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Vincent Kartheiser - "Money" Tv Movie - He will play for the BBC

Webmaster — 2009-11-12T20:41:45Z

Nick Frost, Vincent Kartheiser, Emma Pierson and Jerry Hall to star in BBC adaptation of Martin Amis' cult novel Money

Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz, Sean Of The Dead, Spaced), Vincent Kartheiser (Mad Men, Angel), Emma Pierson (Little Dorrit, Hotel Babylon) and Jerry Hall (Calendar Girls, Popetown) have been announced to star in Money, a BBC Drama Production two-part adaptation of Martin Amis' darkly comedic tale of excess, greed and flawed ambition set at the beginnings of Eighties capitalism.

Bold, irreverent and satirical, Money follows the story of John Self (Nick Frost), a successful British director of commercials who is thrust into the world of New York movie deals, shark agents and impossibly petulant actors in order to shoot his first film.

Navigating larger-than-life characters including uber-slick film producer Fielding Goodney (Kartheiser), wooden soap actress Caduta Massi (Jerry Hall), clean-living method actor Spunk Davis and ageing Hollywood hard-man Lorne Guyland (casting to be announced), Self lurches from one crisis to the next as he chases his dream – and the money.

Juggling his girlfriend Selina (Emma Pierson) with an old film-school crush and movie stars, Self relies on his wits and luck to survive an increasingly degenerate lifestyle – but a mysterious danger lurks that Self can't seem to shake, and it might just threaten the dream...

Kate Harwood, Head of Series and Serials, says : "Although set in the Eighties, Money is an incredibly timely drama, satirising the pitfalls of the dedicated pursuit of wealth in a brilliantly dark and comic way.

"We're delighted to be adapting a novel from one of the greatest living authors of our time, and to have such a fantastic cast to bring it to life."

Money is a two x 60-minute drama written by Tom Butterworth and Chris Hurford (Ashes To Ashes) and directed by Jeremy Lovering (Miss Austen Regrets, Spooks).

Ruth Caleb (The Last Days Of Lehman Brothers, A Short Stay In Switzerland) is executive producer with Ben Evans (Desperate Romantics, Consuming Passion) producing.

Money was commissioned by Janice Hadlow, Controller, BBC Two, and Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning.

Filming will begin mid-November for one month.

Money is part of a BBC Two series of programming focusing on the Eighties which also includes Abi Morgan's drama special Royal Wedding, Grumpy Old Eighties and a special Eighties edition of Top Of The Pops 2.

Vincent Kartheiser - Draft Magazine September 2009 Photoshoot - Medium Quality Photos

Webmaster — 2009-11-07T20:37:45Z

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Vincent Kartheiser - "Mad Men" Tv Series - Vanityfair.com Interview

Webmaster — 2009-09-05T13:09:33Z

By general consensus on the Mad Men set, Vincent Kartheiser, who plays account executive Pete Campbell, is the actor least like his character, at least in his presentation. Pete, who comes from an old-line New York family, is probably the show's most repressed character. Kartheiser, who has been acting professionally since he was six, can be a manic presence. On set, before takes, he squats off to the side and loudly runs through vocal exercises. Between shots, he pinwheels around the set, teasing the crew and other actors or loudly psyching himself up for the next shot. It's a funny kind of psyching up. “What's wrong with me ! Fuck life in the ass,” he shouts after one take. “I'm off today—I know it ! I know it ! Don't bullshit me,” he yells after another. “I wish I could be anyone on earth but me !” As a colleague says, “It's kind of unusual, but it works for him. It's what Vincent needs to do to lose his self-consciousness.”

Kartheiser and I spoke a week before the first day of shooting for Mad Men's upcoming third season. He still had his hiatus long hair and beard, looking more like a member of The Band, circa 1969, than an account executive at Sterling Cooper, circa 1963.

(Click here to read my feature story on Mad Men in the September issue of Vanity Fair)

Bruce Handy : I'm curious what your discussions were like with [series creator] Matt Weiner about Pete, when you first signed on. In the pilot, it feels like Pete's going to be the villain of the series, the young snake-y executive. And probably on a lot of TV shows that's what he would have been. But he's become much more complicated and interesting than that.

Vincent Kartheiser : I think one of the things Matt [Weiner, the show's creator] really wanted with Pete was someone who didn't villainize him from the inside out. Take the pilot, that scene with Peggy, where Pete's kind of dressing her down—he really thinks he's being helpful and actually we had to do that scene quite a few times just to get that tone right for me. It was something that Matt and [director] Alan Taylor kept trying to finesse with me, to get to that point where it is rude but it's really said from this helpful place. But I'm constantly reminding myself with Pete Campbell that the words kind of do the work for me. I don't have to add any sort of emphasis to it—it's there. I was reading quotes by Marlon Brando the other day, because I'm a dork, and he has one where he's talking about his character in On the Waterfront and he says it's virtually actor-proof. Roles like that show how much of the acting the audience actually does, because the character is so well written that it sings to the audience and the audience fills in the blanks with their own emotion and their own life. And that really sung to me about this project, because the characters are written with such humanism. So even though, like you say, Pete comes from this place of being a villain, that's something Matt carefully writes away from.

It's funny that you say it's actor-proof because of the writing. I would have thought that because so much of the show is subtextual—because there are so many silences—you would be working a lot harder filling things in with your performance than you would on something like C.S.I., where it's rat-a-tat-tat.

Yeah, maybe. I really enjoy this so much that it's hard for me to see it as a chore. I mean, there have definitely been scenes where it's like, O.K., how do we finesse this very kind of crucial scene to just the right point ? But this group is really amazing and really, really talented and supportive, and as an actor, as a small piece of this huge painting, I feel like this is … it really isn't that much work. Like that scene with Peggy in the ending of Season Two [where Peggy tells Pete she gave his baby away after he declares his love for her], after doing two years of work on those characters, that scene plays itself for us. We wanted to make sure the camera was great and we took a long time to set it up and set the tone, but we just shot it out. I mean, me and Elisabeth [Moss], we've been building these characters for two years, you know. It's there. It's written in. Our characters want to do that. We want to go there. The audience is ready for that. Storytelling is the important thing.

That's a wrenching scene. I never would have thought that would be one you could just “shoot out.”

Well, I get to work with Elisabeth Moss too, so that's easy. (Laughs) She's phenomenal, and that's a big part of it. It's also been such a joy to work with these directors. Not only are Matthew Weiner and all the writers so invested in the characters but all the directors come like weeks beforehand and they're so in love with this show, and really, it's an opportunity for us to kind of do art in our medium and it doesn't happen a lot. (Laughs) I think it's almost like a novel. It's like a 700-page novel.

You can engage with it.

You can engage. Like Mad Men can set up Season Two with three or four slow episodes, like the beginning of a Russian novel, you know ? (Laughs) Like here are your (pretentious voice) “char-act-ers,” and then the payoff can come years down the line. You can have a payoff in The Sopranos four years after it began. And you just see Tony Soprano building toward that idea and that's a huge payoff for the audience that, in the camera world—the film and TV world—we haven't had. And once again, there is no kind of black or white with any of these characters. People are all motivated by hundreds of different things, most of them subconscious. Is Pete in love with Peggy ? How in love with her is he ? Why is he in love with her ? Is it really just his ego ? I mean, how many times have you been in love with a woman until she loves you back ? And then you realize it had nothing to do with her. Or a woman cheats on you and you hate her for decades and then you realize, it's just my ego. I just couldn't handle that she like wanted someone else—it had nothing to even do with this woman. And I think that's the kind of grey area that these characters get to live in and that we get to portray—you say these long moments of silence. But really it's easier to play a complex character. It's easier to play a good character. It's easier to do Shakespeare than Spelling, and I know that sounds crazy, because the challenge of Shakespeare is living up to Shakespeare, living up to that word, not failing, you know, where with Aaron Spelling it's like, just try to look good. (Laughs) Or maybe don't use Spelling there, that's bad … No you can. He's dead.

Can you tell me a little bit about working with Jon Hamm, as an actor.

He's a good leader, you know. It's hard being number one of a big cast like this and you have to set a tone for everyone. You have to establish something that everyone can kind of work off. If you set a tone of respect and professionalism and all of these great things, everyone else will fall in line—they have to. And with Jon there's none of the bullshit that sometimes comes with it. But as an actor, as someone during the scenes, he's very, very giving and he's helpful too. It goes back to how everyone works differently, and Jon definitely works differently than me. I work differently than everyone on the set—I'm kind of goofy, and I've worked with some people who tease on that or whatever, but Jon just doesn't. He just lets everyone do their thing and it works. For an actor, it's important to feel comfortable and he's in a position to help us feel comfortable and he's carrying this baby. I love the scenes that I have with Jon, where it's just me and Jon—and not just because it's Jon, but also because it's Pete and Don. The scenes between them take on this really sub-textual tension, which just naturally happens on the set. Like we'll do our group scene and then everyone else [in the cast] will leave and it will just be me and Jon, and the set just kind of quiets down a little. The same when it's Don and January [Jones]. They schedule their scene on different days [from the scenes in the Sterling Cooper office] because they're on a different stage [for the Draper home]. It's a very different tone when it's a Draper day and when it's an office day. The office days are very bustling : girl extras running everywhere with hair and gabbing and talking, and all the guys smoking and playing chess, and me jumping up down doing my vocal exercises. And then with the Drapers, it's just Betty, sitting with her dog, and it's very quiet and a very different tone, but it's beautiful, man.

You haven't really had any scenes with January, but what are your impressions of her as an actress ?

I think she's awful. (Laughs) No, I was really impressed with the second season of her work. It's really great shit. And to think how fast we shoot this. I mean, we get two, three takes and she has page after page after page, and so does Jon. They just work their asses off. But, you know, I feel really blessed. I don't have that much shit but I always get this really juicy shit. (Laughs) So I just get to slide in and do like—it's like Joe Pesci in Goodfellas or something. I just slide in and nail out a few scenes. It's fun, but it's like three hours' of work a day. It's not like the fifteen that January Jones does.

You've been acting steadily since you were a kid.

Since I was six .

Did you know then that this is the career you wanted ?

Yeah, I chose it. And when I was a kid being an actor was not cool. I'm thirty now and when I was a kid in the 80s that wasn't a cool thing to be. Now I see with my niece that acting is like the thing. I don't know if it's because of the Disney Club or whatever, but all the boys are actors and in dance and stuff and I'm like, Wow, I got beat up every day because I was in ballet and I was an actor and that was, you know, “gay,” or whatever. But I always loved it as a kid and it's something I've always done. There's no right path and there's no right way. Everyone does this differently. I've worked with actors before where I was like, this is not working, and then I've seen their work on the screen and I've been like, Wow, that was a really great performance. Because there are a lot of elements with film. It's not like stage. It's not a kind of performance art anymore ; it's a highly tuned kind of collaboration—a symphony. I take credit for all of it. (Laughs) No, but, it's a goofy thing to act.

Vincent Kartheiser - "Mad Men" Tv Series - Salon.com Interview

Webmaster — 2009-08-13T07:22:04Z

Pete Campbell is the perfect foil for Don Draper on "Mad Men." Where Don (Jon Hamm) is relaxed and self-assured, Pete is flinchy and second-guessing. Where Don greets the world with a poker face, Pete is utterly transparent. Where Don is an endless maze of secrets and lies, Pete can't keep a secret to save his life. When he lies, everyone knows it — and chuckles in his face about it, too.

Still, after witnessing how Don's charisma wins him big promotions, a (mostly) docile wife and a steady stream of pretty girls on the side, all of which he accepts with only the occasional guilty downward glance, Pete's relative inability to hide his emotions starts to look almost charming. Almost — when he's not throwing tantrums and lying and saying nasty things to Peggy or his wife or his colleagues, that is. But to hear Vincent Kartheiser, who plays Pete, tell it, we're all just as weak and pathetic as Pete on our bad days.

And just as Pete is barely able to hide his emotions, Kartheiser was barely able to hide his love and loyalty to Pete when we spoke to him over the phone recently. What else would you expect from the actor who played a teen junkie in Larry Clark's "Another Day in Paradise," and then transformed himself into the vulnerable half-vampire son of Angel in "Angel" ? Something dark within this boy with the pretty, innocent face made him right for these disturbing characters.

While "Angel" fans may have been shocked by Kartheiser's transformation from corrupt brooder to strait-laced breeder, Kartheiser says he recognized himself in Pete from the first time he read the script. In our talk, he often rallied to defend the character who's quickly grown into our favorite villain on TV.

This season Pete is being put in a position that could really bring out the worst in him. Will he surprise us by rising above it all ? It's pretty tough to predict how Pete is going to react to anything.

I agree, I agree. I think that this season you'll continue to be surprised. I don't know how much I can give away. I loved reading the first episode, and seeing that there was this immediate conflict and this immediate situation that Pete was going to have to deal with. It's nice because no matter how it plays out, it's something that's always there in the back of every scene. It gives me a little something to hang onto, a little handle. I'm trying to win this job. That's a constant weight. I understand how that is, like most people do. There's a chance for promotion and a chance to get fired. It weighs on you. It comes into everything. It affects your sex life, you know ?

Is it challenging to play a character who doesn't have a lot of success in hiding his emotions ?

Well, I don't have a lot of success in hiding my emotions. I guess sometimes I do. Maybe I'm just overacting ! Maybe Matthew [Weiner] is consistently picking the smallest choice I do in the editing room, and it's still too fucking big ! Who knows ? It's a thing with Pete where he doesn't really notice the things he says before they come out of his mouth, and I think the same is true for his emotional reactions and his facial.

It's interesting to watch Pete interact with more sophisticated characters because, for someone with his wealthy upbringing, he always seems like the biggest rube in any room. I love the parallel scenes in the premiere where he and Ken Cosgrove are told the same news, but they react in entirely different ways.

I think that Ken Cosgrove comes from a place of positivity. He comes from probably a much more realistic and healthy point of view on life which is, you know, "Hey, if I get this promotion, great, if I don't get this promotion, fine. Isn't this great ? Everything is working out perfectly !" Pete Campbell is the exact opposite of that. He kind of expects the worst to happen. But then you look at their lives and where they come from, and it seems to me like Pete has always had the worst happen. I mean, he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and ever since then, things have been going wrong. When your life gives you those rotten eggs — you know when he says "Why can't I get anything good all at once ?" — when life does that to you, over and over, isn't it smarter to expect that again ? I think he's constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop.

But he's such a baby, isn't he ? It's a pretty immature response.

Well, it is babyish and it is whiny. Here's an example of Pete not being able to pretend he's the mature adult that we all pretend we are. It's a feeling that we can all relate to. Because we all get good things and then they come with a "but" or an ultimatum. Or you get the promotion but not the raise, or you get the raise and not the promotion. Once again, Ken is happy. He looks at it and says, "Hey, I got a free cupcake !" And Pete Campbell says, "I wanted the dozen cupcakes."

Has playing Pete made you feel healthier about yourself by comparison ? It sounds like you have a real affection for him.

I've always known this character. You know, sometimes you get really lucky in your life, and that's what Pete Campbell is for me, for so many reasons. Mostly, it's a character that really sang to me. Right away, I knew this guy. He's a fleshed-out character written with a point of view. It's been a blessing to play him. And being able to work with people like Matthew Weiner, someone who is that funny and has that many great ideas on a consistent basis ? That's something that's made my life healthier. And that's made me more confident, I think. I hope !

Is Weiner a perfectionist ?

I don't know. Aren't we all perfectionists at some level ? I don't even know what that means. I can say that he's a man that knows what he wants, and he knows this story. He's a storyteller. Is he detail-oriented ? Does he micromanage ? Those things are so much less important than [the fact that] he loves this story and he knows what's going to make it work. It's not about it being Matthew's way, it's about being the right way for this story.

You're saying it's not personal or egoistic, it's in pursuit of a higher goal.

I was just saying that people from the outside might look at it and think, "Oh my gosh, he's micromanaging," or "He must be a perfectionist." Maybe because we all give him so much credit. But we just know that he deserves it ! And the story really matters to him. So we see him as this white knight of this story, and we are going to follow him into the battle. He's our general.

Does being immersed in that 1960s world make you feel nostalgic about the era ? Do you get in your car at the end of the day and think, "Oh, these impoverished, alienated modern times we live in !" ?

Well, I take the bus. And that makes me feel less alienated. Part of what was happening in the '60s was people were starting to get into their cars and drive to the suburbs. I think it's part of the separation and the loss of community. Back in the '50s and '60s, that's when these ideas were being sold to you, the great American dream. It kind of came true, and it's pretty alienating. It is nice to be able to look back on that time and say, "Gosh, things were more visceral," and all of that, but people in the '60s were looking back on the '20s. Humans have a love affair with nostalgia.

Where do you live in L.A. that you can take the bus to work ?

Hollywood. But honestly, you can live anywhere and take the bus.

How do people react to you on the bus ?

I don't get recognized that much.

Really ? That's surprising.

No, sometimes I do. Usually it's in a high-society kind of place where a lot of urban professionals are kicking it. Other than that, I still live a pretty cool life, man. I'm still able to kind of sit down at a diner and talk to a couple of newlyweds and hear their story and not have to talk about filmmaking all the time. One of the things I've always felt is bad about celebrities is they have to surround themselves with [other celebrities] because they get so sick of talking about themselves. So, I feel really blessed that I don't have to put on a disguise or anything to go out and listen to a drunk guy tell me his sad night. It has its advantages.

What distinguishes Pete from the rest of the mixed-up denizens of Sterling Cooper ?

I think Pete's really honest, and there's something to be said for that, on this show. He's honest even when it works against him. He can't help himself. He has to say the blatant thing. He's like that guy who meets someone and says, "Oh wow, you have a mole on your nose !" I like people like that. They're not ashamed to go up to a guy and be like, "Hey, how'd you lose your arms ?" Like, "Come on, everyone else is wondering, I had to ask !" But then, the guy without the arms is probably so sick of answering that question !

The trouble with Pete is that he's honest but he's also incredibly insecure. When he does try to lie, it's so obvious.

He's no Don Draper. Like you said, he's the biggest rube in the room. And he's the biggest buffoon in the room.

He's almost an outcast in that office, at this point.

They treat him like an outcast, but in a weird way, he's the leader. I mean, if you go back and watch the scenes, in a strange way, he's got a bravery. Because he wants more. Ken will take whatever comes. Paul is kind of in his own world. Harry is moving forward but he has these other motives, like family and necessity, and he's really an ego-driven wannabe alpha male. Pete is the beta. He's waiting to rip someone's heart out. So that makes him ambitious and it makes him a leader among his group. I think all of those things make him this incredibly awesome character, and one I can relate with in a lot of ways.

Are Pete and Trudy made to torture each other ?

I can't say. And I wouldn't want to presume to say, because whatever Matthew has in store is better than anything I could make up.

You don't want to presume to know what's good for Pete.

No, and Matthew doesn't want us to. So I'm going to leave that open and see where it goes. He'll tell me what I need to know when I need to know it. It's kind of nice. I just sit here until he comes to me and gives me the little info I need.

It's almost like you're living Pete's life yourself, because you don't really know where he's headed.

That's what's great about TV. You're not stuck in that hour and a half, I-know-where-this-ends story arc. You're doing something that's going to change next week and it mimics life in a strange way. In that way it's very different than stage and film. You don't have that very rounded character-plot relationship. The character moves through this ultra-changing world, mimicking life a lot more.

Matthew Weiner has said Pete's always right about advertising. What allows him to understand advertising so well ?

He really cares about his work. For all that Don Draper does, most of it is off the cuff. Don's just so talented and smooth and such a natural leader, people want to be on his side. But he's not always burning the midnight oil. Pete really does care about the work and believes that the [marketing] studies do matter. He sees little things, like Elvis not wearing a hat. He's more connected to the world and he's intelligent and he's good at his job. That's one of the reasons he's so frustrated, is that people don't see that.

Does Weiner talk to you about the cultural context of the era ?

Sometimes, if he thinks it serves the moment. The thing about cultural context is that we really don't know the cultural context until 20 years, 30 years later. So, right now you and I are not sitting here being affected by this war that's going on and the atrocities that are probably being committed as we talk about cars or giggle about whatever. We're not aware of the cultural ramifications of this time period. If you were to do a movie about the early 21st century in 40 years and you had characters all walking around talking about the war constantly, that would be fucking bullshit. [Laughing] And you can quote me on that !

Vincent Kartheiser - 2009 AMC Cocktail Reception - High Quality Photos

Webmaster — 2009-08-05T20:28:33Z

July 28, 2009 - Vincent Kartheiser at the AMC Cocktail Reception, Pasadena, CA United States. - Graphics

Vincent Kartheiser - "Mad Men" Tv Series - 10 Muppets and Their Counterparts

Webmaster — 2009-08-04T15:25:30Z

Click on the link :

http://flavorwire.com/32014/10-muppets-and-their-mad-men-counterparts

Vincent Kartheiser & Christina Hendricks - "Mad Men" Tv Series - Season 3 to premiere on August 16, 2009

Webmaster — 2009-06-17T19:05:10Z

Ausiello has posted on his Twitter page the date for Mad Men Season 3 which stars Vincent Kartheiser & Christina Hendricks.

This just in : Mad Men season 3 premieres August 16.

Vincent Kartheiser & Christina Hendricks - "Mad Men" Tv Series - Season 3 Promo - Watch The Video

Webmaster — 2009-06-02T19:22:00Z

Vincent Kartheiser - Food & Beverage Magazine April 2009 Photoshoot - Good Quality Photos

Webmaster — 2009-05-21T08:47:02Z

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Vincent Kartheiser - "Man Men" Tv Series - Guardian.co.uk Interview

Webmaster — 2009-02-03T11:41:25Z

Mad Men, the drama set in a 60s New York ad agency, is back. John Patterson meets Vincent Kartheiser, who plays the ruthless schemer Pete Campbell.

It doesn't take long to figure out that Vincent Kartheiser has been an actor almost all his life. For the hour that I spend with him, Kartheiser, 29 years old and acting for a good 24 of them, is on show. That's not to say he's showing off, but with a ready-made audience comprising myself, a photographer and a PR, he leads us on a merry dance around his Hollywood neighbourhood, talking up a storm, alternating moments of profound thoughtfulness and emotional engagement with silly voices, a lot of rolling eye-play, gossip, good jokes, impolitic thoughts about his neighbours ("I hate this guy's dog, man. It does these human-sized shits outside my house !"), one wicked Malcolm McDowell imitation ("time for some spatchka, me little droogies !"), and then issuing surprisingly wise observations on subjects ranging from loneliness as a central theme in American art to the drinking habits of Scientologists and growing up on stage.

That perilous suspension between youth and experience is a hallmark of Pete Campbell of Sterling Cooper, Vincent's role on the US ad agency drama set in the early 60s, Mad Men. Nominally perceived as the villain, especially after his failed attempt in season one to blackmail his mysterious creative director Don Draper - the self-made, working-class alpha to Pete's to-the-manner-born omega - for a promotion and for his unwitting impregnation of Elisabeth Moss's Peggy, Pete has been deepened, sweetened and rendered more complex during season two. Pretty, round-faced, callow and thin-skinned, but with a Manhattan aristocrat's devious, bred-in-the-bone survival instinct, Pete bubbles with entitlement, snobbery and ambition, yet at heart he's the insecure, despised scion of a faded, old-money family with a demanding father who depises his son's career.

Pete is hard enough to like ; Kartheiser once described talking about him as "like apologising for a very touchy cousin . . . he's unaware sometimes, and he speaks before he thinks". Does Vincent Kartheiser actually like Pete Campbell ?

"You know, I feel protective of him. I do that pre-emptive thing where I insult him before anyone else gets the chance to, just in conversation. I was real skinny when I was a kid, so I'd make fun of that before anyone else could. Now I meet people who say, 'Oh, you're that Pete Campbell.' I'm like, 'Yeah, I'm the asshole !' before they can say it. If I have a couple of drinks in me I can get real protective, real passionate ! But I love Pete Campbell ! I think he's a real fucking character, a real person and Matthew [Weiner, Mad Men's creator and writer] does that - he writes real characters. And he writes Pete Campbell for me."

Kartheiser is out of uniform today, a long way from the tightly tailored, mostly blue period suits that Campbell wears. He's dressed simply in jeans, a long, thin, striped scarf that functions as a useful comic prop in his more antic moments and a shirt that would look ridiculous on anyone else, but suits his model good looks to a T. The essence of Campbell - bulkier and exponentially more uptight beside the slender and laid-back Kartheiser - feels utterly absent today, except for traces of a more likable arrogance and self-confidence that Weiner has shaped and turned to the character's advantage.

Kartheiser owns a house in Hollywood, on a block that seems frozen in the middle of gentrification. His house and several others are immaculately restored or security-fenced, while others are wrecks.

"Sleazy - that's why I love it . . . I remember West Hollywood and Los Feliz in the mid-90s [two winded old neighbourhoods that later became trendy], they weren't at all like they are now. That's why I want this neighbourhood to change - so I can make money on selling my house !

"You like this house ? You wanna buy it ? Six hundred and fifty grand sound all right to you ?"

He lives a simple life, without a lot of possessions, apparently (we never actually enter the house, so he could be making this all up). "People must wonder when they come to my house," he says. "But I don't have a car, I don't have any furniture, or a TV. I'm not trying to welcome people into my life !"

He's too busy for that, he says. In fact, today he has already done two auditions. Anything good ? "Aaaaahhhh," he exhales. "I can't really say. One of them I didn't even get a script, just my sides. Top Secret, like a Woody Allen movie or something !"

Surprisingly for an actor his age, Kartheiser makes few of the kind of career-transforming, attention-grabbing moves - or movies - that you'd expect. He's lucky, he says, because he actually loves acting itself, not the whole brouhaha that comes along with it.

"I started on the stage, man. I did Shakespeare and everything else. I was a kid, so I'd be a page in Henry IV or Henry V. I was Tiny Tim, things like that, national roadshow tours, long runs. Then when I was 15 I came out here and started all this. I'd like to say it built discipline and character and this serious work ethic, but I've always just really liked acting, so it never seemed to me like any kind of sacrifice at all. But I was careful, too. When I was a kid I didn't want to be known in the public eye too much, but I worked a lot."

So he'd probably rather not be famous ?

"Well, that's a choice I made. I chose not to audition for some projects or pursue certain agendas I could have when I was about 15. Instead I got to sit back and have faith that good things would happen. Because I just love acting. I didn't at all mind the idea of going to auditions every day. I knew I liked this. I wasn't that worried about cashing out."

After making his mark in movies for kids and tweens - such as Alaska and Masterminds, a sort of Die Hard in high school - Kartheiser made a definite splash alongside James Woods and Melanie Griffith in 1998's Another Day in Paradise, Larry Clark's second movie and for me, his very best. I have friends who worked on that set and they say it was eyebrow-deep in craziness and conflict. Anything Kartheiser would like to add to that ?

He casts eyes skywards, faux-angelically. "Aaaaaahhmm, I had, uh, nothing to do with that ... " I half expect him to start whistling.

Woods and Clark, a movie about criminals and murderers as a loving family - fireworks aplenty ? "Larry's like a hell-demon - that's what he brings to a project. He says, 'I'm gonna bring you to the darkest dark place !' And I'm like, OK, let's get to it ! I'm 18, trying to break out in new roles, really gung-ho. I was all idealistic and uncompromising, ready to spit in anyone's face. And James Woods is this uber-intelligent actor who'd worked with all these heavy people. He was amazing. He brought this fierceness to that character. All that improv he was throwing really energised that movie. Looking at it now, I think Woods did a damn good job of bringing me where I needed to be as a young actor, helping me look great. He'll see right through you, and he'll push you to the point where you're doing something real. Really smart guy."

We circle back to the house after a photo session in a local park. I asked him to do the "Pete Campbell look" a furious jutting of the jaw and bulging of the eyes. He does it. "You can't really see it with the beard, though. It's all in the chin, the double chin that the collar is pushing up. It changes my whole face wearing those '60s clothes. It's like a disguise. When I have my long hair and when I've got my big old beard going, no one ever recognises me ! I really like disappearing, being in movies and people not even knowing I'm in them."

I ask him about loneliness, emptiness and restlessness (as in De Tocqueville's question, "Why are Americans so restless in the midst of such great prosperity ?") as the real themes of Mad Men - not sexism or smoking or bullet-brassieres.

"Absolutely. All the men want to be Don Draper, all the women want to fuck him. Everyone thinks he's the perfect man, and Pete Campbell is jealous of him. But Draper's completely incomplete, completely lonely, completely detached, completely alone. It's why he reaches out to all these women, it's why he needs to take charge in business, to belittle Pete. He's completely alone. Loneliness isn't a phase or a mood, it's a core condition of being and some of us deal with it better than others - build a family or make a million dollars. Or Draper, coming home to the empty house at the end of season one. That's a big theme of the show : unattachment, loneliness, distance."

We part. I tell him he's on the gold-standard show on American television right now.

"It makes me happy when I hear that but then I realise I don't know what it means. But then again, you spend your life doing lots of things that no one even knows about, so it's cool."

• Mad Men begins on BBC4 on 10 February