GQ: The other moment I wanted to discuss was when Joan and Don had that wonderful flirtation at the bar at Christmas. It seemed like it would have been very easy for them to go off together and run away from their realities for a night. What do you think stopped Joan from doing that?
 

Christina Hendricks: You know what? That moment feels flirtatious and there’s definitely a flirtation in there—but I think it’s also just two people enjoying one another. She needed help in that moment, she needed to be respected and feel beautiful and feel like her company was valued. Besides [her affair with] Roger, I don’t think Joan goes to work very often the next day with the walk of shame; I don’t think that either of them would do that. I think they’re both too wise about office politics to incorporate that into their already-tricky lives at the moment. Can you imagine, all of a sudden adding another layer to that workplace? [Laughs] But I think it’s wonderful to see those two characters together. We haven’t seen them together that often, and there’s an incredible mutual respect that I don’t see with too many of the other characters one-on-one with each other. And they’ve always been that way. There’s always been a mutual respect between the two of them. And I thought it was just really nice to see him being really caring, and how she accepted it from him.

“He’s not bad.”

“He’s doing this.”