The newcomer was the showstopper.
Mad Men's Jessica Paré, who arrived in Season 4, had fans buzzing after Sunday's season premiere with her character's sexy rendition of the 1961 French pop hit Zou Bisou Bisou and a steamy carpet liaison with her new husband, Don Draper (Jon Hamm).
"That was a big surprise for me. I was happy just to have a job, of course, and then I had all these incredible scenes to do. It's a huge gift," she says.
It's been a Mad Men whirlwind for Montreal native Paré, 29, seen last season as secretary Megan Calvet in a role that could have been short-lived but has evolved into series-regular status. Her character grew closer to Don during a trip to California, leading to the much-talked-about season-ending bombshell in which he proposed to her. Fans learned Sunday that the two had gotten married.
"Some people felt like (the proposal) came out of nowhere. Don's met lots of women and hasn't proposed to any of them," says Paré, whose credits include Stardom, Lost and Delirious and Hot Tub Time Machine. "Megan offers something different. She has a real joie de vivre and talent for being happy that is not the undercurrent in the rest of the characters."
After last season, Paré was up in the air about her character's fate. "I wasn't sure if I would be a part of it. Even though it did leave on a cliffhanger, all they had to do was open on a closed casket, and that would be the end of Megan."
In Sunday's fifth-season opener, Mad Men's most-watched episode ever (3.5 million viewers), Paré's Megan Draper throws Don a 40th birthday surprise party, and he is none too pleased. She caps it off with the singing performance, complete with dance moves, as a mortified Don suffers in silence. (The single is available on iTunes, with a vinyl edition to be sold on AMC's Mad Men website.)
"It was a daunting proposition, especially given that I don't dance or sing professionally," says Paré, who had choreographic training for the scene. "But it's exciting. … Any awkwardness that I felt, any embarrassment, only served to bring the scene more to life."
Don's displeasure leads to tension between the couple, an argument that turns into a romantic entanglement. "It's so powerful. There's something quite shocking in it," she says. "Obviously, Don and Megan have this great physical connection. That is part of the foundation of their relationship. Here, she's stuck in the position where she's sort of lost the upper hand and is blatantly making a play to regain it."
She was more anxious about the challenge of the scene than having to act it out in her underwear. "There was probably more coverage than a few bathing suits I own."
Paré won't give away details about what's coming up on the Emmy-winning series. Whatever happens, she will always have Sunday's tour de force.
"Where it went in the end of last season, that was enormous for me," she says. "And then coming back and having so much to do in the first episode, it's still very surreal. I honestly cannot believe my luck."
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