January Jones's recent hosting gig on
Saturday Night Live received tough love from critics, but the only opinions that matter to her are those of family and friends. “Everyone was proud of me,” Jones told
TVGuideMagazine.com at the OCEANA Partners Award Gala in Los Angeles on November 20. “They know I get nervous for public speaking or on stage. They were proud that I got through it.”
Still, the
Mad Men star relished the experience. “It was just really fast! You’re in a whirlwind that week. They’re throwing you in all kinds of different places. There’s promo shoots and pre-taped stuff, going over the writing and changing the script. It was an amazing, creative process,” she says. “I’d never really done stage work before so I was really nervous about it. When the night actually came and the hour came to go on, I was fine—which was shocking to me. I told myself to do it. It happened organically. It could have gone way the other way and I’m glad that it didn’t. Maybe they’ll ask me back.”
Jones spent the remainder of that night in true
SNL fashion. “We went out to the after party,” she said. “My parents, sister, and a lot of my friends were there with the cast members. We had a great time at that party.”
As for what's coming up on
Mad Men for her character, Betty Draper, that's tough to predict. “The writers aren’t even in the writer’s room yet,” she says. “I don’t even know if they know what decade it will be in."
What would she like to see develop for her character in Season 4? “Like everyone else says, it’s kind of sad that it ended the way it did for Don and Betty,” she admits. “You hope they stay together, but, as an independent modern woman, I totally understand why she left. I hope maybe they’ll work it out. I don’t know. Maybe Betty could become some woman’s rights activist or something.”