Ron Jaffe/AMC

Warning: this post contains spoilers about Sunday’s episode of “Mad Men” that are especially sad if you like nice British people.

This was, to put it mildly, not the easiest season of “Mad Men” for Lane Pryce, the seemingly strait-laced and business-savvy partner at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, and not just because he didn’t receive a Christmas bonus. Lane, played by Jared Harris, struggled in his marriage, planted an awkward kiss on Joan Harris, and lusted after a mystery woman he knew only from a single photograph and her voice on the telephone. Then, when his personal funds got tight, he embezzled from the company, got caught by Don Draper and was forced to resign and – last warning for spoilers – committed suicide in his office.

Mr. Harris, a three-season veteran of “Mad Men” who also appears on the Fox series “Fringe” and has been seen on the big screen in “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” and “Happiness,” among other films, spoke to ArtsBeat on Monday about the sad fate of Lane Pryce. These are excerpts from that conversation.

Q.

How have you been handling this day so far?

A.

Well, I’ve known about it for a while. [laughs] So I was prepared long ago.

Q.

How was this presented to you, that this was what was going to happen to Lane?

A.

There’s two answers to that. First of all, even before we started shooting, there was some talk around base camp about, was a character going to be thrown overboard or not and if it was, who would it be? There was a lot of speculation and I’m not sure why that was in the air. Possibly because you know that [“Mad Men”] creator Matt [Weiner] likes to shake stuff up.

For me, I got an email saying, What’s your handwriting like? Lane is going to forge a signature in the next episode, and if you don’t have old-fashioned cursive handwriting we need to get somebody. That didn’t look good. But after we did the read-through for Episode 10, Matt always asks everyone to hang around after so he can talk to you, and he kept waiting to get to me and talk to everyone else first. And finally, he got to me, he said, “Listen, let’s go up to my office.” Now that’s always bad news. And then when we got into the office he offered me some really expensive brandy – that was really big trouble. He went, “I’ve got something I need to speak to you about,” and I went, “Uh-oh,” and he goes, “Yes, I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”

Q.

How did you react to that?

A.

I was upset. Not upset like angry, but sad in that – what a great place to work and it’s been an incredible experience. I was sad that that would be over. But from a dramatic point of view, you can’t question the man’s judgment. Haven’t done it so far and you can’t do it now.

Q.

It was consistent with Lane’s trajectory. He didn’t reach out too far too often, but when he did –

A.

He gets smacked down. He definitely didn’t get anything like what he wanted in life.

Q.

Now, for at least the moment, you had information that your other cast mates didn’t know.

A.

You’ve got to keep it secret. That was Episode 10, so it was probably a couple of weeks before anyone else would get the scripts. But Jon Hamm knew, because he sits down with Matt before each season and Matt shares his ideas with him. So Jon knew. And you get a feel for when it’s starting to filter through, some strange conversations start to happen. [John] Slattery normally finds out because he knows where the scripts are buried and he goes and reads them before anybody else. Then there’s little conversations you have in the catering line, like, “Hey, I saw the outline for Episode 12.” Uh-huh. “So, that’s a pretty intense episode.” Mm-hmm. And he’s trying to figure out if you know – you go, “Oh is it?” and you’re messing with his head. “Why, what happens?” Eventually someone just puts their arms around your shoulders and goes, “We’re going to really miss you.”

Q.

That terrible scene where Lane’s body is discovered, how was that shot?

A.

They wanted the reaction from those guys in the room, so I was made up in the makeup trailer, snuck in through the back, hung up on the harness, hung from behind the door, and then they did some run-throughs to make sure they could open it with some other people. Then they brought the cast guys up and they knew I was hanging on the other side of the door, but when they came into the room they saw that for the first time.

Q.

So we’re seeing their genuine reaction to seeing you in that state for the first time?

A.

Yes.

Q.

Was that the very last scene that you shot?

A.

It wasn’t. The very last scene that I did was a scene in the bedroom with Rebecca [Lane’s wife,played by Embeth Davidtz] in the Pryce apartment.

Q.

Do you feel like, well, at least you got to punch Pete Campbell in the face?

A.

[laughs] Yes, that was fun. But you really had no idea it was going that way for Lane when you saw those moments of dignity and finally standing up for himself. But there’s all sorts of other clues – there’s a line in the second hour of the first episode, where he’s on the phone with Dolores, and he’s trying to get her to come by his office and he says, “I’ll be here the rest of my life.”

Q.

We know “Mad Men” is ending in two more seasons, so there’s not that much more that you’d be missing out on.

A.

I disagree. From a selfish, career-actor point of view, it’s just going to get bigger and bigger as it builds towards [Season] 7. Even now, with doing all the promotion for the beginning of Season 5, one of the questions that Matt was asked constantly is about the end in Season 7, and there’s already a hunger for that. He would say, “Look, how about you just enjoy Season 5 first?” I’m sad not to be a part of that because I know how amazing that experience will be. I’m just going to be like everybody else now. I’ll have to see the damn show to find out what happens.

Q.

And you can’t go back to “Fringe,” either.

A.

I’m getting it from both sides, man. When I read scripts now, I will go: “Well, I like this character – he doesn’t damn well die.”

Q.

I’m glad to hear that you’re in such good humor about this.

A.

Listen, I’m incredibly lucky. I’m lucky to have been a part of it. I’m lucky that he allowed my character to go out in such a great way. I went out with a bang, not a whimper. I’ll miss working there, but I’m cognizant of the fact that I’m tremendously lucky that I joined the show after it had been on for two years. I didn’t have the same anxiety that all of them had in the initial stages, of: What is this show? Will it work? Will people discover it? Will they like it? I had joined a show that was already a tremendous success.