Bryan Batt: The Gay Blade of ‘Mad Men”

Bryan Batt plays creative director Salvatore Romano on AMC's Mad Men, and he's emerged as one of the show's most unambiguously sympathetic characters. A talented and expressive professional, he's also a deeply closeted gay man in an era and culture that keeps him very much on the down low -- even to himself. Fans were shocked when Sal was abruptly fired from ad agency Sterling Cooper after rejecting the advances of an amorous client, and his future on the show remains cloudy. Batt's prospects, however, have rarely looked rosier, as he enjoys both critical acclaim and domestic success with his New Orleans decor boutique, Hazelnut (co-owned with Batt's partner of many years Tom Cianfichi). Batt talks with us about his ideal return to Mad Men, hunky National Guardsmen making the best of Hurricane Katrina, and getting dressed to the nines.

We don’t really know what the future holds for Sal. But if you could come back, as an actor, what would be most dramatically satisfying as a way for you to return?
A spinoff with Joan Holloway [Christina Hendricks].

So everyone who’s out of the Sterling Cooper office gets their own show?
Our own show together! There are many ways—I can’t give anything away because I know what happens. I just want to see Sal recognized for his talent more and more because he is a talented art director. Moving into the last episodes, he was directing, so it’s a whole realm of the industry that could open up for him in a way. I would love to see that. I would also love to see him somehow satisfied, finally. He’s the only one that hasn’t cheated on his wife, you know.

There are several ironies with your character, that being one of them. The last scene we saw of him, he seems to be in a sketchy part of town, with men behind him cruising the streets ... what do you make of that?
I honestly didn’t know about those men walking behind me beforehand. As a stage actor, you’re taught to not read the stage directions because that’s how someone else did the production. But on our show, if they write any kind of stage direction or anything, it is done, it is part of the script—the bible. We do not deviate one word from script, and if an action is there, it is to happen that moment. That’s also great for an actor because it puts certain parameters in place and keeps you focused. But I didn’t notice—first it was a rainstorm, then outside on the street—and now I’m in the Ramble.

It didn’t seem like he knew what was going on until he was around it.
And he’s not a predator ... he would not know. He’s wandering the streets during the day the last three weeks after he was fired, and he keeps on getting calls, and he goes home when it’s time. So, who knows, maybe it’s just a gravitational pull.

Speaking of stage acting—you’ve played Che Guevara and lots of other things people wouldn’t associate with your character on Mad Men.
A lot of Broadway ... actually Che was dinner theater. But I did nine Broadway shows and bunch of off-Broadway. I saw a play the other day and it just made me want to go back ... I love the stage. If I could, in the hiatus from Mad Men, do a play or a musical or something. We have six months!

So are you going to try and do some stage?
A lot of times they want a long contract, but if it’s a short run—yes, I’m all over it. I saw The Royal Family the other day, and I had done the workshop for the musical a couple years ago. I died! Still a great show. Rosemary Harris and Jan Maxwell have a monologue where they talk about the theater and why they give up so much for it ... it just touched something inside of me that made me want to do it more.

Much was made in the show about Don Draper’s [Jon Hamm] lack of sympathy for Sal, especially considering the parallels between the two characters—both having their secret lives. But even considering that, would a sympathetic Don have been a little anachronistic? It’s less that he’s unsympathetic to a gay man than he’s unsympathetic generally.
To me, when he said “you people”—he had that line, which was very very homophobic. Well, not homophobic but ...

No, of course you’re right, it was homophobic.
The first episode this season, you think he’s going to be alright with it, then this happens, and he’s not. I think also that it’s because this happened around work—I wasn’t out of town. Don perceives that I didn’t adhere to what he said; our last words on the plane in the first episode were, “Limit your exposure.” I don’t think he really, fully believes Sal wasn’t somehow to blame. And the sadness of the whole episode was that he was completely innocent.