{alltv} 'Mad Men' kid gets bigger role

It's a subtle thing, but we noticed right away.

When looking at an official list of the main cast members for the fourth season of Mad Men -- which debuts Sunday on AMC -- Kiernan Shipka's name is up there with the big guys and the big girls.

The 10-year-old Shipka, who plays Sally Draper, isn't dubbed merely a "recurring guest star." She's listed with the likes of Jon Hamm and January Jones and Elisabeth Moss and Christina Hendricks.

In other words, the role of wee Sally Draper is getting bigger. Clearly the creators of Mad Men feel Shipka can handle it.

Shipka chuckled when we told her our general reaction to the attention-starved Sally is that we just want to look straight into her sad eyes and tell her everything is going to be OK.

"The first and second season, I could relate to Sally personally, because she was very free-spirited, and she was happy, and adventurous, and fun," Shipka said. "But at the beginning of the third season, all this drama started happening.

"And I know Sally, so I can feel what she's feeling. But I can't relate to it in real life."

Relating to Mad Men's early-1960s setting must be a challenge for Shipka, too -- she was born in 1999, after all. But she gets into the spirit of the era simply by walking onto the set.

"It's like I transformed into the '60s," Shipka said of the experience. "It's awesome. And everyone does such a great job -- props, hair, makeup, costuming. You feel like you're in the '60s, literally."

That said, Shipka wouldn't want to be living in the '60s, literally.

"I think I definitely would rather live in today's time," she said. "There are more opportunities for girls my age."

And technology-wise? Would Shipka miss the Internet? Or video games? Could she get used to having three channels on TV rather than a thousand?

"Well, I'm not really allowed to watch a lot of TV," Shipka said. "But I would miss my phone. Texting, I text all my friends. That's something I really would have to get used to."

Speaking of getting used to things, Sally has had plenty to wrap her brain around on Mad Men, with the palpable tension between her parents and the death of her grandfather last season. It's fascinating to observe the standard 1960s parenting skills of Don (Hamm) and Betty (Jones) -- which often amounts to, "Don't bug me, kid" -- when compared to the current era of hyper-parenting.

Of course, as Sally's lonely frustration has mounted, she has begun to rebel and act out.

"There are a lot of fun scenes on Mad Men, but I have to say, I loved the scene where I got caught smoking," Shipka said.

"And driving the car was pretty awesome, although I didn't really drive the car. I wish I could drive the car for real, but I don't know where the car would end up at the end of the scene."

Where Sally ends up on Mad Men this season remains to be seen, too. But both the role and the young actress handling the role are growing up right before our eyes.