Mad Men's Secret Ballerina

November 28, 2001

“Mad Men” returns this Sunday, and with it everyone’s favorite female copy chief: Peggy Olson. One thing you probably didn’t know: Before she was playing Peggy, actress Elisabeth Moss was an aspiring ballet dancer. She started taking lessons at age 5, and in her teens she attended the School of American Ballet in New York and spent summers at Suzanne Farrell’s intensive in DC. “I trained for a long time and I was focused and good,” Moss recently told Arrive magazine. She says she only quit ballet when, at 15, she realized she’d have a longer career as an actress. Personally, though, I think you can still see the influence of Moss’s years spent with Balanchine ballerinas—what better inspiration could there be for Peggy’s unflinching tenacity?

 

Catch the 2-hour premiere of Season 6 at 9/8 c this Sunday on AMC.