How Rich Sommer Really Felt About His Mad Men Character

One of the most disheartening developments for many "Mad Men" fans was the increasingly unpleasant behavior displayed by Harry Crane (Rich Sommer) over the course of the show. In the first season, Harry is meek, polite, and relatively respectful to women; when he has an extra-marital affair, he feels so guilty about it that he confesses to his wife immediately. The bar may be on the floor, but Season 1 Harry distinguishes himself as a step above his peers. 

By the final season, however, Harry is one of the slimiest characters in the cast. Fans who rewatch the series on HBO Max may be shocked to find he actually used to be quite pleasant. So, how did Harry fall so far? Rich Sommer offered his own explanation in an essay he wrote for Slate in 2012, when Season 5 was airing and Harry was completing his evolution into a total sleazeball.

"I don't actually think he's changed much," Sommer wrote. "My take is that his ever-ascending status allows him to open up a bit more, and allow himself to be more of who he has always been. ... I'm supposed to say that he's just 'misunderstood,' or that you guys just don't know what's happening with him underneath, or something. Meh. I think he was always a bit of a jerk."

Harry's first truly selfish moment occurs in Season 2, when he's made head of the agency's new TV department. In "A Night to Remember," Joan (Christina Hendricks) assists his agency and instantly proves herself to be a perfect fit for the job, but Harry doesn't recognize her talents for even a second. 

As Harry's TV department grows in importance, he becomes ruder to his wife, prone to obnoxious bragging, and increasingly sleazy towards the women around him. His all-time low comes in the Season 7 episode "New Business," when Harry tries to coerce Megan (Jessica Paré) into sleeping with him, telling her it's the only way to make her acting dreams come true. By Season 7, Harry is richer and more powerful than ever — so of course he'd feel comfortable pulling a move as depraved as this. "He's doing the stuff he always would have done had he been in a higher office position," Sommer wrote in his essay. "He's a nerd who got on the TV train at the right time."

In a 2014 interview with GQ, Sommer explained that, by Season 7, Harry was nearly untouchable. "Harry is providing an invaluable service. So he can tell [senior partner Jim] Cutler to f*** off a little bit, because what's he gonna do?" Sommer also joked about fans wanting to punch his character in the face, adding that fans "really, really hate him."

"I truly identify with Harry," Sommer wrote in his Slate piece. "I am often acerbic. I can be mean in an (oft-failed) attempt to be funny. I stick my foot straight into my mouth on an hourly basis." Referring to the Season 5 storyline in which Harry tries to help out former coworker Paul Kinsey, Sommer added that both he and Harry "would buy the s*** out of a bus ticket if it would help you out of the cult you got sucked into."

Although Sommer made no excuses for Harry's behavior, he praised the "Mad Men" writers for avoiding the temptation to make him a one-note villain. As he told GQ, "You could have a character pop in for one second and there's some pathos. No one is purely one thing, and I think that's the power of the show."

Sommer also noted in a 2012 Rolling Stone interview that the show's creator, Matthew Weiner, tended to view Harry more charitably than fans might expect. "I was talking at a panel recently about Harry being a bit of a d*****bag, just sort of testing his power with women, seeing how far he could go, and Matt jumped in to say he's not necessarily a d*****bag, just not happily married," Sommer said. "And that informs a lot of his decisions."