Christina Hendricks quotes:

I met a lot of young girls modelling and they were like, 'Oh, I'm running around town and people are taking my picture', while I was saving receipts and learning how to be self-employed.

I have women coming up to me and saying: 'I love your character! She's so empowered. She takes control; she gets what she wants.' That's another side of her. And I respect that in Joan. She says and does things that I would never allow myself to do.

The way we dress on 'Mad Men' is so associated with old photographs, with people's parents and grandparents.

I'm an ambassador for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and one of the children, his wish was to go to the Emmys, so he's going to be my date, along with my husband, and my dad and his girlfriend. So we're going to have a really fun night and it's going to be really exciting. I'm really excited for him to experience that.

I'm constantly saying that I have bad hair days when I'm in New York. It's so hard. I've been lucky enough to jump immediately into a car, head straight to the location, and stay in the air-conditioning.

It is so exciting to get a phone call saying you're going to be working on a Disney film.

I found myself at the beginning of 'Mad Men,' because I wasn't a sample size, spending an exorbitant amount of money on a nice dress that I would never wear again because someone would say - 'Christina Hendricks wore this dress twice.'

I just keep praying for Joan to get her power back. To resolve her problems and rise to the top. To fight back!

When I first started dating my husband, I had this weird fascination with the circus and clowns and old carnival things and sideshow freaks and all that. About a month after we started dating, he bought me this amazing black-and-white photo book on the circus in the 1930s, and I started sobbing.

It's a tough business. To my parents or to their friends, I was not a success, but to me I was a huge success. I was having a blast. I was working on shows I loved, I was working with actors I loved, and I was making a living as an actor. And I loved every second of it.

As for the herbal cigarettes, for the most part I don't smoke as much as the guys do. I'm usually just strutting around a bit more so I don't actually have to be inhaling it. I'm lucky because I do have scenes where the cigarettes work beautifully to punctuate certain things I'm saying.

We were probably the last people in the country to get a VCR and we didn't have cable. There wasn't any admiration of glamour, no, 'I want to look like them or have that lifestyle', because everyone in my town had the same lifestyle. So I didn't think, 'Ooh, a movie star's birthday!' I just thought, 'What?'

My mother never said to lose weight. Diets were never a big deal. My mom was always beautiful and voluptuous and curvy, and I always thought she was gorgeous.

I like salty, creamy foods. I could sit down with a bag of chips and French onion dip and go to town! That would be on my last-supper list.

I started doing community theatre as a way to make friends, and that was when I caught the acting bug.

I went to a very mean school and was bullied like crazy. I was a bit of a goth with purple hair, and I was also part of the drama group, which was filled with actors and writers and wasn't really accepted by the rest of the school.

I tend to take things personally. But I can only take so much, and then I jump back. I have strong survival skills.

I like a man with a nice, self-deprecating sense of humour.

I use Redken color on my hair and use mild shampoos that don't strip your hair of color. If I need to, I'll use a good colored mousse in between.

My parents didn't exercise, so it was not something I saw was good for you or fun. I wish I had grown up knowing to do that.

Getting to wear beautiful fashion is the most fun part of the job that has nothing to do with the job.

No man should be on Facebook. It's an invasion of everyone's privacy. I really cannot stand it.

I think calling me 'full-figured' is just rude.

Back when I was modeling, the first time I went to Italy, I was having cappuccinos every day, and I gained 15 pounds. And I felt gorgeous! I would take my clothes off in front of the mirror and be like, 'Oh, I look like a woman.' And I felt beautiful, and I never tried to lose it, 'cause I loved it.

Sexiness is about confidence and individuality. I can't keep my eyes off the women you see in cities like London, New York and Paris - the way they carry themselves and put themselves together are always so unique.

I just thought I would work in a hair salon and do community theater.

I guess my mom raised me right. She was very celebratory of her body. I never heard her once say, 'I feel fat.'

When the attention started to be about my figure, I was surprised, because it wasn't something I was focused on.

As women, we feel we can't ask for things. There's been a lot of research done recently and, more often than not, if a woman goes in to ask for a raise, she'll get it. But she's thinking, 'Do I deserve it? I've got to give a list of why I deserve it.' Whereas a man will just go in and ask for a raise. It's so scary.

I've always been someone who really watches other people, human behavior. To watch it and be able to express it through your version has always been really exciting to me.

I dyed my hair about 42 different colours, and kids can be pretty judgmental about people who are different. But instead of breaking down and conforming, I stood firm. That is also probably why I was unhappy.

I've been telling everyone for weeks now about how I get to play Lois Lane. It's a big deal. There are a few characters throughout your life which everyone knows and this is one of them. I can't wait.

Anytime someone talks about your figure constantly, you get nervous; you get really self-conscious.

One of my favourite messages about 'The Pirate Fairy' is that the story is about appreciating your own talents.

I was a goth girl in high school. Perhaps the powdered white face and the black lipstick were not the most attractive. I felt fabulous at the time but looking back, uh, probably not the best idea.

If my legs are showing, the makeup artist adds a tiny amount of foundation to body lotion and rubs it in.

I admire so many women, it's hard to choose, but I've always loved Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, and Mia Farrow.

I adore the incredibly tight clothing! My own wardobe's changed - I've streamlined a little bit and definitely learnt from Joan's sleekiness and tailoring.

I come up with the silliest excuses when it's time to work out. I'll be like, 'Oh no! Now I have to go and find some socks.'

It is tricky because I do wear a lot of vintage on the red carpet, and usually when I'm getting ready, I'll say, 'We need to make sure that I don't look like I'm in a Scorsese film today.' Sometimes I do something a little bit more modern with my hair. You have to mix it up.

Sexiness is about being an individual and having conviction about what that is.

If I get any private time in my trailer, all of a sudden I'm doing sit-ups and push-ups.

I don't think it's not feminist to use every tool you have to succeed, and part of that is being a woman - presenting yourself in a certain way.

I'm open to trying new things. That's why I think Birchbox is so awesome! It's something to look forward to and introduces me to something maybe I wouldn't have picked out, but fall in love with.

I've always been someone who really watches other people, human behavior. To watch it and be able to express it through your version has always been really exciting to me

I was obsessed with the Canadian novel 'Anne of Green Gables'. I decided I was Anne of Green Gables. There was something that spoke to me about her, and I wanted to have her beautiful red hair.

I'm either in heels or barefoot.

I had been on several shows that were meant to be the big ones, that would go on forever, and they didn't.

I love cocktails. My specialty drink is a gimlet with a little egg white in it so it gets frothy. I really like rose water - sometimes I'll add it to champagne.

We're really spoiled on 'Mad Men.' Lots of television actors use the down season to go out and get creatively fulfilled, but I feel the opposite. Anything else I get to do is just icing.

We have defined these characters - people always expect to see me in a pencil skirt. When they see me out of one - much like when they see Jon Hamm's hair when it isn't slick - they say, 'Wait a minute, you're all 2010!'

I have classic and feminine taste. I'm definitely drawn to vintage-inspired and ladylike things. I like an accentuated waist, and a strong shoulder works well with my figure.

I would hope that people didn't think I was anything like Joan! It's very hard for me because Joan says such cruel things all the time. It sort of makes me cringe every time I read them because I think, 'Who could be so horrible?' To be able to deliver those lines and do them with a coolness, yet still make her likable, is a bit of a challenge.

I really do love being outdoors - I mean, you'd never think it in my high heels and pencil skirt! But I really do miss the smell of hay and farms, and I like milking a cow.

It just seemed so odd as people had never commented on my body before. Every woman obsesses over her figure, but I was happy, I felt sexy - I never thought about it. I know this sounds naive, but I honestly never expected this kind of attention.

I think Joan's advice would be: always know more than anyone else, always be discreet as possible. And never cry at work.

I like the old-fashioned, vintage-inspired swimsuits with halters and maybe a little ruching, and the longer cut that's almost short-shorts, like Ava Gardner used to wear a lot, right?

I have a problem keeping my mouth shut. I usually speak my mind. I'm trying to learn my lesson.

I guess my mom raised me right. She was very celebratory of her body. I never heard her once say, 'I feel fat.' Back when I was modeling, the first time I went to Italy I was having cappuccinos every day, and I gained 15 pounds. And I felt gorgeous! I would take my clothes off in front of the mirror and be like, Oh, I look like a woman. And I felt beautiful, and I never tried to lose it, 'cause I loved it.

Yeah when you're in the middle of filming this movie [Bad Santa 2] it doesn't matter what you say you can think of some sort of way to twist it into something dirty so we were laughing a lot.

I like to look for gifts throughout the year. If I find the perfect item for someone, I put it in my "gift closet" and keep it for the next holiday. But I often get too excited and just give it to them before!

My first day on set [Bad Santa 2] was with Billy [Bob Tornton] and it was a sex scene in a Christmas tree lot and you know in order to make it great for the audience you just have to go for it! It was our sort of our icebreaker. There is something very freeing and fun about just playing make believe and it's just over the top and hilarious so you just go for it.

I love my body as it is. People in the industry have been telling me to lose weight for years but I like the way I look. I give credit to my mom for helping me feel good about my appearance - for making sure I never felt embarrassed about my body, because she was never worried about looking too big.

I had always heard of Bad Santa one but I hadn't seen it, but it was sort of legendary.

Trust me when you read the script for Bad Santa 2 I knew exactly what I was getting myself into. I read the script first, and I was laughing out loud and blushing and couldn't believe what I was reading.

It just seemed so odd as people had never commented on my body before. Every woman obsesses over her figure, but I was happy, I felt sexy, I never thought about it. I know this sounds naive, but I honestly never expected this kind of attention.

It's hard to top what you see in the film, they were just such a great group of people to work with and we all hung out in between scenes and I got to know everybody a little bit.

In the beginning, it was odd to have so much attention brought to my body type. I thought, 'Uh-oh, brace yourself.' But everyone has been so positive. During the first season, a woman came up to me at dinner and said, 'I just want to thank you u2014 watching you has made me proud of my body.' I thought, What an amazing thing for someone to say! To make anyone feel good about themselves makes me feel good.

Any woman who is currently with a man is with him partly because she loves the way he smells. And if we haven't smelled you for a day or two and then we suddenly are within inches of you, we swoon. We get light-headed. It's intoxicating. It's heady.

I thought, well, you might see curves there, but that's just a bone - so even if I lose weight that's not going to change anything. That's how I look. That's my shape. Do the math.

Cats appear to have a wonderful ability to weed out everything they don't need to know, while honing in on what is important to them.

One of my favourite messages about The Pirate Fairy is that the story is about appreciating your own talents.

I often played the nerdy friend or the goofy sidekick or the sort of naïve movie character in some ways.

Some of the things people have said about me, well, they're unbelievable

I auditioned for so many things - cops, lawyers, doctors and things but they were like, "She just seems too sweet. I don't see that hard side of her."

All of a sudden I was Joan [Mad Man] and they're going, "Oh, so she plays a badass in this." And I'm like, "Oh my god, I get to play badasses." Firefly was a little bit of that, but she started out as a mouse and then she turned into a dragon. But I never really had that opportunity. So all of a sudden people were like, "Oh, do you feel like you're being typecast?" I would say, "No, this is just opening the doors." No one thought I could do it and someone finally trusted me to do it.

If Mad Men had taken place in the '90s it would have been just as believable. But the fact is that was the perfect storm and with the fashion and the sets and the writing and the actors it just all made sense and it just was one of those things that you can't explain.

I was the nerdy one. I always played those kind of characters until Mad Men.

I'm not quite at the point where I feel the need to wear disguises in public.

I'm just looking for material that excites me more than any specific genre. It just needs to be good.

I definitely am drawn to deeper reds and wine colors for lips and even cheeks during the holiday.

I have to admit, I do loooove eggnog.

I'll always miss Mad Men, of course, but it is interesting to finally answer different questions after nine years. Not that that's a criticism to anyone, but just simply as a character for nine years, you're going to get a lot of the same questions for many, many, many years. This is sort of refreshing.

Oftentimes when I do a project I do get influenced by the wardrobe. I certainly learned a lot from Mad Men and from Janie (Bryant) in particular. She's just so fabulous.

Even when I did Ryan Gosling's movie (Lost River), we had a very '80s kind of vibe and I would say for two or three months after that, I was dressing in a very sort of '80s way.

I'm not looking for a series. I love TV. I love developing characters over a long amount of time. I think for an actor it gives you so much material and every season it gives more background and interest and richness. So I would definitely do another series. I'm just waiting for the right thing to come along.