Michael Yarish/AMC(NEW YORK) — Fans tend to take their favorite shows to heart.
Mad Men fans are no different and in fact, they are more loyal than most. So, when Betty Draper started to change after the first couple seasons on the show and began her move to leave Don, the audience didn’t react too kindly to the actress who played Betty — January Jones.
“Betty changed every season. She tried to change. She was always trying to get to a place where she felt happy and safe,” Jones told reporters last week in New York. “The audience really tells the story too for you.”
Betty eventually left Draper for Henry Francis after she found out Don had lied about who he was and had cheated on her.
“The first couple seasons, people were very empathetic and felt bad for her … and was like ‘Poor Betty’ and people would come up to me and feel bad for me,” she said. “Once she left Don and gained her independence and started speaking out for herself, started to empower herself…people hated her.”
She continued, “Even at the end of season two when she slept with that guy in the bar, the hate that I got from men especially … like ‘How could she do that?’…like really, do you watch the show you…hypocrite?”
Jones, 37, said people would approach her to complain.
“Yeah, they were like mean to me on the street,” she said.
Once again, Betty picked up support from the fans when she gained all that weight later in the series.
“She became likable because she was sad again … it just proves we really haven’t come as far as we’d like to think we have,” she said.
But no matter her ups and downs with fans, Jones has nothing but respect for Betty.
“I’m sort of sick of defending her, I love her and I’m sad I’ll never get to speak for her again because she’s brave in a way I’ll never be,” she said. “She’s seriously flawed too but we all are.”
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