# Question about January Jones acting performance in Mad Men **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 23, 2009, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-january-jones-acting-performance-in-mad-men/514887 "2009-10-23T18:42:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-january-jones-acting-performance-in-mad-men/514887/41 "2009-11-16T19:56:46Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > [Here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geIBd9MAVkc)’s the how to throw a cocktail party sketch. I though it was funny. Very funny, I thought, overall though, the show wasn’t very good. “Because dogs are boys and cats are girls.” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-january-jones-acting-performance-in-mad-men/514887/42 "2009-11-16T20:16:51Z")
> [@](#): > > But conservatives flip the fuck out, get defensive and start scapegoating January Jones, going so far as to argue that her dull affect is evidence that she can’t act… I still disagree with them on most social issues but I’m prepared to concede that the conservatives are right about this one.😛 A character can be both ‘sinned against’ _and_ unlikeable. One of my favorite things about _ROSEANNE_ was that it was one of the few shows that dared to show gay characters who were neither asexual nor practically perfect in every way, and MAD MEN doesn’t really have _any_ saintly characters. There are moments with all of the characters when you like them and moments when you want to slap them til your hand gets tired, which is one of the things I really like about the show. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-january-jones-acting-performance-in-mad-men/514887/43 "2009-11-16T21:01:28Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > “Because dogs are boys and cats are girls.” Heh. This is how we look at them. The two cats are male but are referred to as “she”, and the dog is female but a “he”. It just seems like that’s how they should be, based on their behavior. Cats are delicate and fussy. Dogs are rambunctious and eat poop. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-january-jones-acting-performance-in-mad-men/514887/44 "2009-11-16T21:11:47Z")
Things don’t look so good for Miss Jones if Betty [del]Draper[/del] Francis det’s demoted to a recurring character. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-january-jones-acting-performance-in-mad-men/514887/45 "2009-11-16T21:44:22Z")
> [@astro](#): > > She’s gorgeous, but her acting kind of confuses me. She is absolutely dead on her character, and inhabits that role like no one else I could imagine, but her range as the character Betty Draper is so constricted, as Betty is an emotionally compressed and relatively affectless personality I wonder if is it an amazing acting job, or does it not really just not require much acting (but a lot of scowling) so maybe it’s not such a tour de force and any competent actress could handle the role. I have had the impression (and I guess the SNL helps support it) that January Jones is a terrific actress for the role of Betty Draper. However, like Michael Cera as George Michael Bluth (versus every other role which is “George Michael Bluth tries to go to a party”, “GMB gets a girl pregnant”, etc), she was perfectly cast for the one and only role she can play. Every other role will essentially be “Betty Draper becomes a business exec”, “Betty Draper becomes a neurosurgeon”, “Betty Draper becomes an Israeli sniper” and so forth. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-january-jones-acting-performance-in-mad-men/514887/46 "2009-11-16T22:11:49Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > \ “Betty Draper becomes an Israeli sniper” and so forth. Someone \*has \*to greenlight that. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-january-jones-acting-performance-in-mad-men/514887/47 "2009-11-17T01:36:26Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > I wouldn’t judge anyone’s acting ability by what they do on SNL. I don’t know how much rehearsal time they have, but it seems like most of the guest hosts are reading from the teleprompter. That’d make anybody look wooden. > > But I suspect that Christina Hendricks would have done better. She’s bubbly and confident and funny in interviews. Lots of personality. Jones seems a bit introverted compared to Hendricks. I wouldn’t judge _everyone’s_ acting ability by what they do on SNL, but let’s face it: JJ as guest star was out-acted by _Sarah Palin_ when she was a guest star, who’s not an actor! ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-january-jones-acting-performance-in-mad-men/514887/48 "2009-11-17T01:39:45Z")
> [@corkboard](#): > > I was wondering if there was going to be an SNL thread, but I guess it wasn’t worth it. As someone who loves JJ on MM, I have to say she was terrible on this show. I was amazed at how uncomfortable and wooden she was. Even in the Rear Window sketch, all she had to do was show a couple facial expressions or maybe some body english to indicate that the sounds were coming from her, but instead she was just waiting for the sound cues to end so she could say her next line. It was the sort of acting performance you’d expect from a non-actor host, like a sports figure or politician or something, not the lead on a major TV series. > > Terrible. You don’t think she looks wooden and uncomfortable on MM? That’s the heart of my objection to her acting on that show. She delivers most of her lines in this tense monotone. I will grant that she’s got the facial expressions down and does non-dialogue acting rather brilliantly to show Betty’s character. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-january-jones-acting-performance-in-mad-men/514887/49 "2009-11-17T13:49:14Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > You don’t think she looks wooden and uncomfortable on MM? That’s the heart of my objection to her acting on that show. She delivers most of her lines in this tense monotone. I will grant that she’s got the facial expressions down and does non-dialogue acting rather brilliantly to show Betty’s character. I do, but not having ever seen her in anything before MM, I figured that was the character. She’s got a lot going on in that show; raised on the Main Line with money, model-level beauty, married to a man who barely notices her, in an era where it was rare if not unheard of for a woman with means and brains and beauty to forge out on her own and make the most of her life, but she’s unhappy to her core and culturally and romantically stifled, so basically she just shuts down and becomes an automaton. I guess I had assumed that she was a good actress for her ability to portray that, but it seems that she really doesn’t have any range. I would have loved to see her take advantage of the opportunity that SNL offers to be goofy and let your hair down and let the world see you as having the ability to play a range of characters. I still like her on MM, I was just disappointed to learn she doesn’t have more range. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-january-jones-acting-performance-in-mad-men/514887.md?page=2)