Christina Hendricks is celebrating the forthcoming beginning of the fifth season of “Mad Men” by posing in a new photo shoot for V Magazine.

Here’s part of the interview:

“Oh, I can totally go unnoticed. I ran around all day today. Not a mention,” insists Christina Hendricks, star of AMC’s 1960s period series Mad Men. “In Los Angeles you know the neighborhoods where you’re more likely to get noticed. And then you probably put on lipstick.”

It’s difficult to accept that after four seasons of embodying Joan Harris (née Holloway)—the efficient, famously voluptuous office manager who thanklessly presides over Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce wearing a parade of wiggle dresses—Hendricks could still enjoy anonymity. Fans will surely be looking for her when Mad Men returns on March 25th, eager to discover more about her character’s unexpected pregnancy. “It probably surprised a lot of people. It certainly surprised me,” she says. “Joan certainly has motherly instincts—at least in a bossy way.” Hendricks is more savvy now than she was when Mad Men introduced its distinctive brand of cerebral, obsessively art-directed drama. For example, she no longer turns black-and-blue from wearing her character’s restrictive girdles and garters. “Now I put moleskin underneath the rubber so it doesn’t rub against my skin,” she says. “I still get a little bruised up, but I’m learning the tricks of the trade.”

Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, Hendricks landed her first consequential role in 1999 on MTV’s teen soap Undressed—a Skins precursor that served as a Mickey Mouse Club for maturing young actors (“Most people in Los Angeles have that on their résumé,” the multiple Emmy-nominee explains with a laugh). She played a college student named Rhiannon who crashes at her aunt’s house with a rapper she meets at a bus station (YouTube can fill in the rest). “I used to play characters more naïve than Joan, who is so sophisticated and…not jaded, but worldlier,” she says. “I’ve definitely learned from playing a character that is so confident and resilient.”

Which is not to say that during her rise to fame the radiant natural blonde did not receive her share of industry-issued validation. She can share a proper fashion anecdote dating to her time modeling in the mid ’90s, like walking in a Hussein Chalayan show or inspiring a young Karen Elson to dye her hair a career-boosting red. But because of her work on Mad Men, Hendricks now commands red carpets—and has even orchestrated some bonafide Hollywood bombshell moments, like at the 2011 Golden Globe Awards when she lost an $850,000 bracelet on loan from Chopard, and after an event worker found the ornament and returned it to her, pleaded with security to allow her to leave the auditorium and deliver it to her publicist for safekeeping, whereupon the guard watched as Hendricks pulled the 124 carats of platinum-set diamonds out of her acclaimed cleavage and passed them to her rep through a crack in the door. Bull’s-eye. “I couldn’t put it in my purse,”

You can read the rest here.

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[006] Photoshoot & Portrait Sessions > Session #69

On a bright January afternoon, I meet Christina Hendricks at Dusty’s, a rustic French-American bistro in Silver Lake. It’s one of her favorite spots to eat in Los Angeles, and not far from her home. The 36-year-old actor, dressed in a fetching black dress that clings to her famous curves, strides confidently to the table, seeming supremely comfortable in her body. It’s a body that, thanks to an assembly line of red carpet appearances, provocative magazine spreads, and her standout role as sumptuous secretary Joan Holloway on AMC’s flagship drama, Mad Men, has become a national obsession. It drives men to helpless, testosterone-fueled fantasies, and women to reevaluate traditional Hollywood notions of beauty—maybe the spotlight isn’t only for the thin and waifish after all? But today, Hendricks, whose trademark crimson hair is partially concealed under a snug, black-and-white knit cap, blends in with the rest of the diners, almost. In the dim lighting, her alabaster skin is almost translucent, and as a lighter version of that familiar, breathy voice rolls across the table at me like wisps of smoke, hints of Joan Holloway creep through.

When Mad Men first premiered in 2007, it surprised everybody. HBO passed on the drama that centered around an advertising agency in 1960s Manhattan, laying bare the sexism, homophobia, and racism of the era. The show eventually found a home on upstart network AMC, and turned its relatively unknown cast, including Hendricks, into overnight stars. “Everyone seems the same, which is nice,” says Hendricks of her costars, which include Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss. “If there was a difference from Season 1, it’s that everyone’s on their cell phones a lot more because our managers and publicists are always calling.”

For those who have yet to plunge into Mad Men‘s martini-drenched universe, Joan Holloway is a brassy office manager and den mother to all the other women at Madison Avenue advertising agency Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, and a pro at hypnotizing ad men with a glance of those cerulean eyes or a swivel of those hourglass hips. Over the course of four seasons, we’ve watched as she batted away constant harassment using her own sexuality as ammo, carried on a torrid affair with one of the company’s founders, and finally managed to land a doctor husband, though not before he sexually assaults her in her workplace. (They still managed to make their dinner reservation.) When we last saw her, Holloway had transformed into a homemaker, though a danger-fueled liaison left her pregnant with the child of her former boss.

“The amazing thing about Joan is how confident she is,” Hendricks says, between sips of Sancerre and nibbles on french fries. “I was never that confident. When we shot the pilot I was like, Who is this woman? I’m not friends with people like that.” But today, her self-confidence is brimming. Starring on a hit show might do that to a girl, but Hendricks admits that Joan’s sass was contagious. “She’s living in the ’60s, but she uses sexual innuendo, which is taboo. Because of that—and a very tight green dress—she became a sexual character. She was very openly saying, I have sex, and I don’t care if you judge me. I’m not going to apologize for who I am. Those qualities resonated with people, and have given me confidence.”

She’s a character that, like Hendricks herself, has experienced some of womanhood’s watershed moments in the five years we’ve known her. “Just as I have changed, and as significant things have happened in my life, like getting married and moving into a new home, Joan has gotten married and gotten pregnant,” Hendricks says. All of this has added up to a softer Joan Holloway, who once teased a white colleague for seeing a black woman. “She was a lot bitchier than she is now. She’s mellowed out and wised up. With the more responsibility that she’s gotten at work and in her life, she can’t be as flip as she was. There’s a lot more on her shoulders these days. ”

Growing up in Knoxville, Tennessee, Hendricks had no inkling of the Tinseltown success that awaited her. With her mother, a psychologist, and her British father, whose job working for the US Forest Service caused them to move often, Hendricks dotted the country throughout her childhood, spending swathes of her youth in places like Twin Falls, Idaho, and Fairfax, Virginia. In her teens, she acted in community theater and did ballet, experiences that ignited a passion for performance. “I studied pretty much everyday,” says Hendricks of her stint as a dancer. “Then, when I was 15, I realized I wasn’t going to be a professional dancer and I sort of had to readjust. I already knew that performance was something that made me happy,” she says.

Before she discovered acting, Hendricks expressed herself through fashion. “When I was in junior high, I was sewing my own clothes,” she says. “I had these looks. Sometimes they were very tragic. I wore a pair of green, silk, MC Hammer–style pants with the low crotch, Birkenstocks, and my hair in a turban. What that look was, I don’t know, but it was kind of amazing.” In high school, she embraced goth culture, and the black fishnets and makeup that came with it. “I wasn’t one of those sloppy, dirty goths. I thought it was very beautiful and I went out of my way to do it right, in a very high-fashion kind of way.” (Of Mad Men’s influence on her current style, she says, “I now have a section in my closet devoted to pencil skirts.”)

To read the rest of the article and interview.

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[006] Photoshoot & Portrait Sessions > Session #67

You might be waiting with bated breath for the fifth season of Mad Men to premiere on March 25th, but in the meantime, you’ll be pleased to know that the auburn-haired beauty Christina Hendricks appears on the cover for our upcoming March issue. In it, Hendricks opens up about her role as the buxom and brassy Joan Holloway and how her character has inspired her to be more assertive and sexy in real life — and to fill her closet with a personal collection of ’60s fashions. Our cover girl also details her blossoming film career, which kick-started with last summer’s surprise hit, Drive.

Pick up a copy of the March issue, on newsstands next week, and check back with BBook.com for full coverage!

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In his latest movie Detachment, director Tony Kaye has enlisted the talents of two AMC stars — Mad Men‘s Christina Hendricks and Breaking Bad‘s Bryan Cranston. What was it like working with these two actors? Well, he says Cranston could have been Ingmar Bergman’s muse and Hendricks could be the next Streep. Read on to learn more.

Q: What drew you to Detachment?

A: The brilliance of Carl Lund’s writing, and that it would give me the opportunity to work with my daughter Betty Kaye in one of the key roles. I gave her the script when she was 15 years old.

Q: Your movie American History X — about a neo-Nazi — has achieved a kind of cult status. Does Detachment share any themes with that earlier effort?

A: Detachment continues a thread of socially conscious themes. My belief in entertainment with enlightenment. My own enlightenment in learning. I see myself as a student forever in this journey. American History X: tolerance. Lake of Fire: understanding. Detachment: love.

Q: You have an extraordinary ensemble cast in Detachment. What was it like working with such a powerhouse cast?

A: There is no such thing as a powerhouse cast, I don’t like the word powerhouse. There is the right person playing the right role. Then letting the performance artist do their thing, and I work with the result, which is a character. Then I try to empty them.

Q: What was it like working with Bryan Cranston? Was it because of his role in Breaking Bad that you thought of him for this film?

A: Breaking Bad is the best, the greatest, the most amazing thing I have ever watched on television. I saw it after I worked with Bryan. I could have made a whole movie about Bryan’s character — he is so brilliant. There’s no such thing as a small role. Bryan Cranston demonstrates this magnificently here in Detachment.  In his fleeting appearance, he says a billion things by virtue of his transmitting. I wish to God Ingmar Bergman was still alive. He would be the perfect director to work with Bryan.

Q: What made you think of Christina Hendricks for the role of Ms. Madison? Can you tell us about her character and what it was like working with her?

A: The role of Ms. Madison is a tough role. It’s an anchor role, not a flashy role. Christina is like an old fashioned movie star. She has that look — absolute classic beauty. Oil-painting beauty. She takes challenging roles, she’s brilliant in Drive — I didn’t even recognize her in the movie. In Detachment, she kind of plays someone who is trapped, lost, looking for something, finds it but does not know how to take it. Kind of like fishing with no hook. All the characters in Detachment have that Venus de Milo vibe — potentially perfect, yet searching for the final realm where “you get it all right.” Just like life, really. Christina Hendricks has the potential to emerge in the years to come as one of the truly great American actresses. Meryl Streep should be her mentor.

Q: Do you have any anecdotes to share about working with either actor?

A: Yeah, when I met Bryan Cranston for the first time in the commissary at Paramount Studios, he apologized for being late. He said he’d been making love to Julia Roberts and could not tear himself away. [Cranston had been shooting a scene in the movie Larry Crowne, starring Roberts and Tom Hanks].

Detachment is available on Movies on Demand Fri., Feb. 24 and opens in theaters Fri., Mar. 16. For more information, visit detachment-film.com.

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Christina Hendricks and her husband Geoffrey Arend attended the Vivienne Westwood Red Label after show party at The Box Nightclub on February 19th in London, UK.

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[040] Public Appearances > 2012 > February 19: Vivienne Westwood After Party

Here’s an exciting news! We are giving away a poster for one of Christina Hendricks‘ movies:  “Detachment“!

To enter is easy, just enter the form below with a valid email address or with your Facebook account. Simple as that. And if you want an extra entry you can tweet about it, at least once a day. Contest will be open until Friday, February 24th. There will be one (1) winner chosen at random. You will have 48 hours to respond to my email, then I’ll choose another winner.

This giveaway is only open to readers in the US. Entries are limited to one person per household. Good luck!

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Christina Hendricks has revealed she has come to love her “inconvenient” curves.

The Mad Men star, who has been described as the “embodiment of beauty” by fashion doyenne Vivienne Westwood, stands at around 5ft 8in tall and is around a UK size 14, with her hourglass figure reportedly measured at 38DD-32-28.

“If there’s anything to be learned from me, it’s that I’m learning to celebrate what I was born with, even though it’s sometimes been inconvenient,” the 36-year-old told the Daily Mirror.

“Having larger breasts has made it harder to shop, but I’ve learned to love it… But now I feel like everyone talks about my bust in public.”

The actress, who plays feisty office manager Joan Holloway in the hit series, added: “As you get older, your body changes. I’ve tried to embrace how I look at every stage.”

Yet Christina – who is tipped to portray Wonder Woman in an upcoming movie remake – admitted school bullies made her teenage years hell.

“I had the worst high school experience ever. I went to a very mean school and was bullied like crazy,” she said.

“I was a bit of a goth with purple hair and I was also part of the drama group… and everyone just hated us. Kids would sit on top of lockers and spit on you. It was like something out of Lord Of The Flies.”

The actress, who is married to actor Geoffrey Arend, added: “I never felt pretty. I just always felt awkward.”

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