Q&A - Rosemarie DeWitt (Midge Daniels)
Rosemarie DeWitt plays Midge, Don Draper's bohemian mistress. In an AMCtv.com interview, the granddaughter of boxing champ James Braddock (a.k.a. Cinderella Man) discusses what makes her character unique.
Q: Matt Weiner says you pulled off Midge's air of independence and sexual openness without making her seem like a prostitute. What's your secret?
A: I don't know actually. It's a nice compliment from Matt. I think maybe I just didn't see her need for Don or her sexuality as anything that seemed inappropriate. In her world, it was just like another expression of herself. And I think she really liked Don. That's why I don't think it came across as slutty and didn't cross over into any kind of prostitute realm.
Q: With her clothes and her friends and her sexual openness, do you think Midge is a person who could fit in today?
A: Matt had suggested I read this book, it's called Memoirs of a Beatnik. It was one of the only pieces of early beatnik literature written by a woman. In a weird way, the author and a lot of the people in her story seemed a lot more modern than even we are today. We think we're so contemporary, but I think there was a backlash after the '60s and then we got puritanical again about sex and expression. Maybe it was just a time where I think people were opening up more to humanity -- not worried about labels and stereotypes and societal norms. Midge is trying to embrace it.
Q: How is Mad Men different from other roles you've done?
A: It was definitely a great, safe environment in which to work because Matt has such a vision for the show. Especially in TV, I think it's so comforting to go to work and know that somebody knows what it is because there are a lot of cooks in the kitchen in TV. But one of the things I've really admired about this whole process is that he knew who all these characters were. We didn't, but it didn't matter because he was creating this world and it was so rich and full. You put the costumes on and you walked on the set and the writing's so strong and so beautiful that you just knew that it was going to work.
Q: You did the commentary for "Ladies Room" on the show's DVD. Have you ever done DVD commentary before?
A: No, and it was fun. Me, personally, I always find it hard to talk about the stuff after you do it. It's easier for me to actually just go do it. It was interesting and I'm sure it was purposeful to put January (Jones) and me in the commentary together, but it was strange because we hadn't worked together. We've never acted together on the show, so it felt very polite, as it would be if these two women came into contact. If I were doing it with Jon (Hamm), we could joke about whatever was challenging to shoot that day.
How does Midge meet Don? I missed that aspect of the show. I realize she is 'artsy' in her lifestyle? They just don't seem to run in the same circles and though they have widely divergent lifestyles, he sees her more an equal than other women in his life.
I don't get the Don-Midge attraction at all. She is not attractive and seems physically slovenly, as does her apartment. Don's slumming with her, except she is intelligent and not at all needy (in sharp contrast to his squeeky clean but dim wife). However, I am not a man, I can't judge why a man like Don would find Midge attractive. I also question why Midge would be attracted to the very buttoned-down, conventional, establishment Don - even though he is gorgeous.
Don and Midge go back for at least five years (mention of a previous tobacco controversy in the first(?) episode). They probably met when he was new at S-C and she was doing some art work for them. Perhaps even when he was working for the furrier. She might even have worked in the S-C Art Department and then went out on her own. Both young and unattached (relatively) a few drinks and then back to her place.
She only knows him as Don Draper, advertising man. A good lay who doesn't make demands even if he does notice other people in her life (the giver of the portable TV and Dude.) She knows he's married but that suits her lifestyle.
Don doesn't consider himself slumming when he goes to her place. She's fun, comfortable and won't make demands of him. We don't know her background but it was probably better than his life on the farm. He may have secrets from her but he's totally comfortable in her presence. This doesn't include when they're with other people. She's his pressure valve - he comes to her place all stressed and then shifts gears. Peggy noticed that he returned to the office all greasy and calm.
As far as Midge not being good looking, he's got that at home. Neither Rachel nor Midge are going to win any beauty contests. But both are fascinating to him for different reasons.
I do recall Peggy's "greasy and calm" comment. That's kind of gross. He gets all sweated up and smells from sex in an unairconditioned studio apt., and doesn't even rinse off before returning to work. Remember the wife, who finally confesses to the psychiatrist that she knows Don is unfaithful, mentioning he comes home with the smell of perfume "and worse" - clearly she means the smell of another woman. That would be enough to drive any wife nuts, who didn't feel powerful enough to confront the adulterous husband. In the few foreplay scenes with Don and Betty, she seems emotionally needy but not sexually desirous of Don. He often rebuffs her mild attempts to initiate sex, which is his way of maintaining his dominance in the relationship. However, he welcomes the strenuous overtures of his concubines. Don practices the "madonna or whore" double standard, with his poor wife as the "good" madonna who's not supposed to like sex, and the mistresses as the "whores'" who are expected to be insatiable. (I use "madonna" in the classical sense, not in the sense of the pop singer madonna, who is the opposite of virginal!).