Mad Men creator to Jake Tapper: “I am going to try to use the machinery of my show to give a satisfying ending”
Ahead of Sunday’s season six premiere, Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner sat down with CNN’s Jake Tapper for an interview that aired today on The Lead with Jake Tapper. A transcript from the interview is after the jump.
TRANSCRIPT:
TAPPER [VOICE OVER]: ITS BEEN A LONG TEN MONTHS SINCE WE LEFT DON DRAPER AT THE BAR. . . BUT THIS SUNDAY, MILLIONS WILL RETURN TO the offices of Sterling Cooper Draper Price FOR THE SEASON SIX PREMIERE of mad men ON AMC. SERIES CREATOR MATTHEW WEINER INVITED US TO COME EARLY.
JAKE TAPPER: So we’re sitting here in Don Draper’s office. And it is unbelievably detailed. The whole set, it’s incredible.
MATTHEW WEINER: Yeah, we’ve tried.
TAPPER [VOICE OVER]: MORE THAN TRIED, THE TEAM BEHIND MAD MEN meticulously RESEARCHES EVERY VINTAGE DETAIL OF DON DRAPER’S ENVIRONMENT. IT CAN GET A LITTLE CRAZY
JAKE TAPPER: They actually have a job sheet…. why is this necessary?
WIENER: For me, it goes back to the idea of empty suitcases. Like growing up and watching people on TV and movies, actors, pick up suitcases to leave and seeing that they were empty, and I always thought like the actors can tell they’re empty. And they know they’re not going anywhere. And maybe because I’m not an actor and I don’t know how they use their imagination to create three dimensional space, I wanted the set to be detailed always.
TAPPER [VOICE OVER]: THE DETAILS MATTER. SINCE IT PREMIERED IN 2007, MAD MEN HAS RECEIVED 15 EMMY AWARDS AND 4 GOLDEN GLOBES. And it changed the game for AMC, paving the way for the high-brow scripted series that are now taking over cable tv.
MATTHEW WEINER: I am — I feel very lucky to be working in television right now. There is none of it without “The Sopranos.” It really was both the creative and the business model. And, in fact, AMC was very consciously trying to recreate that business Model when they bought “Madmen.” I mean, you know, it felt like an HBO show to everyone but HBO actually.
JAKE TAPPER: Do you — has HBO ever expressed regret for passing on the show?
MATTHEW WEINER: Yes, yes, they did.
JAKE TAPPER: They did?
MATTHEW WEINER: They did.
TAPPER [VOICE OVER]: AND WHAT A STORY THEY’VE MISSED. HEAVY DRINKING. HEAVY PETTING. AND HEAVY DRAMA HAVE KEPT VIEWERS TUNED IN TO A BYGONE ERA OF BOYS CLUBS.
JAKE TAPPER: Last season, we saw some real changes with the women characters.
MATTHEW WEINER: Yeah.
JAKE TAPPER: Joan prostituted herself.
MATTHEW WEINER: Yes. Yes… I don’t know if it was anymore prostituting yourself, than Pete telling American Airlines that his father had died on that plane. I mean, you know, I don’t want to take away at all what Joan did. It’s a tough thing to do. And it was a story that was based on reality.
JAKE TAPPER: How worried or concerned or aware are you when you’re writing for your women characters about them, not just being Joan and Megan and Peggy, but them being symbolic of women in general?
MATTHEW WEINER: That’s a really good question. I don’t want the characters to ever be symbolic in general. Did women have it harder? Yes. Were there were women pioneers? Yes. Were there are exceptions to every rule? Yes. How did someone succeed in that world? I think the show resonates because things are not that different. I don’t want to get a history lesson. I want people to know that these people could be their mothers.
TAPPER [VOICE OVER]: BUT THE DARK HEART OF MAD MEN IS MYSTERIOUS, WOMANIZING, ADMAN DON DRAPER
JAKE TAPPER: The last line from last season is ‘are you alone?’ Is he alone? Is Don Draper alone? Is this what the show is about?
MATTHEW WEINER: I think it’s a big part of his life, yeah. And the ambiguity of that statement after we’ve seen this man having found love and seemingly less alone, I think, you know, there’s an existential quality to him as a hero.
TAPPER [VOICE OVER]: An existential quality that will soon enough come to an end
JAKE TAPPER: So this is going to be the second to last season?
MATTHEW WEINER: Yes.
JAKE TAPPER: Why? It’s going well. I don’t, you know, it doesn’t really seem any compelling reason to end it any time soon for me anyway.
MATTHEW WEINER: I….first of all, it’s exhausting. I need a break. But the reality of it is is that the show has a life span. It is mortal. And it — you really want to end it before you’ve exceeded the ability to tell a story.
TAPPER [VOICE OVER]: WEINER HAS THOUGHT A LOT ABOUT ENDINGS… INCLUDING THE FINALE OF THE SOPRANOS, A SHOW HE USED TO WRITE FOR. In which viewers were kept in the dark, literally, as to whether the family got whacked
MATTHEW WEINER: To me, it’s — it was so provocative and such a great model of how to —
JAKE TAPPER: I thought my power went out. Please tell me you’re not going to end “Mad Men” the way that “The Sopranos” ended.
MATTHEW WEINER: If I had thought of it, I would, but it’s been done. So I will not.
JAKE TAPPER: Your embrace of ambiguity is starting to worry me. I don’t need to know how Don Draper dies, but if the show is about this existential question, am I alone, can I ever be happy, those questions, there needs to be like a hint at the end about —
MATTHEW WEINER: I am going to try —
JAKE TAPPER: Right.
MATTHEW WEINER: — to use the machinery of my show to give a satisfying ending.
JAKE TAPPER: I’ve just devoted a lot of time to this.
MATTHEW WEINER: The idea that people wouldn’t like it would bother me.
JAKE TAPPER: OK.
MATTHEW WEINER: If people had their way, the first season, Joan and Peggy would be living together. Joan would have given Peggy a makeover. They’d be best friends. And you’d be bored. Don’t give anybody too much of anything, because you’ll get bored of it.
JAKE TAPPER: Yeah.
MATTHEW WEINER: Leave them wanting more
TAPPER [VOICE OVER]: This Sunday, the mad men premierE is 2 hours long, weiner calls it a movie to whet the fan’s appetites
MATTHEW WEINER: There is a sense that someone like Don and seeing the world through Don’s eyes, who is now 40, is going to become out of touch. And it’s really the story for all of the characters. They’re all sort of moving towards some kind of hopefully reconciliation with who they are, but there’s quite a fire to walk through.
JAKE TAPPER: Well, I can’t wait.
MATTHEW WEINER: Does that sound juicy?
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