Joan Harris
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| Joan Holloway | |||||||||||||
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| Mad Men character | |||||||||||||
 Joan Holloway | |||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Christina Hendricks | ||||||||||||
| First appearance | "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" (1.01) | ||||||||||||
| Created by | Matthew Weiner | ||||||||||||
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Joan P. Harris (née Holloway) (born February 24, 1931) is a fictional character on AMC's television series Mad Men. She is portrayed by Christina Hendricks.
Fictional character biography
Background
From Season 1 through Season 3, Joan is the office manager at the advertising agency Sterling Cooper. Her primary responsibilities are to manage the secretarial, steno, and telephone operators pools; attend to the needs of the executives; and organize agency events. She is also seen during meetings with the heads of departments, implementing Roberts Rules of Order, taking notes, and reminding the male staff of their duties to their clients, and assisting the CFO, Lane Pryce, with SC financial duties.
Joan had an affair with her boss Roger Sterling, Jr. (John Slattery), which ended after Sterling suffers a heart attack. After Marilyn Monroe's death, Roger walks into his office to find Joan lying on his couch and crying. Realizing she is upset over the similarities she sees between the actress's life and her own, Roger comforts Joan by assuring her she will not end up alone and in despair like Monroe.
Joan had also had an intimate relationship with Sterling Cooper copywriter Paul Kinsey sometime before the series began; Joan ended the relationship because Paul had "a big mouth" (implying that he bragged about the relationship to others). Her roommate, Carol, whom Joan knows from college, has expressed romantic interest in Joan, too, although Joan ignores her romantic overtures.
In Season 2, Joan gets engaged to Greg Harris (played by actor Samuel Page), a doctor at St. Luke's Hospital. As the season goes on, Joan is clearly torn between wanting to be a well-off, married woman--the pinnacle of Joan's ambitions--but fears that she will become a bored, lonely housewife. Her feelings are exacerbated when she is briefly given additional responsibilities at Sterling Cooper reading television scripts to determine ad placement, which thrills her. However, Harry Crane hires a young, somewhat clueless man to take over the ad placement job, to her disappointment.
In "The Mountain King", Greg picks Joan up at Sterling Cooper for a dinner date. Greg meets Roger Sterling for the first time and immediately picks up that he knows her likes and dislikes. Joan attempts to dismiss his suspicions by claiming that Roger only knows her well because of how long she has been with the agency. Greg is unconvinced and then follows Joan as she goes into Don Draper's office to lock up, forces her to the floor, and rapes her.
In the interim between Seasons 2 and 3, Joan and Greg have married. In Season 3's third episode, "My Old Kentucky Home", it is revealed that Greg is not the accomplished surgeon that Joan had hoped he would be. She leaves Sterling Cooper to become a housewife in Season 3, but is later seen by Pete Campbell working at Bonwit Teller due to Greg's failure to receive a promotions. Joan mentions to Pete that Greg is considering going into psychiatry, in hopes of salvaging his career.
Joan helps Greg prepare for an interview to be psychiatrist, but he fails to get the job. The two have a heated argument, ending with Joan's smashing a vase over Greg's head. Joan later places a call to Roger Sterling's office after hours, asking him to help her find another office manager job. Greg ultimately obtains an officer's commission in the Army where he will serve as a military surgeon, and tells Joan she will no longer have to work. Despite this, Joan comes to the aid of Don, Roger, Bert, and Lane to launch the new Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce by finding accounting materials and client records. When the new company sets up shop at The Pierre hotel, Joan takes the position of office manager.
At Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Pryce (SCDP)
Joan is recognized by most (though not all) of the staff as being integral in SCDP's daily operations. A notable feature of Joan's new office is an intercom to the conference room that she can use to monitor meetings within, a feature conveniently forgotten by everyone except her and Peggy.
In Season 4, Joan and Greg are shown trying to conceive, but their marriage is strained by Greg's having to attend basic training and later being sent to Vietnam. In his absence, Joan and Roger briefly rekindle their affair, after being mugged one night while walking home from a friendly dinner. Their night of passion leaves Joan pregnant, so she and Roger decide to "take care of it". Joan makes an appointment at an abortion clinic but in the waiting room, she is mistaken for a mother waiting for her daughter to get an abortion. Joan realizes her time to conceive is running out so she decides to pass Roger's baby off as Greg's. Also in season 4, Joan also receives a title-only promotion to Director of Agency Operations, in recognition of her role in keeping SCDP afloat amid its recent financial troubles. Other season 4 developments include Joan's working relationship with Peggy, the only other high-ranking woman at SCDP.
In the Season 5 premiere, Greg is still in Vietnam, and Joan has given birth to a boy named Kevin and is finishing her maternity leave from SCDP, making plans for returning to work. Her mother, Gail, with whom she has a tense relationship, is staying with her to help with the baby.
In "Mystery Date", Greg returns home from Vietnam, but informs Joan he is being ordered to go back for an additional year. However, it is revealed that Greg actually reenlisted voluntarily since the army makes him feel purposeful, even though the War is becoming increasingly dangerous. Joan becomes enraged and throws him out. Joan tells him he has never been a good man, alluding to his marital rape. He threatens to divorce her if he leaves but Joan simply tells him to leave.
In "Christmas Waltz", a process server shows up at the SCDP office to serve Joan with the divorce papers, which upsets her. Joan yells at the SDCP's receptionist, Meredith, and storms off. Don offers to take her out for the day and the two test drive a Jaguar, and then to spend the remainder of the afternoon drinking in a midtown bar, during which time she confesses to Don that she is unsure of how to start over now with a baby.
In "The Other Woman", Joan is taken aback when the partners (minus Don, who dissents) present her with an offer to sleep with Herb Rennick, in order to secure them the Jaguar account. She eventually agrees, thinking that all of the partners agreed to the offer. At Lane's suggestion, she demands 5% of SCDP and a voting partnership instead of the $50,000 lump sum she was initially offered although unbeknownst to her, Lane persuaded her to turn down the lump sum to cover up his embezzlement. As partner, Joan's overall role in day-to-day operations didn't change much beyond the fact that she now votes in partners' meetings.
In "Commissions and Fees", Joan discovers Lane's body while trying to get into his office. She later expresses confusion to Don over Lane's suicide and believe that if she slept with him, he would not have died. Don tells her that she is worth more than her body, which she is grateful for. In the Season 5 finale, Joan appears to have taken over Lane's accounting duties and presides over the acquisition of new office space for the firm.
At Sterling Cooper & Partners (SC&P)
At the start of Season 6, Joan has settled into her new role as partner at SCDP. In "To Have and To Hold", Joan discovers that Harry Crane's secretary has been having Dawn (Don's secretary) punching out her time cards. Joan, well aware of the hours Don works vs. those that Harry does, confronts them, during which Harry's secretary tries to convince Dawn to cover for her. A furious Joan fires her, but Harry vents his frustration and expresses resentment over Joan's having been made partner and the way she achieved it, while he himself has been repeatedly passed over. A visit from a childhood friend during this same episode causes Joan to reevaluate her priorities and goals.
In "Man with a Plan", Joan presides over the complicated physical logistics of SCDP's merger with CGC. CGC's secretaries express irritation at being placed under Joan's command, but she brushes them off to warmly welcome Peggy back. Bob Benson, an eager new hire in accounts, later walks in on Joan in extreme pain and offers to escort her out under the cover of bothering her as he does everyone else. Bob remains with her at the hospital and his quick thinking gets her expedited care. Joan is suspicious of Bob's motives for helping her, but her mother advises her that not every good deed is a front. Joan quietly steps in to save Bob's job when he is about to be laid off.
By "The Better Half", Joan has accepted Bob's friendship and is seen preparing to go to the beach with him and Kevin. Roger appears unannounced and is suspicious of Bob's presence (Bob is, of course, totally unaware of his history with Joan). Roger wants to be part of Joan and Kevin's lives, but she tells him that she intends to let Kevin grow up thinking that Greg, a military man and potential hero, is his father, and that Roger is too unreliable to be a father figure.
In "A Tale of Two Cities", Joan goes on what she assumes is a blind date with an Avon executive, arranged by the aforementioned childhood friend from "To Have And To Hold". It turns out that this is a business meeting, as Avon is looking for a new direction, and both her friend and her date seem unaware that Joan runs Operations and not Accounts. Joan, who by now has become interested in expanding her role at the firm, recruits Peggy to assist her in securing the account, but nearly blows it by excluding Pete from the proceedings and coming on aggressively at the meeting. Peggy is able to narrowly salvage the situation and the two women again reach an understanding.
Later on, Joan easily sees the chemistry and attraction between Peggy and Ted Chaough, but doesn't mention it to anyone until they go over budget for a commercial, when she informs Don. Joan is shocked when Don smoothes the client's feathers by saying the expensive idea was that of the deceased Gleason, averting the client's anger but embarrassing Ted and taking credit from Peggy. As a result, when Thanksgiving, 1968 approaches, Joan joins with Cooper, Sterling and Cutler in placing Don on leave, being concerned with Don's erratic behavior and its overall effect on the firm. Joan reveals that she has made arrangements for Creative to continue functioning, with Ted Chaough overseeing Peggy long-distance. On Thanksgiving itself, Joan invites Roger, who has been excluded from his daughter's house, to spend it with her. When Roger responds negatively to the presence of Bob, whom Joan had also invited, she warns him that she is allowing him into Kevin's life, but not hers.
Personality
Embodying the role of femme fatale,[1] Holloway is a bold and sassy character.[2][3] Creating the character, Mad Men's creator Matthew Weiner tried to make the character appear not as a television stereotype but an unpredictable and complicated woman.[4] The Boston Globe has said that Holloway occupies "a sort of middle ground between the show's main female characters, who represent opposing paths for women of their day"; as Betty Draper (January Jones) gave up a modeling career to become a housewife and Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) tries to become a copywriter in "a world where men routinely call women 'girls', and sometimes literally chase them through the office".[5] Holloway is considered the queen bee of the office secretarial pool.[6][7] As shown in the third season finale, her role at Sterling Cooper (and later Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce) is made clear. The office is essentially unable to operate without her, as no one else knows how the office is organized.
Joan was born on February 24, 1931, is 5 feet 8 inches tall, is a green-eyed redhead, and her New York State drivers license (as of Season 2) indicates she weighs 140 pounds. She lives at 42 West 12th Street, apartment 4C.[8] As the show is now set in the late 60s, many commentators seized upon Joan's friendship with the apparently gay Bob Benson and pointed out that the Stonewall Inn is not far from Joan's residence.
In an interview with USA Today, portrayer Christina Hendricks explained that people think her character is "hot" because "She's got fire to her. She snaps back. And men love her because she's in touch with her sexuality and femininity. The men in the office can play with her a little bit. They can tease her, and she's not going to be in the bathroom crying later."[9] In the season two episode "Maidenform", each secretary is categorized as either a Marilyn Monroe or a Jackie Kennedy as a campaign for Playtex; when asked what kind of woman Holloway is, Kinsey answers: "Well, Marilyn's really a Joan, not the other way around".[10]
Creation and development
Weiner was influenced by books of Helen Gurley Brown when he wrote the part of Joan.[11] He originally envisioned Holloway as a "smaller", "mousier" and more "sharp-tongued" character, but he changed his mind when Hendricks was cast.[12] Initially, Holloway was set to be a guest role only.[12] However, the role was extended to regular status because of Hendricks' "on-screen magnetism".[12]
Hendricks first read for the part of Midge Daniels, a recurring character in the first season, and was asked to return and audition for the role of Holloway.[11] She had only received a small part of the script and when she read the scene from the pilot in which Peggy Olson visits a gynecologist, Hendricks thought it was "messed up" because she did not yet know the show took place during the 1960s.[11]
References
- ^ Ripley, Tim (July 25, 2008). "See Mad Men Already". Daily Democrat. Woodland, California.
- ^ "Where style matches substance". The Age. April 16, 2009. Retrieved June 20, 2009.
- ^ Penner, Steve (August 22, 2008). "Does Mad Men make you mad?". Portsmouth Herald News. Retrieved June 20, 2009.
- ^ Ryan, Maureen (August 6, 2008). "'Mad Men' Calvacade of Stars, Part 5: Christina Hendricks on Joan Holloway". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved June 20, 2009.
- ^ Weiss, Joanna (September 21, 2008). "What the women of 'Mad Men' can teach us about Sarah Palin". The Boston Globe. Retrieved June 20, 2009.
- ^ Prato, Alison (October 12, 2008). "Some Like it Hot: Christina Hendricks". New York Post. Retrieved June 20, 2009.
- ^ Salem, Rob (July 27, 2008). "Don't be mad, baby". Toronto Star. Toronto, Ontario. Retrieved June 20, 2009.
- ^ Writ: Weiner, Matthew; Albert, Lisa (August 3, 2008). "Flight 1". Mad Men. Season 2. Episode 2. AMC.
{{cite episode}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|episodelink=(help); Unknown parameter|serieslink=ignored (|series-link=suggested) (help) - ^ Carter, Kelley L. (October 23, 2008). "The women of Mad Men evolve". USA Today. Retrieved June 20, 2009.
- ^ Writ: Weiner, Matthew (August 31, 2008). "Maidenform". Mad Men. Season 2. Episode 6. AMC.
{{cite episode}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|episodelink=(help); Unknown parameter|serieslink=ignored (|series-link=suggested) (help) - ^ a b c Wieselman, Jarett (July 24, 2008). "Mad about Christina Hendricks". New York Post. Retrieved June 20, 2009.
- ^ a b c Elsworth, Catherine (January 19, 2009). "Christina Hendricks: a fine figure of a woman". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved June 20, 2009.
External links
- Template:IMDb character
- Joan Holloway official AMC biography
