Gladis Revels In Success Of 'Mad Men'
Roger Catlin - Hartford Courant
Aug 12, 2008
Other than maybe Peggy, the pregnant secretary turned junior copywriter last season who is now not pregnant (and not giving hints on how it all turned out), the biggest outward change among the ensemble cast of American Movie Classics' " Mad Men" might be Paul's face.
The ad man with literary and bohemian tastes now sports a neat beard.
"I grew it for a play I did in New York," says Michael Gladis, the Farmington native who plays Paul Kinsey.
It was a production called "The Main(e) Play" at the off-Broadway Lion Theatre.
"I came out for the SAG Awards, and the last thing Matthew Weiner [the show's creator] told me was, 'Don't shave until I tell you otherwise,'" Gladis says.
So his Paul is still sporting the beard -- which seems to fit just fine with his continued literary ambition at the office -- as well as with a scarf and airs hosting a bohemian party in the new season's second episode.
"I never realized how much work a beard is," Gladis said at the Los Angeles Center Studios, where "Mad Men" is shot. "I keep touching myself up to keep from becoming a total Grizzly Adams."
As he enters the second season (Sundays at 10 p.m. on AMC), the Connecticut native says the scripts so far have "met the bar of the first season, if not surpassed it. The first season was meant to familiarize us with everyone; the second season you go deeper."
In his character's case, "Paul's dangerously a little more confident in his position, though he develops more of a bohemian sense."
At the rate he's going, Paul might move out to L.A. and write for television by the time the 1960s turn to 1970s.
For now, the beard "portends of times to come," he says. "And within the confines of Sterling Cooper [ad agency], he rides the changes of the '60s as much as any of these guys do."
Gladis recently moved to Los Angeles from New York, confident that a show that picked up the most Emmy nominations of any drama series and is being pushed by a blockbuster-size $25 million promotional budget can't go wrong.
"I couldn't have dreamed it better," Gladis says of show's "Mad Men" success. "I couldn't be happier."
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Copyright 2008 by Hartford Courant
