ST SEBASTIAN’S

FINE ARTS
DEPARTMENT
John Slattery.
can take forever. You can do [work in this business] your whole life,
if you get lucky enough to get a job.”
e schedule for producing a television series can be rigorous.
e hours are long and the pace is extremely fast. Shooting a season
takes roughly five months.
“We shoot MadMen at a studio in Los Angeles,” noted Slattery.
“We shoot an episode in eight days. It takes eight days to prep the
episode prior to shooting it. So, while one episode is shooting, the
next one is prepping - which means you’re looking around for
locations, having meetings with the writers, casting the guest actors,
and figuring how to shoot each scene. ere’s a huge amount of
preparation. Sets are being designed and built. en you shoot that
episode as they start prepping the next one and the one that was shot
prior goes into post-production - which is editing and sound
mixing. It’s a hugely labor-intensive process that happens in a really
compressed schedule that makes television sometimes difficult to
execute.”
Between seasons Slattery has the opportunity to act in other
venues. A movie he filmed during a recent break in shooting was
just released. eAdjustmentBureau, which co-stars Matt damon,
looks at how destiny, or fate, can be manipulated by forces or people
in our lives. Slattery refers to the movie when discussing what it
takes to make it in the business.
He stated, “eAdjustmentBureau talks about the question of
fate versus free will. I did a lot of press and got asked a lot about
whether I believed in one or the other. And, I don’t necessarily
think it’s one or the other. I think it’s a combination of both. I
mean, there are signs that are hard to ignore, but you are also a
product of the choices you make, the work you put in, and the time
spent on any endeavor. You can go to Boston College and study
economics, but with the economy being the way it is, you’re not
assured of any job or any career path. Any number of things can
happen.”
Slattery talked about how acting, and show business in general,
is the same as any other career path a person chooses. Hard work
and determination help, but they are no guarantees of success.
He concluded, “What you don’t see is the twenty years it has
taken me to get to this point. It’s a lot of work, but it’s also a lot of
time put in. e difficult part is the instability. MadMen is popular
now, but it’s not going to last forever. And I have to be prepared for
that too. ere isn’t any one step, there’s no formula. It’s different
for everybody. You have to figure out what’s right for you. I used to
think that New York City was the place that one had to go to learn
how to act. But, I don’t think that anymore. Some people think if
you really want to learn to act you have to act on-stage, but that’s not
true. ere are just too many avenues now. e competition is very
stiff all the time, and you’ll have to be able to deal with rejection.
People ask, ‘Well, how did it happen? How did you get to where you
are today?’ I answer that it’s a lot of luck, but it’s also a lot of hard
work. It’s the same with any job, any career. As corny as it
sounds… you get out of it what you put into it.”
A Career Built On A Series Of Accidents
For MSNBC’s Lawrence O’donnell ’70, an entire career was
launched with the writing of a book. DeadlyForce, written in
1983, tells the story of a 1975 cover-up of the shooting of a black
man by two white members of the Boston Tactical unit. In 1986
the book was turned into the movie ACaseofDeadlyForce.
“I think my work has been a series of accidents,” commented
O’donnell. “e only deliberate thing I set out to do was write a
book. What came from writing that book, what followed the book,
is a series of accidents – luck.”
Very good luck and a lot of talent and skill, actually. O’donnell’s
work on the movie version of his book led him into the
screenwriting business. en, in 1988, he was asked by Senator
Moynihan to serve as the Communications director of his
reelection campaign. Following the election he became Moynihan’s
Senior Advisor, before holding positions as the Chief of Staff to the
Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works and the
Chief of Staff of the Senate Finance Committee.
He added, “When I came out of the Senate I went back to
screenwriting, primarily in television, using what I learned in
Washington to write for eWestWing and to create another show
on NBC aer that.”
At the same time, O’donnell was asked to become a political
analyst on a new network, MSNBC. up until that point, he hadn’t
thought about a career as a television anchorman; but since it was
easy for him to analyze political news and it would not take up much
of his time, he decided to give it a try.
Today O’donnell is the host of the highly respected eLast
Word, which airs weekdays at 8:00 p.m. on MSNBC.
22 | ST. SEBASTIAN’S MAGAZINE Volume VI, Issue II