John Slattery attended a Duracell event earlier this week to reflect on how his father’s hearing loss affected his family.
On Tuesday, May 3, 2016, Duracell kicked off its “Stay Connected” campaign in conjunction with National Better Hearing Month to raise awareness about hearing impairment. John Slattery (Captain America:Civil War, Mad Men, Spotlight, Veep) helped kick off the campaign and shared his personal experience with hearing loss. The actor shared the story of his father’s problems with hearing that affected the whole family.
The Knockturnal: Tell us about supporting the campaign today?
John Slattery: I’m here partnered with Duracell to bring people’s attention to the subject of hearing impairment and to illustrate that it can isolate people from their own lives, from their families. People are often afraid to talk about it, or actually reveal that they have hearing loss. They just sort of pretend that everything is alright. And Duracell is giving away 50,000 hearing tests this month to try to get people to become aware of that and it’s an easy free phone test. You go to Duracell.com/StayConnected and that’s their campaign, there’s also a short film that’s really moving. It’s really important and they’re doing great things.
TK: What did you think about the short film?
JS: It was very moving, really well done. And then Paul [Mauro] got up and talked about his story. It isn’t just an inconvenience and it isn’t amusing like some of the anecdotes you might hear. It’s serious and it can be life-threatening. Most of the time it’s just life-compromising.
TK:
TK: How has it been working with Julia Louis Dreyfus?
JS: She’s fantastic. I’m a huge fan, I remain an even bigger fan.
TK: Congratulations on Captain America: Civil War out this Friday. Will we see Howard Stark again in future Marvel films?
JS: I haven’t seen that either [laugh]. It’s possible. I can’t say for sure, ’cause I don’t know.
TK: Would you like to do more?
JS: Sure! Yeah! That’s a whole other animal, those movies. They are pretty impressive, the size, the scope of those movies, the production, all those people, a lot of superheroes!
TK: There’s a scene where you finally get to appear with Robert Downey Jr. How was finally appearing with Robert in that scene?
JS: Great! I’ve done it before, he’s terrific. Yeah! He’s really great.
TK: If you could play a Marvel character other than Stark – who would it be?
JS: They’re all taken! [laugh] I don’t know! Iron Man is pretty cool. It’s hard to argue against Downey. He makes it look pretty cool. And he doesn’t have to wear tights, which I don’t think I would look very good in, it is a big plus. He can wear that cool looking suit, doesn’t have to wear a cape and tights. So probably I would have to say Iron Man.
TK: Are you enjoying returning to TV after such a great run on Mad Men?
JS: Yeah. I am, I like working. And luckily I’ve been able to work on some well written shows. I’m gonna do a play in the fall and I like that too. I like the variety of it.
TK: Can you reflect on the success of Spotlight?
JS: I was really really gratified by the success of that, glad to be part of it. It’s an important subject and I think Tom McCarthy made a great movie. I was honored to be in it. We had a really good time working on it and figuring it all out with that group of actors with Tom and Josh Singer. And the fact that it got all that attention is helpful to the people who not only suffered that abuse, who continue to suffer that abuse, and the journalists who work in long-term investigative journalism, which, I think, is really important to society as a check and balance on society. So, support your local journalists.