Moonlighting: The Cast of Mad Men and Their Summer Movie Appearances

MadMen225.jpgThe AMC marketing department is nothing if not creative. To wit: They premiered the pilot episode of Rubicon on Sunday with nary a bit of promotion -- it wasn't even mentioned on the cable guide! -- and were able to create a modicum of buzz by doing so. Such parlor tricks aren't needed to goose interest in the return of Mad Men (July 25th -- you're welcome!), but a trip to the multiplex will make you wonder: Did those sneaky bastards use the summer movie season as a guerilla marketing campaign to promote the denizens of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce? After the jump, Movieline investigates the cast members of Mad Men and their summer movies. Warning, spoilers ahead.

· Elisabeth Moss (Peggy Olson)

Role: The girlfriend in Get Him to the Greek.

How it differs from Mad Men: Moss gets to act less robotic than Peggy, which is good -- but seems less independent, which is not. She also has a very un-Peggy-like almost three-way with Jonah Hill and Russell Brand.

Impact for Mad Men: Medium. Call me crazy, but the crossover audience between Mad Men and Greek feels decidedly low. That said, she was a major part of the marketing campaign, so maybe people noticed. Just not A.O. Scott, though, who said she was a co-star on Mad Man.

· John Slattery (Roger Sterling)

Role: Tony Stark's dad in Iron Man 2.

How it differs from Mad Men: Um. He's got a mustache in Iron Man 2. So that's different, right?

Impact for Mad Men: Medium. Iron Man 2 is the biggest movie of the summer thus far, so in that regard it's huge for Mad Men. Unfortunately, Slattery is in one of the definite "bathroom break" moments. Plus, people are just as likely to know him from any one of his many credits as they are to know him from Mad Men.

· Jon Hamm (Don Draper)

Role(s): Voice of Brogan in Shrek Forever After; C.I.A. spook "Lynch" in The A-Team

How they differ from Mad Men: Surprise! Jon Hamm is in The A-Team. How did that not get mentioned all over the Internet? It's a walk-on and he's perfectly priggish as a shady C.I.A. agent. Meanwhile in Shrek Forever After, he voices one of the ogres.

Impact for Mad Men: Low. When he showed up in The A-Team the people sitting next to me had no clue who Hamm was -- sigh; Shrek made a lot of money, but unless AMC is looking to grab the Sally Draper audience, then it doesn't really matter.

Overall: So far, so good, and I didn't even mention all the free publicity AMC got from January Jones last week! Now if they can only get Alison Brie to write more about her sexual past...



Comments

  • Katie says:

    At the point in Get Him to the Greek where Peggy apologizes to Jonah Hill for getting super pissy over his sexcapades/having a career instead of kicking him out so she can finish fucking Russell Brand, she pretty much becomes more unrelatable than if they had shown her feeding real kittens into a wood chipper on camera. It occurred to me that she would have made a much better everyman lead than the borderline-intolerable Hill but if nothing else they just gotta stop doing girlfriend subplots in Apatow movies, God knows they're trying but they're never good or emotionally compelling

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