Famecrawler
January Jones Calls Betty Draper a Bad Mother! Oh, January!
In the lead-up to Sunday night’s Mad Men season 4 premiere, January Jones appeared on Live With Regis and Kelly — and got straight to the heart of her awesomely chilly character, Betty Draper. Regis got the ball rolling by asking, about Betty, “She’s not crazy about her kids, is she?” January responded, “She’s straight up crazy I think. She’s not a great mother, no.”
Oh, January! We know Betty is a terrible mom (she punishes her kids by shutting them in closets!), but still, we love her. Kelly tried to come to Betty’s defense by explaining that Betty, like a lot of women of the 1960s, is frustrated by the lot she’s been handed as a woman. But January just wouldn’t hear it. And that’s where the problem arises…
On the show, Betty, like Don and the rest of the crowd, is a cipher. It’s what makes the series so captivating. Every single episode we piece together just a little bit more of who these people are. Yet Jones, in the interview, seemed to be saying that there’s no more to it, that Betty is simply a housewife with a screw loose. I don’t buy it! Is January missing the point, missing the inner Betty Draper? Could the fictional Betty actually be deeper than the real life January?
Lesson learned. Watch the show, not the interviews with the actors.
PHOTO: INF Photo
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4 Comments
Theresa Walsh Giarrusso commented on Jul 24 10 at 12:07 pmDiscuss now: Is Betty Draper the worst mother on TV?? New York magazine put together a fantastic montage of Betty Draper being terrible to poor Sally and Bobby. Check out the video and join the discussion.
http://blogs.ajc.com/momania/2010/07/24/is-betty-draper-the-worst-tv-mom-ever/
Thomas commented on Jul 26 10 at 3:16 pmNope, sorry. Betty Draper is simply a terrible mother; self-centered, spoiled, without an ounce of genuine feeling aside from those concerned with her own needs. The character is no deeper than anyone raised to be a porcelain doll could be – in that way, she is a fantastic character, as she embodies the soulless automatons that such sterile upbringing produced.
Short answer: ultimately, we can blame Betty’s mom.
Rosie commented on Aug 16 10 at 1:47 amThis society has a disturbing idea of what a mother should be . . . namely perfect. Why, I do not know. But I find this kind of illusional thinking rather sick. And it is very apparent in the way MAD MEN fans “DEMAND” that Betty Francis aka Draper be a perfect mother to that brat she calls her eldest child.
Marcheline commented on Aug 18 10 at 11:43 pmHey Retro Heads!
I have entered a contest to win a walk-on role on the most retro-licious of all TV shows: MAD MEN!
I need your votes to win, so please visit
http://madmencastingcall.amctv.com/browse/detail/EZ3MBH and vote for me!Thanks a bunch,
Marcheline
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