The Major Milestone That Happened For Kiernan Shipka On TV Before Real Life

Child actors know what it's like to grow up on sets, with many milestones met while filming. Hallmark's Erika Christensen landed her first kiss while filming the 1997 movie "Leave It to Beaver," a common story from actors who started young. For Kiernan Shipka, her character, one of many memorable roles in the cast of "Mad Men," underwent a major life change before the actor did in real life.

Shipka told Cosmopolitan that while playing her character Sally Draper in the 2007 drama series — a role she booked at just 6 years old — she had to act out getting her period before she even got it, herself. "I was like, 'Is this what it's going to be like??'" she said of playing Sally. "I remember it feeling like a trial run." 

"The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" star also noted she often didn't understand the dark themes of the show because she was so young. "At that young age, it's not your job to know what the whole thing is about; it's your job to be the character," Shipka said. For that reason, she believes she was able to preserve her innocence and grow up along with her character — for the most part.

The untold truth of Kiernan Shipka, however, is that as an adult, she remembers a lot of the content from which the "Mad Men" cast tried to shield her. "I don't know if it was because my brain and body just decided to remember, like, audition, first day, whole thing," Shipka told Jesse Tyler Ferguson on his podcast "Dinner's on Me." "I'm glad for that. I mean, I'm sure there's some days that are a blip, but that's kind of everything." During the COVID-19 pandemic, Shipka said she watched the show all the way through, which prompted her to analyze all the scenes where the content went over her head while filming. "At the time, I think I understood [Sally Draper] as much as she understood herself," Shipka told Ferguson. Now older, Shipka says she can understand Sally's psyche more than she ever could while playing her.

Her journey from child actor to adult star was all about debuting a new identity. "I was so front-facing that having an identity outside of who I was to other people was something that was important for me to find," She revealed on the "Today" show. She said she also feels that putting too much emphasis on her work would limit her development in real life, and experiences really helped her discover who she wanted to be. "I went, 'My gosh, I've been working for so long. In order to bring new energy and emotion to my work, I've got to be human in the world,'" she said.