John Slattery

I think I gravitate towards people who express themselves in a simple and funny way.

When I was coming up, everybody wanted to be Tom Hanks. There was always Robert De Niro and Al Pacino - they were the heavily dramatic stuff. I always had a foot in both camps. The hardest thing was to resist the advice to be like someone else. It took me a while to figure that out.

I've never directed anything before 'Mad Men,' so I don't feel I have any advice for the other directors.

You put a movie star or a bunch of movie stars in a movie, it doesn't mean people are gonna go see it. It's been proven time and time again.

Let's face it, making movies is all risk. Most of the time, batting average-wise, the reward does not outweigh the risk.

Viewers can hate a character and at the same time can't take their eyes off of him.

As an actor, you see a sliver of how the show is made, but to see the actual writing process and the re-writing process and the casting process and art direction and set design - all of this is happening in a very intense period.