Although her career has had peaks (she played Ralph Macchio's mom in the original "Karate Kid") and valleys (she practically dropped out of the business for eight years), she will finally make it to Emmy night this year. "It's just been such a treat for me," the 64-year-old actor says of her nomination. "Especially at my age to have this happen, which means you never know what's around the corner and never give up."
A Career Rebirth
Ten years ago, Heller decided to give up on acting. Although she kept one foot in the door with the occasional walk-on—to keep her health insurance and pension—she went back to school for her adult education certification. "You get to an age and you sort of fall in with every other actress who is in the 40s and 50s age group," she explains. "It was really tough, and there wasn't really that much work. I often say, if I were to enter [the business] now, I'm not sure I would."
Although teaching ESL to adults for eight years gave Heller a new life perspective, she couldn't stay away. Two years ago, the acting bug bit again, and after she landed an episode of "Brothers & Sisters," her next audition was "Mad Men."
"I've never had an audition like that before," she remembers. "They don't let you know about anything on 'Mad Men,' because it's a spoiler for everybody. I thought I was on the right track when I was cracking everybody up."
She was right.
"She just seemed like she didn't take any crap," recalls "Mad Men" creator and executive producer Matthew Weiner, adding that her authentic New York accent helped. "I laughed at everything she said. My hesitation was she wasn't old enough. I didn't even know what to say except 'Do you think we could make her look really, really old?' "
Her response? "Go ahead—have fun!" Heller says about her Blankenship transformation, which took two hours in the makeup chair. "I couldn't believe the evolution; it was like someone inhabited me for a while."
Although some producers might be deterred by an actor's being out of the business for so long, Weiner was not concerned by Heller's career lull. "It's always a roller coaster for any actor who gets to work this long," he argues. "She should teach all of us how to do this."
Heller also brought personal experience to the role: She lived through the 1960s in Manhattan. She began her career on Broadway and sang in Top 40 bands in New York. She landed her first audition for "Godspell," which she heard about on the radio while tanning at Jones Beach.
Although Weiner says Heller's New York roots didn't have any bearing on her landing the role, Heller felt the connection. "When I watch the show, it's not like when a 20- or 30- or 40-year-old watches it, because I was there," she says. "It's all part of my sensibility. I lived it."
Heller made the trek out West in 1978 to film a sitcom created by Joan Rivers called "Husbands, Wives & Lovers," and she never left. "I just passed the mark where I lived [in Los Angeles] longer than I lived in New York," she says.
Behind the Blankenship
Weiner based Miss Blankenship's character on a comedy bit former "Mad Men" co–executive producer Maria Jacquemetton did about an old co-worker. In earlier seasons a background actor played Miss Blankenship, at the time Mr. Cooper's secretary, but in Season 4, Weiner introduced her as the story device that leads to Megan becoming Don's secretary. "She's what we wanted for Don," Weiner says. "A dose of reality—I think the audience enjoyed the fact that Don had no control over her."
Randee Heller as Miss Blankenship on "Mad Men" (Courtesy of AMC)
Heller saw her role as offering a sort of "Shakespearean comic relief," pointing out the flaws in the protagonist while providing comic relief to pump up the tragedy. However, Weiner didn't write the character explicitly for comedy. "I understand that 'Mad Men' is serious, but the show has a lot of comedy in it," he says. "I actually cast all of the regulars based on the fact that they were funny. I may have a different idea than the rest of humanity about what I think is funny. That may be the problem."
Miss Blankenship's dialogue is indisputably hilarious, though. "I had the best lines," brags Heller, who particularly loved constantly embarrassing Jon Hamm's character with lines like "Are you going to the toilet?" and "Your daughter's psychiatrist is on the phone."
Another great comedic moment was her memorable final scene, when she dies at her desk. "I wanted it to look like she really fell over," Heller says, and she worked with a stunt coordinator to get everything perfect. "We had a tiny piece of foam on the desk, and I had to aim for it with my forehead. And it hurt. The glasses smashed into my face every time."
However, owing to the secrecy of the "Mad Men" writers and producers, Heller didn't know she'd be leaving the show until three days before shooting the episode. "I thought everything was going great," she says. "It was the perfect arc. Any more would be pushing it. I mean, what are they going to have her do? She's not going to sleep with Don Draper. Leave them wanting more."
She certainly did. The character gained a huge online following through a Facebook fan page with more than 4,500 fans. But will audiences ever see the cult-favorite character again? "Maybe some mornings, you come to my house, you'll see Miss Blankenship come out of bed," Heller jokes. "I'm waiting for that spinoff."