At this point, Teyonah Parris is likely best known for her involvement in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but there are a slew of other must-know titles on her resume, many of which we got to cover on an upcoming episode of Collider Ladies Night. Yes, we did focus a good deal on WandaVision and touched on Monica Rambeau’s future in the MCU, but we also looked back on Parris’ past experiences like working opposite Reese Witherspoon on How Do You Know, what it was like leading her first film with Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq, and also her experience scoring her very first recurring role on a popular TV series with Mad Men. The thing is though, Parris wasn’t even aware she had a recurring role at the time.
Parris played Dawn Chambers on the red hot AMC series, a character first introduced in Season 5 of the show. When Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and Roger Sterling (John Slattery) place an ad while scrambling to present Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce as an equal opportunity employer, they unexpectedly wind up with dozens of African American applicants. Ultimately, the company decides to hire one Black woman as a secretary and that woman is Dawn. Parris would go on to play Dawn in 22 episodes of the show over the course of three seasons.
Sounds like a true recurring role on a very popular show, right? Not exactly. Yes, in the end it is labeled a recurring part, but while Parris was actually working on the show, she had no idea that that was her level of involvement. Here’s how she described the situation:
“I was a recurring. That did happen. I was really excited. But I never knew I was a recurring because they never told me, ‘You’re a recurring!’ It was literally for the entire time I was there, I would say it was like three years, one episode at a time. They never said, ‘Hey, this season you’ll be in five episodes so I could be like, ‘Yes! Okay! This is great!’ It was always, ‘We’re checking your availability for tomorrow.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, I didn’t die. They didn’t fire me or kick me out of the office,’ so I always felt like I was holding my breath with that show because they never actually were like, ‘Hey, this is the future we have for you,’ etc. So it was always an inch at a time and never knowing if the door was gonna close that moment.”
While there was some frustration with the day-to-day nature of her work on the show, Parris did stress the importance of the groundbreaking nature of her role by noting, “Dawn was a very special character and she is the first African American to integrate that office and so I knew that was special because I watched the show, saw what that meant.” She also highlighted how grateful she was for how much she learned while working on Mad Men:
“As I think back on the experience, I’m so grateful for it. I learned a lot on that show. I loved watching Jon Hamm and Christina Hendricks as they - it was a very special piece and the time period and all that, so they were wonderful to work with and to watch. But personally, I just always felt like I was on eggshells. I just never knew.”
It’s unfortunate Mad Men didn’t highlight Parris and the character of Dawn as much as it should have, but she could have the opportunity to prepare for and embrace a long-running arc with Monica in the MCU. Hopes are high she’ll build on her strong start in WandaVision with the highly anticipated Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels - and perhaps beyond.
Stayed tuned for more on WandaVision and The Marvels. We’ll have Parris’ full Collider Ladies Night interview for you soon!