Christina Hendricks is inevitably one of the most acclaimed actresses today, with her charismatic personality and truly remarkable acting prowess proving she’s worthy of every single ounce of the commendation she gets. Launched to extraordinary success with her breakthrough role in Mad Men, she has since scored quite a few credits to her name in some critically praised projects.
And yet, while the Jon Hamm-led series gave her the fame and boost she needed to lead a successful career, it also brought a lot of negative attention towards her and her female co-stars. To say the least, the series had people once again objectifying women’s bodies all the while proving that women still had to endure the same thing that was perfectly depicted in the TV series.
Christina Hendricks Comes Clean About the Negative Effects of Mad Men Fame
Although Christina Hendricks started her career back in the early 1990s as a model before transitioning to television by the late years of that decade and the early 2000s, her breakthrough didn’t come to her until she got cast as Joan Harris in Mad Men. And while she was lauded before it as well, this series had her riding new high tides of fame and success.
In an interview with The Guardian, the actress shared her confusion at it since this fame came 3-4 seasons into the series. Telling how “Men started dressing like Don Draper and Roger Sterling,” she said:
It took three to four seasons and then all of a sudden people wanted us [the female stars] on magazines. We were like: ‘This is strange — we’ve been doing this for a while.’
Little did she know the real reason behind it. As it turned out, Hendricks and her fellow co-actresses got so much attention randomly a few seasons into the show because of their physical appearance and the way they were portrayed in the series. Just like her character had to endure the objectification of women’s bodies in the show, the Good Girls actress had to deal with it in real life too.
As she continued to share in the interview with The Guardian:
There certainly was a time when we were very critically acclaimed, and getting a lot of attention for our very good work and our very hard work, and everyone just wanted to ask me about my bra again. There are only two sentences to say about a bra.
Needless to say, this was all very disappointing, but it also proved that Mad Men was actually anything but misogynistic, as some critics often seem to deem and question it (see The Guardian). If anything, the series was actually only showing the truth about the objectification of women’s bodies existing in real life the same way that it was back in the ’60s.
Christina Hendricks Previously Faced Objectification As Well
While the fame from Jon Hamm‘s series landing her in this position was one thing, Hendricks continued to talk about how s-xism and s-xual harassment had become common in the industry, saying: “Boy, do you think anyone in the entertainment industry comes out unscathed and not objectified? I don’t know one musician or one model or one actor who has escaped that.”
To say the least, she herself had previously been a victim of the same, though not on this particular show. As the Fist Fight actress confessed: “I have had moments where people have tried to take advantage of me, use my body in a way I wasn’t comfortable with, persuade me or coerce me or professionally shame me: ‘If you took your work seriously, you would do this …’”
In fact, Hendricks even went to suspect that it could have been because of her modeling background, but even then, she knew what to do: “I knew to immediately get on the phone and go: ‘Uh oh, trouble.’” But now that this has evidently become so prevalent in the industry, she couldn’t help but comment: “That’s where it’s very much a job. We need to talk to the producers and handle this professionally.”
With all of this being said, Christina Hendricks’ candid discussion sheds light on the pervasive issues of objectification and sexism in the entertainment industry – something that already has a growing chorus of voices advocating for change and promoting a more inclusive, respectful industry culture.
Mad Men can currently be streamed on Prime Video.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
