I'm Sadie Alexander and I play Jade the bartender.
The thing I love the most about acting is speaking other people's words because I don't
find myself really quick-witted and articulate on the spot, so I really appreciate speaking
other people's words and telling stories.
I mean, that's why I got into it in the first place when I was a kid.
My mother used to read me stories and I watched movies.
My favorite movie of all time was National Velvet, which is an incredible film that was
made in the 30s that I watched over and over and over as a child because of the story.
I just knew that I wanted to tell stories like that.
When I was in middle school, my mom took me into New York City and I did one audition
and booked a Nickelodeon commercial, and that's not really what a 13-year-old should do.
I revisited my acting career in high school and then I went to Rutgers University, the
Mason Gross School of the Arts, and studied Meisner for four years and just did the New
York thing.
Even though I studied classical theater and I studied in London and I did a lot of theatrical
things, I ended up with a really industrious commercial career for a while.
I moved out to LA because I did a Las Vegas commercial.
I was flown out from New York to do a Las Vegas commercial and I showed up on set in
Las Vegas and everybody was really chill and seemed super happy.
So I thought, all right, maybe I should move from New York where I'm super stressed to
Los Angeles and pursue it there.
And I got out here, did some independent film, I produced a feature, I started really kind
of getting immersed in the whole thing and then I ended up booking a recurring role
in Mad Men.
We got Sadie Alexander at Hollywood and Highland Center.
Who, pray tell us that?
Mad Men, son Mad Men.
We say...
Now, what if you're like a guest of someone and they've cooked for you and the food is
just horrible?
I mean, what is the move?
On Mad Men, I play a character named Scarlett.
I came in at the end of season five and, you know, it's just a whole other world.
It's just the AMC Matthew Weiner world, which is super secretive and no one knows what
the heck is going on, but you kind of show up and you just got to be professional and
immerse yourself in the time and it's been an amazing experience.
It's been a dream job, a dream job for sure.
I have had quite a lot of diversity in my career.
I have done, you know, the super Midwestern marketing, a product like toilet paper or
swifters and things like that.
And then, well, going back to college, I really did the ingenue and I was always pained and
tortured and I played Rose of Sharon in The Grapes of Wrath, this great literary piece.
And somewhere along the line, I just, I came to LA and everybody thought I was super edgy.
I was like, well, it's because I'm a brunette and what it's because I, I have to stifle
my profanity.
What is this?
So, yeah, I've done a lot of crazy things.
I've done, you know, the bartender, the slutty girl, the woman will steal your husband, that
kind of stuff.
Yeah, I went from this like tortured ingenue to selling toilet paper to now I get to do
these kind of gritty women without moral roles.
Mad Men has been the most eye-opening experience for me because when you come from acting school
and particularly if you study in a conservatory and then you go overseas and study in London
with coaches from RADA and, you know, people who have this serious reverence for the history
of theatre, there's this kind of cadence to the way you work.
And then I got to this set of Mad Men where it's, you know, Matthew Weiner is on, you
know, Forbes' most powerful people in the world and you're really left to your own devices.
You know, you really have to stand alone and show up and know your lines and not really
ask many questions and just kind of go and be a professional.
Whereas being in the theatre, I feel like there's a lot more nurturing in a way that
might handicap you in the professional world of television and film.
To me, that was, it was like jumping off a cliff, you know.
And I honestly think that throughout my commercial career, that was where I got a lot of the
best experience because you basically have to do one day in and out.
You have to know, get to know the crew.
You have to know your mark.
You have to just show up and be professional.
It's a one day in and out.
I mean, a lot of people in this film do have done a lot of commercials and I think that
really prepares you.
I did a project, it was a studio film called Gamer and there were 30 screens above the
bar.
My Swiffer commercial came on as I'm talking to Gerard Butler and in the middle of me talking,
he stopped me and he goes, wait, is that fucking you?
And in that moment, I was like, in the back of my head, a little bit proud that he could
see that I did some work, but also completely horrified by the fact that I was talking to
this dude, he was like, we all know you have a 12 pack under that and you're like this
super movie star.
And I'm like, you know, with a Swiffer.
It was pretty, on the whole embarrassing.
Yeah.
I think the most challenging thing about living an actor's lifestyle, and I will call it a
lifestyle, you know, it's a lifestyle just like any kind of periphery choices people
make is the unpredictability.
I mean, you can be completely unemployed for months and then all of a sudden book this
fantastic role and be thrown into a situation where you're working with really seasoned
actors, directors, producers on a very high level.
And so you have to always be ready.
I think that's really challenging to always be ready, always be in the best shape.
You know, always be, you know, get a lot of sleep all the time because you never know
when it's going to happen.
And yeah, so I would say the unpredictability about living an actor's lifestyle is the most
difficult thing.
Even if you have education and you have experience and you've traveled the world and you have
all these fabulous friends and acquaintances and no matter what set you walk on to, you're
still just raw and new and it doesn't matter who you are or where you came from.
It's what you do right now that counts.
I'm Sadie Alexander.
Go watch this movie starting from scratch or I'll scratch your eyes out.
