Christina Hendricks Talks to Movieline About Joan's Rape and Mad Men's Farting Problem

Christina Hendricks' Mad Men character Joan Holloway, who is still the most likable figure at Sterling Cooper three seasons in, has endured some of the show's diciest travails. She was overlooked by her misogynist superiors, raped in the office by her now-husband, and pimped for her accordion skills at her own household party. With Joan Holloway's Power Ranking stagnating this week at #7, Movieline caught up with Hendricks at the West Hollywood opening of the new Tacori jewelry line to discuss Joan, Mad Men's on-set dynamic, and Hendricks' upcoming first foray into bigtime feature film.

On Joan's harrowing second-season plight:

"She had a horrible year! It was really surprising for me to read, but it also was, I think, an interesting and good story to tell. It's this woman who is being punished for being confident and sexual and bold. They had to show that there are consequences for everything. The other characters suffered consequences for everything, and that was Joan's consequence.

On tackling the layered, minutiae-packed scripts of Mad Men:

"We're lucky enough to sit down once a week and read them out loud and hear everyone's interpretation of what goes on, which is amazing. Everyone brings more than what you read, which is exciting. I really just learn from everyone else, and we learn from each other as it unfolds."

On what goes on between takes:

"There's a lot of goofing off, fart noises being made for absolutely no reason, thanks to Jon Hamm and John Slattery."

On her new romantic-comedy Life As We Know It:

"It's a movie with Katie Heigl, Josh Duhamel, Hayes MacArthur, and we're going to shoot it in Georgia, a romantic comedy. I play Katie Heigl's best friend Alison. She's nothing like Joan Holloway! Just a fresh-faced girl. And she's got a couple kids."