Eleven-year-old Kiernan Shipka is one of the brightest and most talented of all of the young child actors working today. Don’t disregard her just because she’s working in television – in 10 years time, it’s going to be Kiernan versus Hailee Steinfeld for all of the best film roles. Kiernan’s most significant role to date has been the part of Sally Draper on Mad Men. This past season, she was bumped up to “season regular” – meaning her name appeared on the opening credits. She is one of the most beloved characters on the show – and that’s before you find out how awesome Kiernan is in real life. Last year, she gave a brief, adorable and precocious interview to HuffPo about her Method acting, and her screen mother’s emotional distance. And now she’s part of New York Magazine’s Style issue – the one with Jessica Simpson on the cover. The interview takes place in Kiernan’s home, a Los Angeles mansion that her parents paid for with their own hard work (as opposed to their daughter’s gigs). Kiernan – or Kiki, as her parents call her – loves fashion, playing the piano, and she proves that even little girls swoon for Jon Hamm. She’s completely wonderful:

Kiernan is a fashionista. “I follow fashion trends,” she says, tipping her chin a bit to the sky and speaking with the sort of elocution that would have her at the top of her class at Spence. “My closet’s full of Papo d’Anjo,” she continues. “They’re my main brand. I just absolutely love them because the quality is so amazing. Chloé has some amazing kids’ pieces, too, and I have a lot of D&G Junior. Grace Kelly is my fashion inspiration—a classic look, with beautiful pieces, and very pretty.”

On not seeing all of Mad Men: [Kiernan’s mom] Erin doesn’t want Kiernan to know about some of these things yet. Erin usually meets with Matthew Weiner, Mad Men’s auteur, before the table read of a new season, and he fills her in on any upcoming “adult content.” Kiernan is shielded from some of this material. Erin usually watches Mad Men on her own on Sunday night and videotapes it for Kiernan to watch with her on Monday night, when she knows which parts to fast-forward through. Kiernan is fine with this agreement, for now. “When I’m 16, I’m going to sit down and watch all of the episodes the whole way through myself,” she declares.

Kiernan on Sally Draper and Betty Draper: “If I was in Sally’s place right now, it would be hard, because I wouldn’t know what to do,” she says quietly. “There’s really nothing she can do. She can run away, she can do some crazy things, but really, it’s probably best to stay calm.” As far as her TV mom, Betty Draper, is concerned, Kiernan doesn’t have many kind words. “I think Betty’s not where she wants to be in life: She didn’t want to have kids, and now maybe the divorce isn’t the perfect life that she really imagined,” says Kiernan. “Also, Betty is definitely not a nice person in general. I think she just has a mean soul.”

Kiernan on Don Draper: On the other hand, the mention of Don Draper makes Kiernan, like the rest of womankind, go a little weak. “Don is always trying to be a good father,” she says. Then she reconsiders, perhaps thinking of his habitual philandering, if those parts didn’t get fast-forwarded. “Maybe he’s not the best person, but he always tries to be a good father—he may not succeed, but he always tries.”

Jon Hamm on Kiernan/Sally: “Well, I think Don has a relationship with Sally, and like most of the relationships in his life, it’s very loaded and changes varying on the circumstances,” says Hamm. “Don loves Sally. I think one of his difficulties is in expressing that love unconditionally, or at least finding a way to have that love and that relationship exist outside the damaged relationship he has with her mother. This is one of the things Don finds refreshing and inspiring about Megan—the possibility, the excitement of unconditional love.”

On Sally Draper’s potential step-mom, and Glen, the creepy boy-next-door: So what does Kiernan think about Megan, Don’s wife-to-be and her new stepmother? “Well …” says Kiernan, her eyes widening as she considers the right way to answer. “If Megan and Don were to get married, I guess she would be a good stepmother.” (If?) Kiernan also loves the neighbor boy, Glen. “He is not creepy!” she says. “Back then, a lot of kids didn’t have divorced parents, and Glen was just showing her the ropes. I think he’s just a true friend of Sally’s. But now she’s moving. So it’s a true good-bye between them, not even like a modern-day good-bye.” She hangs her head. “They won’t be able to Skype each other or text or anything.”

Kiernan’s relationship with Elisabeth Moss: The actors on set are her friends, and though she says she understands they’re adults, so they’re not quite her peers, she says she feels close to Elisabeth Moss. Moss likes her a lot, too. “We consider Sally the fourth Mad Men woman,” says Moss. “And that’s largely because Kiernan portrays a full portrait of a person. She doesn’t seem like a child actor to me.”

On making friends her own age: To make friends her own age, Kiernan tries to perform in a lot of kids’ plays and musicals at a theater nearby. “I make most of my friends through my extracurricular activities,” she says. “A lot of them are just regular kids. I certainly know quite a few kid actors, but I’m not really friends with them. They’re all very nice people, but I just don’t run in the same circles. I’m more friends with people from my activities.” (“My favorite conversations with Kiernan are the ones we have right when we come back to start the new season,” says Hamm. “I’m constantly mind-boggled by how much that kid does when she’s not ‘working.’ Makes me feel lazy.”)

Extras: She sits primly on a cream-colored couch to answer questions about her favorite TV shows (Modern Family, Big Bang Theory), her favorite movie (An Affair to Remember), and her favorite food (sushi, particularly crab rolls and yellowtail sashimi). She likes to golf. “It is fun, though it can be stressful, when you think, Man, why didn’t I hit that shot how it was supposed to be hit?” She would like to go to Yale and Juilliard, and she also likes to cook. “I watch the Food Network all the time. I love baking cupcakes. I’m not really good at baking any sort of layery thing,” she says. “I love going to the farmers’ market for ingredients. I really love exotic fruits like litchis and rambutans.”

Kiernan on Justin Bieber: Kiernan goes wild. “I love him,” she squeals, her eyes lighting up with the same excitement she experienced when she came up with Burbloody. “I would love to meet him.” She bites her lip. “But I wouldn’t be allowed to date him. I can’t date until I’m 16.”

[From New York Magazine]

I love that Jon Hamm consented to an interview about his on-screen daughter. I get the feeling that he and Kiki are probably pretty tight in real life, which just proves that Jon Hamm can literally make every woman, regardless of age, love him. And when Jon and Kiki have their scenes together… they’re incredible. They pop. They make me cry too.

But, yeah, Kiki is going to rule the world one day. Just wait.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Over the years as I’ve watched the beauty of Mad Men, I’ve noticed that they cast one of the finest child actors working today. Her name is Kiernan Shipka, and she’s ten years old. She plays Sally “Salamander” Draper, Don and Betty Draper’s oldest child. In this current season of Mad Men (Season 4), she’s finally been bumped up to full cast member, with her name appearing on the opening credits and everything. Honestly, she deserved to be a full cast member the whole time – she’s always acted her ass off. The Sally Draper character is wonderful, at times used as a Greek chorus to give voice to the audience, at times she’s used to simply call out her mother and her father on their bad behavior. In this season, Sally is starting to grow up and act out – in one memorable episode, Sally even masturbated while watching The Man From U.N.C.L.E. While at a sleepover. She’s in therapy now, she’s losing her lisp, she’s throwing fits, and she’s running away, and she’s going to come of age when some really bad sh-t is going down. She’s wonderful.

Anyway, HuffPo has an interview with Kiernan, and she’s just the kind of effortlessly precocious and intelligent young lady that you would expect:

The 10-year-old actress who plays Don and Betty Draper’s daughter Sally on “Mad Men” is getting a lot of airtime this season, but she’s not allowed to see much more than her own scenes.

“I’m not allowed to watch the show,” Kiernan Shipka says. “My mom will tape it and then show me the scenes she feels are appropriate.”

The critically acclaimed series stars Jon Hamm, January Jones and Elisabeth Moss and centers about a 1960s-era ad agency. Episodes routinely feature topics that include alcoholism, adultery and sexism in the workplace.

Even if she follows the story lines only on a need-to-know basis, Kiernan says it’s not difficult to channel Sally.

“I’m very method when I’m on set,” Kiernan says. “It’s just kind of thinking the thoughts of Sally, and I pretty much just become her. It’s a character that I’ve known for a really long time, so it’s pretty easy.”

It’s that kind of talent that has upped Kiernan to a full-time cast member on the show, which is on its fourth season. Its writers are giving her a lot to do, too: Sally’s parents are now divorced and she’s acting out.

Some of Sally’s most recent offenses include running away to see her father in New York City, chopping off her hair and fondling herself in front of a friend’s mother. Kiernan says Sally will bring more drama to the show in future episodes.

“Believe it or not, there’s a lot more coming,” Kiernan teases. “You’re just gonna have to wait and see what it is.”

Kiernan also defends Sally’s recent behavior.

“I don’t think she’s a bad kid at all. She’s going through a rough time. Don is absent and Betty has never once catered to Sally’s emotional needs, so I feel that they’re not the best parents,” Kiernan says.

[From Huffington Post]

Don’t you love her? “Betty has never once catered to Sally’s emotional needs” – do you know any 10 year olds who talk like that? She’s epic. I predict a long career for this one – at least I hope so. Because this one could truly be the second coming of Jodie Foster (suck it, Lohan).