Who is Don Draper? That’s the eternal question on Mad Men,
but could the answer be as simple as “Zou Bisou Bisou”? As Don’s sultry
new French-Canadian bride, Megan, Jessica Paré has been knocking
everybody’s socks off all season. In the premiere episode alone, she
throws Don a surprise birthday party with a French-pop serenade,
right before the most erotic rug-cleaning in TV history. “She’s a
character of light in a landscape of really dark people,” Paré says.
“Everybody in the ad world is so sarcastic and sardonic. That makes her
the weird one.” But she has one thing in common with the other ladies in
Don’s life: “A little bit of a naughty sexual habit.”
So who is Jessica Paré? Like Megan, the 29-year-old is a Montreal native. In the classic Mad Men
casting style, she’s an actress who’s been working for years without
ever getting a big break. She has appeared in movies from the
lesbian-schoolgirl indie cult fave Lost and Delirious to Hot Tub Time Machine to the punk-rock vampire comedy Suck. Now her job requires her to make out with Jon Hamm. “Hard work, right?” Paré says. “It’s a slog, I tell ya.”
