Even if you don't recognize Maggie Siff's name, you've seen her before: The actress was Don Draper's first real love interest (and one of his most likable) on Mad Men and she appeared on six seasons of Sons of Anarchy as Tara Knowles.
Now Siff takes on the role of Wendy Rhoades opposite Homeland's Damian Lewis in the new alpha male-dominated Wall Street drama Billions, which premiered Sunday night on Showtime. Here, we speak with Siff about her new role, that S&M scene with Paul Giamatti, and nearly dying that one time she acted with George Clooney.
What initially drew you to Wendy?
So many things! I was impressed with how many layers of character there were revealed in the pilot on the page. It's just unusual. I was very excited as soon as I read it...By the end of the pilot, you realize she's the dominatrix. I thought that was such an interesting feeling.
The show initially feels very male-dominated, but Wendy is actually one of the strongest characters there.
She has superpowers, right? She's as ballsy as any of the men. She's totally comfortable swimming in the waters of Axe Capital with all these alpha dudes and helping them, guiding them, showing them, corralling them. She has a lot of power and influence, but she also has tremendous stores of empathy. She has the training of a very, very skilled psychiatrist and performance coach. I always think of her superpower as being that she can code switch between whomever she's dealing with, masculine energies or feminine energies. But she also has the remarkable ability to step outside and see the bigger picture, which gives her an edge in every situation she's in. And she's clearly smart. I mean, they're all crazy smart, but she's a real shape-shifter.
What does Wendy think about these men who covet money and power?
I think she has a lot of sympathy for them. She is enamored with people who perform at a high level. I think she has a lot of respect for people who can function at a high level like that. She would have the same feeling about incredible athletes and presidents and senators, people who walk that line at a very, very high level and don't waver. She thinks that is a remarkable trait. I think she has a lot of compassion for the ego structure that goes into supporting something like that. She has some humanitarian goals about how to help those people perform, but also help those people become decent human beings.
Her pep talks are pretty incredible.
I know! I actually make her give me pep talks sometimes. I'm like, 'What would Wendy say right now?' It's actually really interesting walking into a day shooting with Paul for the first time or shooting with Damian for the first time and feeling nervous or anxious or insecure. But I'm like, 'I can't feel that way because that is not who this character is. I need to shake that off right now. What would Wendy say?' She's been very helpful to me.
What was it like shooting that opening dominatrix scene with Paul?
We laughed, a lot. How do you get in that headspace? The first thing you do is acknowledge that it's going to be incredibly embarrassing and it's going to be a really long night. It's going to be arduous and technical and humiliating. You make a lot of jokes. Paul makes me laugh constantly. We have so much fun together. That really was born out of the moment of shooing that scene, where we were like, 'Alright, let's get to know each other a little bit and then I'll tie you up and pee on you.' But then you just get down to the work of it.
You've worked with several very charming actors like Damian Lewis and Jon Hamm. How do you keep it together when shooting a scene with them?
They're just guys. They're actors. We're all doing the same thing. It's just what we do. It's a weird profession! And the more you're in it the more the shine wears off. The longer you do it, when you meet the famous person it doesn't feel as surreal. One of the first professional jobs I had was on a movie called Michael Clayton and I had one line I had to say to George Clooney and I thought I was going to die. I thought my cells were going to dissolve and I would float away. It was so strange to be looking at this person and talking to him. But that just wouldn't be true now. It all changes as you go along.
What is this role giving you as an actor that Mad Men or Sons of Anarchy didn't?
In Sons of Anarchy that character was interesting and she was strong, but she was also a stand-by-her-man kind of gal. She had a lot of pain and uncertainty and struggle. It's totally different show with a totally different kind of human being at the center of it. Sons of Anarchy was populated with people who had a lot of very raw, unprocessed emotion that they were being fueled by. So every episode was like being shot out of a cannon and the characters dealing with a lot of post-traumatic stress. That's just not who these people are. So I think there's a lot more about this character that is fleshed out in lots of different ways—intellectual and emotional and psycho-spiritual. The character also just has more space in the story, which is nice as an actor.
