To ‘Mad Men’ creator, Don Draper is America

Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner reveals a lot about his Emmy-winning AMC show in a new interview that appeared on The Atlantic’s website on Wednesday night.

You won’t find spoilers for the final season, which begins April 13, but there are plenty of insights into Weiner’s creative process and his thoughts on some of the show’s key characters.

On Mad Men’s anti-hero, the conflicted 1960s advertising executive Don Draper (played by Jon Hamm): “Don is a representation, to me, of American society. He is steeped in sin, haunted by his past, raised by animals, and there is a chance to revolt. And he cannot stop himself.”

On sexy Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks), the former office manager who is now a partner at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce: “…Women love Joan. Joan is womanly in a way that they want to be womanly. And it was peculiar to me because I was like, ‘I think that’s what men want also, so I don’t know why it was such a revolutionary concept.’ ”

Weiner, 48, also shares how Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities and a biography of Mormonism founder Joseph Smith shaped Mad Men.