I wanted to ask you about a couple of Pete’s iconically embarrassing moments. Like, for example, when he falls down the stairs in front of everyone. Did you enjoy playing that?
I think it was a bit cathartic for me. I relate to Pete in that way. I’m definitely prone to dropping the tray of champagne flutes, and right at the moment when I should not. It’s an art form to be able to put yourself in an ideal position, and then just stumble. Your first step out of the dance floor, and you just slip and fall on your ass. In a lot of ways, that was Pete Campbell. He was eager, and his eagerness led to haste. You know, he’s so excited for whatever it might be that he’ll rush in without having a fully formed idea or a plan for what comes after that. I don’t know how to describe it, but I do relate to it, and I think a lot of us do.
And then there’s the Lane Pryce fight. It’s hilarious and also heartbreaking. The moment in the elevator with Don afterwards is just so sad, when he says “I have nothing”. Don gives him zero compassion.
Yeah, because Don relates to him on that. I mean, we all do, right? Like, none of us really have anything, we’re all just trying to fill this spot inside of us with things and work and people. It’s an inevitable truth about the human condition, that there’s no escape from this hollow feeling deep inside. Don Draper definitely knows that, and I think Don feels uncomfortable when he relates to Pete.
Was it fun shooting the fight itself?
I have a lot of fun doing that sort of physical acting, so it was a blast for me. Jared [Harris, who plays Lane Pryce] is, if not, the best, one of the best people I’ve ever met in this industry, just a fabulous person with a really great outlook, and, of course, an amazing actor. He made me a poster afterwards of me and him like this [Kartheiser puts his dukes up], like an announcement for a boxing tournament. So I think we both had fun with it.
The line in the elevator that really gets to me is like, “We’re at work. We’re meant to be friends”. That is tragic because the people he’s with there—he isn’t getting the respect or consideration that he should be from people he’s worked with for half a decade.
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