10 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About Mad Men
8. 8 Different Actors Played Bobby Draper
In Hollywood, child actors are seen to be disposable, with their minimal amount of hours they're allowed to be on set, the demanding parents, and inability to not look directly into camera, it's usually a fraught relationship between child star and director. Usually a switch is made during a show's run, but it's unusual for there to be more than one change of cast member. With Mad Men however, when it came to Bobby Draper, there were 8!
Now any Mad Men obsessed person will say at this point that there were only 4 Bobby Drapers, but Weiner snuck 4 more young actors into the show as Don's middle child without you even noticing. The first Bobby, or "pilot Bobby", can only be seen for a few seconds asleep in bed at the end of the first episode. He was swiftly replaced with Maxwell Huckabee, who starred in 7 episodes as 4 year-old Bobby and for seemingly no reason was replaced half way through season 1 with Aaron Hart. Hart was known for playing the disobedient Bobby, who Don had to discipline for not listening to his mother.
In season 3 Bobby was switched out again for Jared Gilmore, who left the show at the end of season 4 to star on Once Upon A Time, as lead character Henry. The final change for the character came when Gilmore left, replacing him with Mason Vale Cotton who ended up having the most to do as Bobby.
Because of the amount of time the actors could be on set. Weiner came up with clever ideas to sneak in different actors to play the boy like "Bucket-head Bobby" who wore a, you guessed it, bucket on his head and "Pillow Bobby" who was directed to shove his face in a pillow as to not be seen.