Christina Hendricks is the atypical Hollywood leading lady. She’s a star who exudes glamour no matter how casual her attire. Striking red hair, statuesque and with curves in all of the right places, the Mad Men actress almost missed her calling when she started out as a model instead of an actress.
It was her brother’s friend who managed talent in Los Angeles who got her career started. He said he would represent her only if she got herself into an acting class.
Hendricks shared,” “He was really patient with me. So I just started studying. One year later I was watching some movie and I thought, ‘I can do that.’ So I called him up and said, ‘I’m ready.'”
She found herself in the feast or famine mode of gaining parts on ER and Without a Trace only to then head back to anonymity. When Mad Men came along, her manager wanted her to take the role, her agency did not.
“They said, ‘It’s a period piece, it’s never going to go anywhere. We need you to make money and this isn’t going to make money.’ They ended up dropping me,” said Hendricks.
Their move didn’t phase the 39-year-old AMC star. She took the role because she knew it was worth the gamble.
She wisely summed up, “I had been on several shows that were meant to be the big ones, that would go on for ever, and they didn’t. So there was no sure bet and I’d already taken a chance on them and I felt, why not do the one you’re in love with and take a chance on that?”
Hendricks has been nominated for an Emmy Award five times for her role as Joan in Mad Men. The results of her fifth Emmy nod will be announced on Aug. 25.
Via The Guardian
