The season finale of Mad Men airs this Sunday. What do you think of this season? I think it’s been the worst season thus far, which is an accomplishment because I disliked most of last season too. There are a few bright spots this season (spoilers): Don and Betty having a one-night-stand, Bob Benson and his Dick Whitman-esque drama, everything about Peggy, and of course, Kiernan Shipka’s Sally Draper. Vulture sat down with Kiernan shortly after last week’s episode aired – that was the episode where Sally spent the night at Miss Porter’s and she called her BFF Glen to come and bring her pot and alcohol. Sally capped off the trip by smoking a cigarette with her mom in the car ride home. The episode followed the previous episode’s big reveal for Sally – she walked in on her father having sex with Linda Cardellini. So what does Kiernan think about all of the changes in Sally’s life? She wants even MORE drama! Also: she’s a precocious little thing, and she always has been. That’s what makes her Sally Draper so interesting.

Matthew Weiner recently said that Sally has inherited lots of problems. “I predict smoking. I predict alcoholism.” In Sunday’s episode, she tried both, and that freaked me out. How about you?
I don’t want to pick a favorite episode, but I had so much fun doing that one. Matt talked to me a little about it beforehand, but I got the idea that this was a big deal for Sally just from reading the script. I kind of predicted it for her, especially given what happened in the episode before. But I was also still shocked. I’ve grown up with Sally, viewers have watched her grow, so seeing her take her first drink is really shocking. It’s like a milestone for her. It’s crazy.

What was it like having to smoke on-camera?
I had fun filming that scene, too. In the first car ride, I had lots of French fries, which was great. That was the highlight of the day, to be honest. I was pretty nervous to smoke. I’ve obviously never smoked before in my entire life, so it was sort of a thing that I had no clue how to do. [Laughs.] But I caught on. We did enough takes that by the end of it, I was like, Oh, I’m a pro at this now. I can do this. Everyone was all, “No, you’re not a pro at it quite yet.”

What state do you think we’re going to find Sally in next season?
Next season I sort of see Sally in that downward spiral. There’s not much room for her to go back up. A lot of people thought through seasons past that she’d hit her bottom, but now is truly where she’s going to get herself into trouble. I hope so. It would be really fun. It’d be awesome.

Who do you think has been more damaging to her so far, Betty or Don?
I think up until the episode before last, Betty was more damaging to her because Don’s redeeming quality throughout everything was that he always tried to be a good father even if he didn’t succeed. He’s still trying. [Sally catching him with Sylvia] has affected him so much. It’s very interesting to see. But I think her father obviously triggered a much deeper sense of shame for her.

Are you able to shake that kind of thing off quickly?
Kind of. Most of the scenes I film, they don’t really affect me in my real life. After any kind of emotional scene, I’m the type of person who’s able to snap out of it because it’s such a different world. Sally’s crying and going through all this emotional stuff, but then they yell “cut!” and suddenly you’re on the Mad Men set and everyone’s so nice. There’s a big separation. None of it gets to me too personally.

I’m glad that Sally has had Glen over the past few seasons. He’s turned out to be a really good friend to her.
I thought Glen was awesome last week. It’s cool, because a lot of people, I guess, loved to hate the character in the beginning, if that makes any sense. So I think that seeing him now is cool, because he is really a different person. He seems to have found himself. He’s matured. And he always sticks up for Sally and I thought that was really, really sweet. I love working with Marten. He’s great and we always have a lot of fun together. Sally and Glen episodes are always special — it kind of has to be. It’s not just some little episode when they get together. Something big always happens. We’ve seen throughout the season Sally having a couple friendships and I feel like Glen is her only stable friend. [Laughs.]

The other traumatizing thing that happened to Sally this season was confronting an intruder in the apartment while Megan and Don were out. How do you think she handled that?
The grandma Ida thing was super cool. Sally was reading Rosemary’s Baby and then she walks out and then there’s this intruder in her home. It all felt like this nightmare…. I think she was more weirded out by the whole thing, because the lady didn’t seem super harmful. I mean, she came off nice! [Davenia McFadden] in real life was a great actress playing someone who’s a great actress, you know? So I think that Sally was more curious and didn’t quite know what was going on. That episode we find out that Sally really doesn’t know anything about her father. It exposed how, really, they know nothing about each other.

Ah, it’s so sad! Do you see any of yourself in Sally?
Not really. We’re the same age, and that’s where our similarities end. We definitely have different lives.

So you don’t roll your eyes as much?
My eyes, by the end of this season, were so rolled out. I couldn’t move them! I was afraid they were going to freeze like that some times. Literally every scene I had to do at least three eye rolls. I’m getting so good at it now.

Where would you like for Sally to end up?
If I was a viewer only, I’d want her to end up happy. But as the actor, I feel like it would be fun if Sally went through more ups and downs next season. This season, we saw a different side of her, and I’d like to see her rebel a little more. She’s certainly going to get a lot older, maturity-wise. I hope she has some kind of wild ride. At least a little something.

[From Vulture]

I think it’s funny that at the ripe old age of 13, Kiernan predicts that Sally will be “in that downward spiral”. How much of a downward spiral can a 13-year-old girl go through?! I thought the most interesting part of the walk-in situation with Sally was how much it affected Don. He truly looked like he had just killed someone when he realized Sally had walked in.

But yeah, I’m not looking forward to the season finale that much. This season has sucked so much, I’m just watching it at this point to see if Don finally kills himself. I think that’s what we’ve been building up to this season, and that would certainly be an interesting way to end this season, right? And then next season can just focus on the characters I actually care about, like Peggy, Joan, Roger, Pete (sort of), Monolo and Bob Benson. And yes, I’ll do a season finale recap on Monday!

Photos courtesy of WENN.