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You seem to have played a variety of roles across your career.

I have been very lucky to get parts that are well written. You'll go "I'll do those", whether or not they are your cup of tea in terms of type of show. Sometimes you can slide in and play a good part without having to be committed for six or seven years. That scares me, the idea of playing a character consistently for that long. It doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense to me.

Is there a Mad Men character that you feel an affinity with?

Definitely Roger Sterling. It is just the writing. When I first met Matt Weiner, I thought he wanted me to play the part of Don and I was really disappointed when they had Hamm cast already. Obviously, he made the right choice.

Then Matt said, "there is this part of Roger that isn't really developed in the pilot, but I promise you it will be and it will be a great character". I'm a big fan of Matt's, so I jumped in. You know it is sort of a leap of faith, especially in television. You can only read one or two scripts and hopefully you will like the rest of them.

What do you think is the most appealing thing about that era?

I think it is the contradiction. It all seemed so buttoned down yet everybody was free to smoke and drink, fool around and think aloud. Now if anyone says anything it is immediately on YouTube and there are six lobby groups that are deeply insulted. Nobody gave a s*** back then. You could say whatever you want.

How long have you been on TV?

I think I did my first job on a TV show about 20 years ago.

Do you turn down a lot of roles, or do you just have a good agent?

I have a very good agent. And I do turn down a lot of stuff, but you take jobs for many different reasons. Was it James Mason or Peter O'Toole that said, "you do one for the wallet, one for the travel and one for the material".

Sometimes you have to pay the bills, but I have been very lucky and I work with good people and I live in the real world. I live in New York and like anywhere else it is really expensive.

When you start a job, do you know whether it will be successful after many years in the business?

No, you don't know. The situation is that you read a script like Mad Men and decide to sign on hoping it will be good. Then it becomes popular as well. Mad Men seems to be sort of gaining momentum and it is gratifying because usually it is good and no one is watching it, or it is popular and you are doing it for the money.

White hair has become a trademark look for you. When did you start to go white?

When I was in college.

Has anyone ever suggested you get rid of it?

All the time. I dye it sometimes. I dyed it for a movie last year and it was ridiculous. I looked like a vampire.