Christina Hendricks, female star of Mad Men was never interested in cars, until we took her out in the new Ferrari California
Slicing into the traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway in downtown Malibu, California, the classic Azzurro Ferrari California takes a deep breath of sea air then exhales loudly as we accelerate to cruising speed. With the wind streaming into the cabin and the exhaust crackling away behind us, it takes a couple of seconds for me to notice, but the car is not the only one breathing deeply. My passenger, who was chatting quietly moments before, is also exhaling quite loudly, too. ‘Wow!’ says Christina, squeezing the door handle a little more firmly. ‘This is like a fairground ride. I’ve never really been interested in cars, but this… this is amazing.’ Catching her breath, Miss Hendricks, the ravishing female star of Mad Men, AMC’s award-winning TV soap about a ’60s New York ad agency Sterling Cooper, settles into the California’s cream leather seat and regains her composure. She then continues to talk about life as an actress, the subtly powerful character she portrays, and her ability for perfect recollection. Even with my shaky sense of recall, as we drive along the sun-baked coast, it’s hard to ignore the coincidences and sense of occasion crowding around this moment. Here we are, writer and starlet, in a pre-production version of the new Ferrari California driving up PCH for the first time, almost 46 years to the day after the first Ferrari California arrived in Los Angeles and probably did exactly the same thing.
The names of the passengers might be different, but the significance is still there. As is the fact that the TV show Hendricks stars in is based in New York in the early ’60s and the original Ferrari California Spider made its debut at the New York Auto Show in 1962. All that’s needed is for the actress to show up on screen in a Ferrari and the circle would be complete.
But that’s not going to happen. Mad Men is a heavily applauded and decorated drama – to date, its impressive awards haul includes two Golden Globes, six Emmys, as well as a clutch of other illustrious gongs – precisely because of its faithful depiction of the sexist ’60s, an era when women rarely drove anything other than a pram. The idea of Hendricks’s alter ego Joan Holloway zipping around the streets of New York behind the wheel of a Ferrari is pushing even fantasy to the limits. Particularly as Hendricks’s character is a relatively lowly employee at the imaginary agency. ‘Joan Holloway is the head secretary/office manager at Sterling Cooper,’ the actress explains. ‘She’s this real confident, brassy queen bee who just has a line on everything that happens in the office. She knows all the gossip, she knows where everyone is at what time and she knows everything that’s going on. So she really runs the place on a couple of different levels.’ And then, presumably, catches the bus home.
In those days, as Ferrari’s recent exhibition La Ferrari e le donne (Ferrari and women) highlighted, office managers didn’t ever get to ride in Ferraris. It was only privileged princesses and big-name actresses who got to steer a Prancing Horse of their own. In 1957 Princess Liliana de Rethy coaxed Enzo Ferrari into producing a special version of the 250 GT coupé. Three years earlier Ingrid Bergman, clearly in love with all things Italian during her relationship with auteur Roberto Rossellini, ordered a Berlinetta 375 Mille Miglia for her own private use. Directors’ love affair with pairing leading ladies and Ferraris was just as strong at that time. Brigitte Bardot famously shared the celluloid with a 250 GT Spider in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 flick Contempt (Martin Scorsese later borrowed its music for Casino), and a 1959 remake of Les Liaisons Dangereuses saw a 250 California Spider cast in a leading role alongside Annette Stroyberg. Both cars are equally as memorable and just as sexy as the stars who featured next to them. But that was way back in a different century. The world has changed now and the new Ferrari California naturally reflects that. While still exuding the same potent sex appeal of the original car, like its namesake, it now features a lot more hitech features, too. Likewise, since the last California debuted, women have gained greater equality in the workplace; they’ve married later, divorced earlier – and more are buying cars they might once have only ever considered to be a man’s choice. They don’t just want to be passengers in them like their ’60s sisters – they want to drive them, too. Why should men have all the fun, after all? It’s a point not lost on many women, least of all Hendricks. As we drive along the famous coastal road, her signature red curls fluttering in the breeze against her pale skin, she says that she doesn’t really need a car like the California right now, but definitely reserves the right to make one hers in the future. It’s not the California’s speed or handling that really attract her, though they are not dismissed in any way; she says it’s the style and the ease with which the whole car operates that draws her in.
Style you expect from a Ferrari. But ease of operation? That one might come as a surprise to anyone who hasn’t yet been at the helm of the California. Hendricks is understandably thrilled when she first sees the car standing on the gravel drive, rhapsodising about the colour and timeless beauty of the newest addition to the range. If cars could speak, I’m sure it would have returned the compliment.
Getting into the car she’s visibly pleased at how effortless it is to make a simple entrance and exit – always a consideration for female stars in Hollywood looking to preserve their modesty. ‘It’s just so easy to get into, none of the undignified struggling you have with some other cars,’ she notes as she takes in the light leather interior and flowing architecture. ‘It also feels really light and airy. A lot of sports cars are really closed in, but this feels very cool and calm.’
It’s all a very long way from Hendricks’s early automotive experiences. ‘When I was growing up my family had a Volkswagen van for my entire life, so there was never any real importance placed on cars,’ the actress recalls as we drive, lost in the moment. ‘I have to say, you really do feel the difference in a car like this. From a Volkswagen van to a Ferrari, it’s really quite different.’ An understatement for sure, but one that’s equally relevant when the California is compared with the rest of the Ferrari stable.
Apart from the retractable metal roof, this new California has a host of features that help it appeal to wearers of Manolo Blahniks not brogues. While still more than able to accelerate like it’s on fire and stop like it’s been frozen, in Comfort mode the California’s adjustable chassis smoothes the tarmac while the automatic transmission slides between gears in an almost limousine-like way. It’s not that the car has lost its teeth, more that it has found a way of hiding them very well.
Hendricks shares the California’s versatility, swapping roles and eras as easily as the car switches modes. On the day of our drive she has just finished working on a pilot for another series and is gearing up for the next, no doubt award-winning run of Mad Men. How far things have come for the woman whose acting career was launched from a Visa card commercial with British actor Pierce Brosnan. But Hendricks seems to be handling all the attention just fine.
Born in Tennessee, Hendricks lived all over the US – Idaho, Oregon and Virginia – as a child while her father indulged his wanderlust. However, for the past 11 years Los Angeles, California has been her home. ‘Every four or five years we would move from one state to another,’ she remembers. ‘And that really makes you have to fit in. It makes you observe and watch people and really notice the differences between places.’ Which helps explain not only why Hendricks is such an effortless actor, but also why she has such a good memory. ‘I have this ability to remember things completely,’ she says, recalling a recent conversation. ‘Not just what someone said but also how they were standing, how they looked, everything.’ So it seems fair to say that Hendricks won’t forget this drive, her first in a Ferrari, for a long time. And if her career keeps accelerating as it is right now, perhaps next time we meet she will be in the Ferrari California’s driving seat, not me. But for now I think it’s probably time to turn around and take this California back. It’s got to be at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance tomorrow, 560 kilometres north on the PCH, and it’s getting late.
It’s a shame I can’t drive it up there, the perfect car on the perfect road with the perfect company – but that’s show business. So I swing the California around, point it up the road and give it one last blast up the hill. As I squeeze the throttle, I see Hendricks’s hand reach out and clasp the door handle and her lips move, but I can’t quite catch what she says. Was it ‘wow’? Sounds about right.
Published on The Official Ferrari Magazine issue 3, December 2008
PUBLISHED IN CARS, HOME, PEOPLE BY PAT DEVEREUX ON 06.16.2011
Credit: Ferrari S.p.A. (www.ferrari.com)
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