Driving The Mad Men Wild

by Gerri Miller

These days, her romantic attentions are occupied elsewhere. Hendricks and her boyfriend, actor Geoffrey Arend, moved into an apartment together last spring. Living together is even better than she imagined, she says. “It’s been fantastic. We walk in every day and go, ‘Can you believe we live here? Isn’t this fun?’”

Arend met her boyfriend criteria: “a sense of humor, confidence, likes cool music. The only ‘type’ I have is all the guys I’m attracted to have big eyebrows,” she says. They also share a love of preparing and eating good food, and she practically salivates as she describes meals she made from the Top Chef Cookbook. At a time when many actresses starve themselves into a size 2, Hendricks embraces her voluptuous curves.

“I’ve gotten really positive feedback from women who are happy to see a woman who doesn’t look emaciated on TV,” she says. “On this show, luckily, they hired us because of our acting ability and they let us be who we are.”

She also gets a great response to her vintage wardrobe on the show, which flatters her curves. “I would wear most of it,” she says, describing one favorite. “There was a dress I wore in Season 1, with Roger in the hotel room, that makes an appearance in Season 2. It has a fuchsia little tie around the neck and a little fishtail in the back. I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Hendricks. This season, Jackie Kennedy’s influence will be seen in Joan’s outfits, “but she won’t be going for the boxy thing. She’ll stick with the tighter clothes.”

Hendricks spends about two hours in the makeup trailer to achieve her much-sprayed up-do. She wasn’t born with her signature fiery locks, but has been a redhead since the age of 10. “I wanted to be Anne of Green Gables, so my mom was like, ‘Let’s put a rinse on!’ I went to school with flaming red hair.”