Have you ever noticed this? I guess it’s a testament to Jon Hamm’s acting skills, but it’s pretty easy to tell when Don Draper is slipping back into being Dick Whitman. His smile is childlike and shy, and he uses both sides of his mouth. When Don Draper smiles, it’s guarded, and smirky.
Here we see Don/Dick as Dick at Anna’s house, where he’s obviously most comfortable (this of course is before he and Anna’s sister had their argument- Don tried to be Don but he was cut down and back to being Dick by the time he walked back into the house.) See his smile? Sweet, happy, relaxed, no attitude.
Now here’s Dick/Don as Don. This is about as big a smile as we get from Mr. Draper. Just a little sideways smirk. Unless he’s drunk.
I really noticed that in last week’s episode, as a very drunk & happy Clio-winning Don leans into the Life Cereal guys and spits out one bad idea after another. That was Dick Whitman talking, not Don Draper. More evidence? The waitress he woke up with two days later calls him Dick, much to his own surprise.
Watch Don Draper’s smile over the next few episodes of Mad Men, I think we’ll see more of the child-like and lost Dick Whitman appearing in Don’s carefully crafted but tearing-at-the-seams persona. Unless he stops drinking. As if that’s gonna happen.
(images via AMC)
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