is something he has with no-one other than Peggy. Similarly, I don't think Peggy has any real friends other than Don. There's nothing wrong with them sleeping together, it's just a matter of their relationship as it is so interesting and complicated."

Denial is another big part of Peggy's psychological makeup. How else does one explain Peggy being unaware she was pregnant?

"It's difficult to look back and think how could that happen," Moss says. "As women we're so aware of our bodies. The way [creator] Matt [Weiner] explained it to me, she has a deep, deep psychological disconnection from her body and her femininity.

"Peggy grew up in this very strict Catholic household, has probably never had a conversation about being a woman with her mother. It's not that she didn't know that sex gets you pregnant. I think there's a deep psychological disconnection and that whole season one she's constantly being abused verbally, or being come onto, or sexually harassed in that office. So she begins to socially disengage from being a woman and I think that denial is so powerful and severe she wants nothing to do with her body. Denial is a powerful thing."

The characters' much-discussed wardrobes are a big part of the storytelling. In Peggy's case, season four marked her coming-out, but the new season is Moss' favourite.

"What's happened in season five is a real kind of telling of her story through the clothes, so it's less about looking cute or glamorous or wearing the best dress and the best headband, and more about what a woman at that time and in her position would wear to the office. We call it her working-bee look. So much of her story this year is about work."

What: Mad Men
When: Saturday, 8.30pm
Where: SoHo

-The Age