'Mad Men' Q&A: Jessica Paré on Megan's Big Payday, Dealing With Creeps, and Her Reaction to Megan Haters

This week’s Mad Men was a virtual parade of Don’s former and current lovers, led by his soon-to-be ex-wife Megan (Jessica Paré), who flew in from California to finalize her divorce from Don — and to call him “an aging, sloppy, selfish liar” while she was at it. (And she got a cool $1 million check from Don for her trouble, so that was certainly worth a cross-country flight.)

We got on the phone with Paré to discuss this final chapter (we think?) in Megan and Don’s not-so-storybook romance, and when she thinks things actually started to go sour for the two of them. (Hint: It was way back in Season 5.) Plus, we ask her about having lunch with that creep Harry Crane, the vocal contingent of Mad Men fans who can’t stand Megan, and the exact moment she knew Megan wasn’t going to be just a secretary.

Megan really unloaded on Don in that final scene. It felt like that anger had been building up in her for a while.
Yeah, I think the last time that we saw Don and Megan speaking to one another [in Season 7’s “Waterloo”], it was this sad, sort of loving acknowledgement that their relationship is probably over. But I think we’ve all been through breakups, and that’s kind of the way it goes, right? Like, upon reflection, you have different things coloring your feelings about that person. And it tends to be not for the better. [Laughs.] Although, you know, I think it undergoes many evolutions — your feelings about an ex. So who knows, after the million dollars, how she feels? That might take the sting out of it. [Laughs.]

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Yeah, she took the million-dollar check from Don — but was that really what she wanted from him? Or was she looking for some kind of emotional closure, too?
My feeling is that she’s so ready to move forward. She’s so ready to just put this behind her. She’s an optimist, you know? She’s a positive woman. She has a lot of joie de vivre, and a lot of get-up-and-go, and is sort of languishing in this place where she’s speaking to her lawyer who’s speaking to his lawyer who’s speaking to him, you know?

It’s too fraught; it’s too dark for her. She’s ready to put it in the past and step into the light. So when he comes in and offers her a cigarette and she says, “I don’t want anything of yours”… it’s just “sign the papers, let’s get through this,” you know?

So when do you think the real separation between Don and Megan happened? Was it when he decided not to move to California, at the end of Season 6?
Well, in a lot of ways, I think, especially for him, it started when Megan decides to go back to acting and give up copywriting [in Season 5’s “Lady Lazarus”]. They were like a dream team. And she gives it up because it’s not her passion. It’s not enough for her. I think that was a little bit of a rejection for him. That’s kind of where the rift begins between them. I don’t think she necessarily understands that. But that’s my take on it, as a watcher of the show.

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And as her marriage is dissolving, her parents’ marriage is crumbling, too. So is Megan just completely disillusioned about love at this point?
[Laughs.] I don’t know. I believe in her optimism. I think she’ll bounce back. She’s also pretty realistic about a lot of things in her life. Her parents have never had a very healthy relationship, I don’t think. She talked about her father’s latest student, or whatever. So I think she has a remarkable amount of positivity, given that her parents’ relationship is so toxic. But who knows? We’ll have to see. She’s definitely embittered after this relationship, and the way it’s breaking apart. But like I said, maybe there’s another evolution for her.

She had that awkward lunch with Harry Crane… but she knew what a creep he was going into it. So why have lunch with him at all?
This is hilarious: Women have to deal with creeps all the f–king time. We deal with creeps on a daily goddamn basis. So do men, I’m sure. But he can help her, so of course she’s going to go to him for help. He helps her friends. She’s no dupe for walking into this. Does she think he’s going to say, “I have a room upstairs”? No. But that’s not her fault. She’s the victim here! He’s the creep! [Laughs.] I mean, she knows that he’s a sleaze bag, but I think he surpasses her expectations.

There are Mad Men fans out there who are not necessarily fans of Megan. Do you ever find yourself feeling a bit defensive about your character?
You know, to be honest, I don’t read any of that stuff. I think I have to be really careful, just for my own fragile actor’s psyche. I don’t begrudge anyone their opinion. I think this is a show that’s much better viewed unspoiled by anyone’s lens. I think that people’s reaction to the character tell me way more about the person than they tell me about the show, you know?

There’s a lot of people who want to see Don and Betty back together. And I understand that. On some level, I would like to see them get back together — as a viewer, obviously, not as Megan. Although I don’t know, maybe at this point, Megan would be like, “Fine. Do whatever.” [Laughs.] But I have so many opinions and feelings about other people on other shows, and those are my own, and I have every right to them. So I have to allow people to have the right to their feelings, too. But I don’t have to read them. [Laughs.]

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You joined the cast back in Season 4 as a receptionist, kind of a background character. Did you have any sense of the huge arc Megan would eventually have on the show?
I had no idea, no. There wasn’t much on the page for the character when I first auditioned. A receptionist, I think. I’m not even sure I knew she was a receptionist until my second episode. Brunette, which I was, and am. So I was like, “Got it. Nailed this already.”

So I found out before the last episode of Season 4, “Tomorrowland,” because Ellen Freund, our prop woman, came in and said, “I don’t know how to do this without spoiling a plot point, and you can’t ask me any questions, but I need to measure your ring finger.” [Laughs.] I was very excited. It might as well have been Don Draper himself getting down on one knee.

But I was also like, “I don’t know what this means, and I’m not going to assume anything.” And then I got a call from [creator] Matt [Weiner], and he said the script is coming out, and this is what happens. And I was like, “So am I gonna be back next season?” And he was like, “I can’t tell you.” [Laughs.]

Mad Men airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on AMC.