A Drink With Laura Ramsey

A Sunday-afternoon tequila with the star of Matthew Weiner’s Are You Here.

Pulling up a seat in The Raines Law Room, a dimly lit nouveau speakeasy in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood, Laura Ramsey forgoes the extensive list of Prohibition-era cocktails for something far simpler: “Tequila on the rocks,” the actress says. Perhaps it’s because she’s leaving soon for vacation in Mexico.


“Last time, I stayed in the town of Yelapa at a place called Verana,” she says between sips. “It’s just so heavenly; I felt like I was in another realm.” Before departing, she must spend a few days in New York shooting a guest spot on USA’s White Collar, a show she admits to never having seen (shhh). So for now, Casamigos Tequila, a sort of prelude to paradise. Ramsey certainly knows what she wants, on the rocks or otherwise. This month you’ll see the Wisconsin native, whose résumé includes roles in Lords of Dogtownand The Ruins, in Are You Here, the feature-length debut of Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner; she stars alongside Zach Galifianakis, Amy Poehler, and Owen Wilson. It’s a career-altering role Ramsey fought hard for, convincing Weiner, with whom she worked on Mad Men, to see her again after she botched her first audition. (“I just got in my own way.”) She was driving when he called with the news.


“I’m about to cry just thinking about it,” she says, her voice ripe with pride. “It’s important to know that no doesn’t always mean no.” Does that mean she appreciates persistence? She smiles, raises an eyebrow. “Why can’t a woman approach a man? That’s way more interesting.”

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