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Entertainment

How Kiernan Shipka Learned to Act for an Audience of Millions

The 'Mad Men' and 'Feud' star talks about growing up on TV, the things that scared her most as a child, and her murderous new role in 'The Blackcoat's Daughter.'
A24

In Early Works, we talk to artists young and old about the jobs and life experiences that led them to their current moment. Today, it's actor Kiernan Shipka, who's currently starring on FX's Feud and in Oz Perkins's violent, Satanic horror film The Blackcoat's Daughter, which is out March 31 in theaters and on VOD. (You likely recognize her from Mad Men, tooshe played Don Draper's daughter Sally.) Read on for her thoughts on doing voice work for video games, her obsession with ballroom dancing, and what scared her most as a child.

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My first job was when I was, like, six months old. [Editor's note: Shipka did commercial and print work as a child.] I did not take a long time to start. I don't have any recollection of it, but as I get older, I've definitely started remembering things that I've tried to take on.

One of my favorite hobbies when my family lived in Chicago was ballroom dance. When we moved to LA, it was one of the things that I stuck with, and I did it until I was about 13 or 14. There's something about it that was so fun. I love to dance the cha cha, salsa, and the waltz. I'm so into all of it. I was a big Dancing with the Stars fan—that was the one dancing show I tuned into all the time. My favorite season was when Shawn Johnson won. I don't think doing Dancing with the Stars is in the cards for me right now, but I'm happy to watch it.

Chicago was beautiful. The weather is a little harsh, but the people are amazing, and the city is gorgeous. When we moved to LA, I was a little young to miss anything about where I lived previously—it was new, but I didn't have that much memory of the old. LA has really been the place that I've grown up.

There was no lightbulb moment when it came to getting into acting. The light was slowly, but surely, turning on—you know? When it reached full brightness, I was like, Wow, this is serious. My first TV appearance was on an episode of Monk—one day of work. All I remember about it was that Tony Shaloub was great, and it was a nice, hot day. It was an easy and fun job.

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I don't play video games, but I don't mind doing voice work for them. It's super fun. You definitely have to pay attention to your voice, more than anything. You have to put the emphasis on your voice and convey all the emotion through that—whereas when you're acting, you can use your face and your body as props to help you. Voice work is kind of isolated in that way.

Mad Men was so much more than a TV show—it was my acting school, where I learned to tap into my emotions and understand the character well. I made so many great relationships, too. Mad Men was the environment where I spent a lot of my formative years. It was one of the most influential things in my life, and my life will be forever changed because of it, in the best way.

It was so much fun to have worked on Feud—really amazing to work with Susan Sarandon, Jessica Lange, and Ryan freaking Murphy, who is just the most incredible force. I've been so grateful to see what they do so expertly because I've learned so much. I never sat down to watch What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? before this, but it's fantastic, obviously—[Bette Davis and Joan Crawford] were such fantastic powerhouses.

I think Feud shines a light about the way women used to be treated in Hollywood—and how they still are, in many ways. It's an important thing to focus on right now, because times are changing, but it's also important to highlight what hasn't. It's strongly relevant.

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Courtesy of Suzanne Tenner/FX

I read the script for The Blackcoat's Daughter while I was filming something in North Carolina, and I was very into it. I talked to director Oz Perkins on the phone, and I knew automatically that he had really good taste, and I was going to be in good hands. I felt very safe doing a riskier thing in a more different role in those kinds of hands.

The funny thing with making the movie—as well as a lot of independent films—is that you don't have a lot of time. Time is not a huge luxury. It's a big challenge as an actor to bounce from the most demonic point in your character's arc back to beginning of the movie. That's just how it goes—but there's something even more fun and fast-paced and exciting about that in so many ways.

I wasn't too into horror movies as a kid, though. I was a big scaredy-cat, but I'm not so much anymore. I didn't watch that many scary movies, though—nothing crazy. Voldemort gave me enough nightmares to last my childhood.

As told to Larry Fitzmaurice