The fair fleshed ginger, Christina Hendricks has her lady curves all on the table for the September cover of GQ UK. Red is certainly her color, I think she might now that. Mad Men’s, Christina talks loving tight wardrobe, herbal cigarettes, and fans for the article in the magazine. Read some of the highlights below…

What’s more unpleasant on set, being in incredibly tight clothing, or smoking fake herbal cigarettes?

Christina Hendricks: 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. 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.

Obviously one of our all-time favourite scenes is the lipstick test in the two-way mirror in season one…

That scene is perfect for Joan. She’s controlling the women – she has more knowledge than them – and she’s also manipulating the men at the same time. I lean over and I quite simply show my ass to the men. When I read it I just thought it was so fabulous. I just thought, “How strong and amazing is this woman?”

One of the most talked-about moments in the entire show came when Joan made a catty remark to Paul Kensey’s black girlfriend…

First of all, she’s not racist. I had a long conversation with Matt about this because it was off-putting to me. When I read that script I got very upset, called Matt and said, “You’re turning her into a monster, what are you doing?” He told me, “Calm down, Joan’s not racist – Paul’s just a jackass”. She is just calling Paul Kensey out on his crap. He’s being a fool and she’s the only person who will say it out loud and tell him what it is – he thinks it’s really cool that she’s black. I thought I’d get lots of comments about this scene because I guess it goes so well with the period that it didn’t bring as much.

Have you had any strange fan reactions?

It seems like a very masculine show but there are women who are absolutely obsessed by it. I had a girl last year who wrote me a very long letter about how she related to my character the most and how wonderful it was because she was having an affair with her boss at work. It was at that point I said, “It’s not my place to give any advice on this one!”

But what would Joan say?

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

Do you ever feel that the period detail gets in the way?

I think it makes it wonderful. We have the confidence to know that when we walk on that things are right. There’s no question. You mind starts to work in the same way – you start to walk on set and think, “I don’t know about that lamp.” It becomes something of sport. We make sure we’re perfect before we walk on set in terms of preparation and wardrobe – once we get on there it all clicks together perfectly.

What are your hopes for Joan in the future?

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