Yahoo Lifestyle Exclusive: Kiernan Shipka Is in Her Fun Era
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By design, chaotic nights out leave breadcrumbs in their wake: a phone mishap of some kind, a broken nail, a voice that’s totally shot. Kiernan Shipka is batting 3 for 3 as she slides into the booth next to me.
The actor, in pristine makeup and chic loafers, is fresh off a 4 a.m. New York City spree—one packed with deep convos and a cameo from her Chilling Adventures of Sabrina costar Gavin Leatherwood. “As long as I’m with people I can have fun with, I can have fun anywhere,” she says, beaming as she picks at what’s left of her nail glue.
It’s a skill that has served Kiernan well, considering she’s spent 18 years of her life on Hollywood sets. She rocketed into the public eye at 7 years old, playing Jon Hamm’s fierce daughter Sally on Mad Men, first as a kid guest star before being promoted to series regular at 10 years old. (Mad Men went on to win 16 Emmys and 5 Golden Globes, firmly planting its cast on every major red carpet. Kiernan earned two Screen Actors Guild Awards as part of the ensemble before hitting double age digits.) In 2018, she used the buzz to graduate into leading lady status as the Queen of Hell in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, the Netflix drama that catapulted her into a whole new level of fame (and a gaggle of social media fan accounts).
Today, Kiernan has emerged as the rare walking portrait of a child star who got it “right,” somehow indulging in tequila nights befitting a 25 year old while simultaneously making a handful of major motion pictures in a single year...that collectively grossed more than half a billion dollars. A landmark accomplishment unusual even by entertainment industry standards.
Whatever the secret behind Kiernan’s specific blend of work-life balance is, it’s working. In 2024, she’s been in every film genre known to man, playing wildly different personalities: the disturbed survivor of a serial killer (Longlegs), a doomed tornado chaser (Twisters), a rhinestone-drenched Vegas dancer (The Last Showgirl), a college freshman in a breakup pact (Sweethearts), and an evil Icelandic Christmas witch at war with The Rock (Red One).
Where does this all leave Kiernan, the put-together person currently deep in thought “strategizing” over how to split menu items so we don’t miss out on Corner Bar’s famous burger? She’ll tell me, but first she needs to silence what remains of her phone, a caseless device with two holographic flower stickers failing to mask the fact that it’s…destroyed? Wait—
Hold on. What happened to your phone? There’s a full chunk of it missing—I can see the copper wiring.
Too much has happened. She’s been through a lot; she’s been struggling for a minute. And one of my nails from the Cosmo shoot yesterday? Gone.
I take it you had a big night?
That’s why my voice is a little lost on me now. I do this when I come to New York. I have no brakes when I’m here. My friend has this great quote, which is “everything in L.A. is behind a door,” and it feels like in New York, everyone’s out in front. It’s easier to run into people.
What does a wild night look like for you?
I texted everyone. I was getting dinner with three people, which turned into four people, and then we added a fifth and before we knew it, we were in the lobby of the hotel until 4 a.m. It was all conversation-based. It wasn’t wild in the sense of, Oh my god, we’re doing these crazy things, but I felt social in a way that was really fun. I literally ran into Gavin Leatherwood1—he materialized in front of my eyes. It was hilarious, me having my chaos night and he shows up. There’s a particular sense of joy in having a fun and interesting day that turns into a different kind of fun and interesting night.
1. The last time Kiernan saw the Sabrina cast, they were together mourning the loss of their costar Chance Perdomo, who died in a motorcycle accident at age 27. “I saw more people than I had in a long time, and it was heartbreaking,” Kiernan said. “It was a reminder of how close that cast was and how much love there was on that set. Even if we don’t see each other all the time, there’s a level of love that pulsated through that whole set. It’s not been lost.”
Are you having a lot of those lately?
I’m in the most fun era of my life. I have been thinking more about my 20s and having fun and being present and how that relates to my work but also how it relates to me as a person. I’ve always erred on the side of control and perfectionism, and those things caused too much unnecessary anxiety. There was an active choice to go, Oh, I want to untether from these things.
How do you untether?
Honestly, my friends.2 I found the coolest group in my 20s who I can be myself around and feel seen by and just get really silly with. Getting silly is so important...dare I say, vital.
I was 18 when I started Sabrina, which is often the age one would go off to college. Most of my friends growing up weren’t actors and were doing that instead. I had an incredible two years filming, but when we wrapped, I had been so deep in that life that I didn’t really have a friend group. Three weeks later, it was March 2020. There was this lockdown moment where I was coming face-to-face with myself and what my life was going to be on the other side of my childhood and my very young adulthood. Going out into the world after that, I slowly started acquiring people.
The domino effect of all my friends is very funny to me. I can vividly picture maybe two or three nights where if they didn’t happen, I don’t know if I would have the friends I do.
2. Other ways Kiernan likes to unwind? Reading Martha Beck and using her Bellicon mini trampoline, mostly. “This is not sponsored by Bellicon,” she’s quick to add. “But I’d be glad if it was. Just saying.”
Making friends when you’re not a kid anymore requires intention. You have to put in effort to make it happen or it doesn’t.
It’s funny because when I was a kid, I was on Mad Men and I was doing an independent study program. Because I wasn’t at school, I always had to be active in pursuit of making friends. So I think it’s actually always been within me to go, I like this person. I want to make them my friend. If they’re down, we’re going to make this happen.
That’s such a good point. Sometimes child actors are on sets with other child actors, but your costars were all adults.
I definitely grew up around a lot of adults. I had a brother on the show, but he famously changed seven times so there wasn’t a lot of time [to bond].
What has it been like to get to know your childhood costars as adults, as peers? I think of your birthday tribute to January Jones when you said you’re “real friends” now.
If you told my 7-year-old self she would be getting a drink with January, oh my god, I would flip out. I idolized her in a way where she was absolutely everything to me. It’s a really nice part of growing up in this business, getting to have conversations with people now as adults. There’s something poignant about it. It feels peer-to-peer. I’ve gotten to know Christina Hendricks more than I ever knew her filming because we maybe had two scenes together. To know her and get to know these people in a way that is even closer and more real, it’s nice. There’s always going to be something a little bit funny about running into Jon Hamm at a party, but it’s great.
BREAKDOWN VIDEO HERE
I talked to Maddie Ziegler a bit ago and she’ll see fans post scenes from her childhood on TV and be like, I literally don’t remember that. She said fans sometimes expect child stars to remember more than they realistically can. Does that track in your experience?
When it comes to Mad Men, I have a very vivid memory of most scenes I did. I remember my first day. I remember my audition. It’s very etched in my memory. But what I didn’t know at the time was what the scene was really about, so there’s something cool about going back and looking at stuff in which you played a piece of the puzzle and going, “Oh, whoa, now I see the puzzle.” 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. It touches me because I feel like I was never really robbed of my innocence in any way. I just got to be Sally and grow up with her in a way that never felt like she was learning too much before me. She did get her period before I did though.
What was that like?
I was like, “Is this what it’s going to be like??” I remember it feeling like a trial run. I was a little scared, but it was still fun. Anytime I got to do anything on that show, I was excited.
Have you ever watched full episodes back, or does that give you the ick?
I’ve watched Mad Men and I want to watch it again, more for the show...but I have a very changing relationship with watching myself. The further away I am from a project, the easier it is to do.
You have a lot of projects these days to watch back, between Sweethearts and Twisters and The Last Showgirl. What was it like working with Pamela Anderson on the latter?
She showed up every day so fearless and raw, and it was this ripple effect. Everyone felt like they wanted to do such honest work because she set the tone. There were little moments in it where we were not even dressed yet, and a PA would run in and be like, “Oh my god, Pam’s in this incredible space. We need you guys to go change right now for the next scene.”
How did you prepare? You have some serious dancing scenes.
I was really at it, trying to get those splits for a month and a half. The second I knew I was going to do it, that was the first thing I was prepping, just flopping down into the splits and holding them every day. I was so rusty. I was the type of kid who did the splits in a second and was like, “What’s wrong with you guys, you can’t do it? This is the easiest thing in the world.” And now I’m like, “How dare you say that, Kiernan? It is so hard.”
The shoot kept you on your toes in an amazing way and I really learned the value of not expecting anything. I also learned a lot from the level of stripped-bare that Pam made herself. The whole shoot had a very magical quality to it.
I imagine it was a different kind of magic than Red One, which is fun, festive, and witchy.
Every time I got to come back and do a little bit more witchiness, it was fun. I’ve played a villain before, but Gryla3 is a more classical villain and that was really interesting. And I got to fight in it.
3. In Red One, Kiernan plays an icy ogre witch named Gryla who kidnaps Santa Claus. She is the primary antagonist to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Chris Evans’s heroes. The character is straight-up capital-V villain and originated in Icelandic folklore.
And fight The Rock, no less.
Meeting The Rock is a crazy thing. I was like, “Oh my god, I’m meeting someone who is just so iconic.” He became a real person very quickly too—he’s a bro.
It’s always interesting to meet someone like that and have them go from a personality you see on Instagram to someone you know IRL. What does social media look like for you these days?
It depends on which burner account I’m on. One is all just spiritual healing, manifestations, this tarot card reader telling me I’m going to have a huge week.
Do you find astrology to be accurate for you?
I’m a Scorpio. I don’t live my entire life by it, but as far as a fun thing, I love a horoscope. I’m a sucker for a psychic guru, for a one-hour, tell-me-about-my-life sort of session. There’s a woman in L.A. I found and she’s the gal.
What does she say?
There are certain career things she’s intuited that feel right. She’s brought up certain friends of mine that no one would really know. One of my best friends gets brought up every time I see a psychic, and it’s very interesting. He’s a soulmate in a kind of way.
If a psychic can ID my platonic soulmates, then call me a client for life.
I go once a year, usually on my birthday. It helps me gather myself or inspires me to go out there and do something.
What about non-platonic soulmates? Are you dating?
I’ve always had a healthy relationship with dating, but I’ve spent so much of my life in the public eye in one way or another, I’ve figured out that I need to set a boundary for myself and not talk about it.4 I’ve found what works for me right now is figuring out what part of myself and my life I can keep for myself and what I can give the world, and I think drawing those lines has been something I’ve been thinking about more as I get older.
4. Kiernan has never once publicly confirmed a relationship, but her name still trends with a new boyfriend rumor every 6 to 8 months like clockwork. Usually this just means she stood within an arm’s length of Literally Any Adult Human Male in a paparazzi picture. Scandalous.
It does seem like if you’re a famous person and you’re photographed within six feet of someone, it sets off a rumor mill. How do you deal with that?
Not taking it too seriously is my honest answer. I know what comes with the territory. Being public-facing, there’s going to be discourse about you in multiple different directions. It’s knowing how to not internalize certain things that aren’t going to make your day better. It might be something I’ve built up and calloused over time just because I’ve been doing this for 18 and a half years now.
And I’m not perfect, by the way. Some stuff still can get in there, but I think I just don’t pay too much mind to things that aren’t really happening in my real life. I love my friends, I love the relationships I have in my life, and I love what I do. My real life is so good that the other stuff is funny, but I don’t really think about it.
I also have a pretty clear, “Kiernan, don’t google yourself” boundary.5
5. This choice may protect Kiernan’s peace, but it does mean she misses out on blog gems like “Kiernan Shipka Has the Coolest Instagram” and “60 Hilariously Random Bit Parts Actors Took Before They Became Super Famous.” (Kiernan’s? Monk.)
Sometimes if you look up a celebrity’s name, search engines will auto-populate the word “controversy” at the back of it. That not only doesn’t happen with you, but when I tried googling “Kiernan Shipka controversy,” you know what it says? “Kiernan Shipka is of European descent.”
Oh my god. Controversh! That’s me, Czechoslovakian.
That’s what’s apparently marked against you, according to Google’s AI.
Honestly, that makes me feel like I need to have more fun in the world. I hear that and I go, “I’ve got to have a wild night. I’ve got to do something to shake this up a little bit.”
What would get you canceled?
I don’t know. Making a fool of myself somehow.
Being of European descent.
That’s for sure. Breaking a dress code, maybe? Having too deep of a conversation with people who didn’t want to have it? Just going around and trying to really crack people who were just not feeling it, maybe?
You seem so intuitive though, I have trouble seeing you not reading the room.
I like having a conversation that feels like it’s a two-way street.6 I love people so much. I’m an interested person.
6. She's not kidding. Among the many thoughtful things Kiernan asked me that did not make the condensed Q&A from our 88-page-interview transcript: what my social feeds look like, where exactly in Chicago I’m from, when my birthday is (while trying to suss out my astrological sign), if I can stomach mezcal, what I order on a night out, if I have any tattoos, which high school I attended, and who I voted for on American Idol season 8. (The answer to the last one is Adam Lambert. She voted the same.)
That reflects in the variety of characters you play. I so enjoyed getting to watch The Last Showgirl and Sweethearts and Red One and also Longlegs and Twisters, because every character of yours is so different. Who would you be the most interested in reprising?
For something like Longlegs, I just want to do that forever. I like doing things that feel further away from myself because I feel like there’s less judgment. If I’m playing something that is so far away from any kind of rule book, the space feels really free.
With my TV girls, with Sally and Sabrina, I always have this tiny little light and tiny little piece of hope that maybe one day I’ll get to visit them.7 There’s this level of not wanting to say goodbye to characters I grew really deeply close to, on the level where I don’t know where I end and they begin.
7. At one point, AMC wanted a Mad Men spin-off, and a Sally-specific series seemed like the best option (fans wholeheartedly agreed). But creator Matthew Weiner wasn’t interested back in 2011. Think Kiernan’s interest 10+ years later will change his mind?
The Sabrina x Riverdale crossover was a thing of beauty. I’ve heard your first crush was on that set.
Yes, Cole Sprouse! I had a poster of the Sprouse twins on my wall that I may or may not have kissed. And then I was talking to someone the other day who was watching Air Bud and the kid in it, Kevin Zegers from Air Bud, I also had a crush on.
Poster-level crush or…?
Not quite, not quite.
When did you first meet the Sprouse twins?
I met Cole through Riverdale. I remember when Sabrina was announced, he reached out. Vancouver’s pretty small, so all the shows shooting there kind of overlapped in hangouts and we got to know each other. Cole I know now. Cole...we’re locked in. Cole is a buddy and Dylan’s a buddy, so maybe I was doing some version of manifesting at 6. Who knows? But I’ve not encountered Kevin Zegers. I don’t know what he’s up to. I’d like to know though.8
8. Fun fact: Kevin had a leading role on ABC’s The Rookie: Feds and starred in an episode of Doctor Odyssey in November. You’re welcome, Kiernan!
What has been the most bucket-list-worthy moment of the past few years? At least until you reach out to Kevin?
Maybe I should reach out. I did meet Venus and Serena Williams. I famously don’t do shots—I’d rather have a drink, and if someone gives me a shot, I’m going to just toss it—but Venus was like, “We’re doing shots.” And I said, “Of course we are.” I broke my rule.
I’m sorry—you did shots with Venus and Serena Williams?
I don’t think Serena was partaking, but Venus was. My body’s still reacting to the fact that happened, one of the cooler moments of life.
What did you drink? Tequila?
Yeah, and she asked for the glasses to be chilled. It was so elegant. So hot. Honestly, that’s the only way I want to do them now.
It’s like a bucket list item you didn’t know you wanted until the moment was upon you.
Exactly. I’ve got to start thinking about bucket lists more. Right after Sabrina, I was talking to an acting mentor and saying, “What can I do to constantly get better? How can I make my instrument sharper every single day?” And she said, “Besides class and being dedicated to your craft, you have to go out. You have to experience things and let life hit you because then you bring that to your work, and your work will be more truthful.” So for me, I’m most excited to do my job when I’m also living my life in a way that feels authentic. And I feel like I’m doing that right now.
(Lead image) Blumarine dress. Loren Hope tiara. Tiffany & Co. earrings.
Stylist: Cassie Anderson. Hair: Takuya Yamaguchi at The Wall Group using ORIBE. Makeup: Vincent Oquendo at The Wall Group using Chanel Beauty. Manicure: Nails by Nori at See Management using Chanel le Vernis. Shot on location at Joyface.
Executive producer: Abbey Adkison. Senior producer: Liesl Lar. Director of photography: Kevin Kim. Gaffer: Alessandro Imperiale. Sound: Sean Brooker. Editor: Sarah Ng.
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