Words of the Week: Matthew Weiner

“The driving question for the [Mad Men] series is, Who are we? When we talk about ‘we,’ who is that? In the pilot, Pete Campbell has this line, ‘Adding money and education doesn’t take the rude edge out of people.’ Sophisticated anti-Semitism. I overheard that line when I was a schoolteacher. The person, of course, didn’t know they were in the presence of a Jew. I was a ghost. Certain male artists like to show that they’re feminists as a way to get girls. That’s always seemed pimpy to me. I sympathize with feminism the same way I identify with gay people and with people of color, because I know what it’s like to look over the side of the fence and then to climb over the fence and to feel like you don’t belong, or be reminded at the worst moment that you don’t belong.”

Source: Matthew Weiner, quoted in “The Art of Screenwriting No. 4,” The Paris Review.

3 thoughts on “Words of the Week: Matthew Weiner

  1. Marlena Maduro Baraf says:

    Difficult issues, Erika. M

    1. Erika Dreifus says:

      Oh, yes.

  2. Sergiusz says:

    Sounds like a daily routine. And it’s difficult indeed.

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