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John Slattery Explains January Jones, Mad Men’s Many Bobby Drapers

NEW YORK - MARCH 12: Actor John Slattery and his wife actress Talia Balsam attend The Roundabout Theatre 2012 Spring Gala
NEW YORK - MARCH 12: Actor John Slattery and his wife actress Talia Balsam attend The Roundabout Theatre 2012 Spring Gala “From Screen to Stage” dinner and auction at the Hammerstein Ballroom on March 12, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images) Photo: Amy Sussman/2012 Getty Images

January Jones defender John Slattery is at it again, revisiting our favorite Mad Men spat between Bobby and Betty Draper. Over the summer, 11-year-old Jared Gilmore left MM for Once Upon a Time, and he warned whoever his replacement would be that Jones was “not as approachable” as the rest of the cast. (Fighting words! Sort of.) At the time, Slattery suggested Gilmore was overreacting a little, and that Jones is actually a “sweetheart” whose bitchy character might have confused the young performer. “She plays a formidable character, she’s not mother of the year, she has a hard relationship with that child and she’s horrible to him,” Slattery now tells Shortlist. “It’s remarkable to watch her, actually. You look at her and think: this is an actual person, in this moment, going through all this. She becomes the part. That poor fucking kid, I’m not surprised she scared the hell out of him. She’d scare the hell out of me,” he says. Luckily, this Jones issue seems self-contained. “I don’t think she is misunderstood by anyone else but that one kid,” Slattery says. “Coincidentally, that kid doesn’t play Bobby Draper any more. Not because of what he said, but because … well, for other reasons. They’ve had about five Bobby Drapers and they can’t seem to find one who doesn’t look straight into the lens.”

John Slattery Explains Mad Men’s Bobby Drapers