Zosia Mamet Seemingly Alludes to 'Mad Men' Departure in New Book

Zosia Mamet appeared to reveal the reason for her abrupt exit from Mad Men in her new collection of essays, Does This Make Me Funny?

“I finished my day. I walked to my car and called my agents and told them I quit,” Mamet, 37, wrote, in a book excerpt published by The Hollywood Reporter on Monday, September 8. “I was supposed to do four more episodes that season, not including the one I was on, but I told them I didn’t care what they had to do, I didn’t care if the network sued me, I refused to go back on that set for one more day than I actually had to.”

She added, “I don’t remember anything else about the rest of that shoot. I think I’ve blocked it out. The show went on to break records for awards and ratings. And it deserved it. It’s an incredible piece of television, and I feel insanely honored to have been a part of it.”

While Mamet did not name the show in question, she played Joyce Ramsay on seasons 4 and 5 of AMC’s Mad Men. Mamet further claimed in her book that she chose to leave the show because of an incident with the show’s creator. (Us Weekly has reached out to Mad Men showrunner Matthew Weiner for comment.)

“The show’s creator and showrunner was an intense human. He directed some episodes every season but not all of them,” Mamet wrote, without naming Weiner or Mad Men directly. “This one was being directed by someone else. The showrunner wasn’t always around, but when he was, the entire vibe of the set would change, as if a cold front had swept the soundstage. I never entirely understood why. He was definitely spirited and opinionated, but there’s way worse than that in Hollywood.”

According to Mamet, the unnamed showrunner called “cut” in the middle of a blocking rehearsal before allegedly asking her, “What the f*** are you doing?”

“To which I say, ‘Um … rehearsing?’ And then he grabs my hand that’s holding the manila envelope and he says, ‘No! What the f*** are you doing with this! That’s not how you take something out of an envelope! Do it again!’” Mamet claimed. “So we do it again, and again, and again. And every time we get to the part of the scene where I’m meant to take the photos out of the envelope, he calls ‘cut’ and he gets up and he yells.”

Mamet further claimed that the show creator was “full-out screaming” at her and questioned if she even remembered how to act.

“Eventually he gave up or got bored,” she added. “But this lasted for about a half hour. And nobody stopped it. Everyone just stared at their shoes while he screamed at me.”

Does This Make Me Funny? is available now.