JON HAMM AS DON DRAPER
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"I had to audition seven, eight times," Hamm told reporters in March of his journey to becoming the troubled ad exec. A "mixture of excitement and terror" is how he described his first day in-character: "Have you ever seen a puppy when somebody rings a doorbell?" he said. "They kind of wag all of their bodies, and they pee on the floor. There's such a mixture of excitement and terror and awe and wonder and hope and fear."
JANUARY JONES AS BETTY FRANCIS
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The actress told PEOPLE that she was the "big crier" on set during the final days as the always-glam housewife in season 7. "I think I had one of the last scenes of the day," she said. "[I was] just asking for more takes because I knew it was the last time that I would ever speak for her."
CHRISTINA HENDRICKS AS JOAN HARRIS
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"The reason I loved playing her is because she is incredibly real," a newly strawberry-blonde Hendricks told PEOPLE of the sexy secretary-turned-agency partner. "She learned from her mistakes … but also was so vulnerable and sometimes got her heart broken. And sometimes she was a good friend and sometimes she was a gossip, you know? She was just a real person. We all are all those things."
ELISABETH MOSS AS PEGGY OLSON
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The actress came into playing the rising advertising star with a wide-open mind ("Peggy was naïve and uneducated in that world that I figured it would be better if I remained uneducated," she said) and a funny throwback career moment: an Excedrin commercial. "They kept renewing it so it ran forever, which was great!" she said. "It supported me for a while."
JOHN SLATTERY AS ROGER STERLING
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What the actor will miss most from his time as the snappily dressed exec is "just playing somebody who is so able to turn a phrase the way Roger was able to," he said. "Size up a moment and let fly with something funny." And it turns out that quick wit is the quality he thinks he shares with his on-screen persona. "I can tell a pretty good joke," he revealed. "TV is like that, they see that you can tell a joke and then they write you jokes."