This season on Mad Men, Pete Campbell is feeling unloved and overlooked. In a sense, we’re right there with him. Why hasn’t this quintessential TV villain become pop-culture shorthand yet, the way we talk about Betty Draper-style parenting or Roger Sterling-esque quips? Why don’t we describe amusing outbursts as Pete Campbell-isms ("Hell’s bells, Trudy!"), or use Pete Campbell as a workplace stereotype: the petulant, permanently dissatisfied co-worker? Moreover: where the hell is Vincent Kartheiser’s Emmy? The actor has taken Pete on a dark, bitter journey these past six years, while remaining inexplicably sympathetic and incredibly fun to watch.Â In these recent episodes, we’ve watched Pete take stock of his life and recoil at what he sees. Yet we’ve also seen the potential for change, in his pot-smoking moment in the office and his pragmatic "surrender" to the slippery Bob Benson. We caught up with Kartheiser, who’s in rehearsals for Pride and Prejudice at Minnesota’s famed Guthrie Theater, to talk about Pete Campbell’s rocky year—including those bombshell scenes with Bob Benson, and the question of whether Pete could actually be gay.

GQ: Last night, somebody got shot, and Pete didn’t do it!

Vincent Kartheiser: Pete’s never done it!

GQ: True, but they keep bringing back that gun. I was convinced last season that you were either going to die or kill somebody.

Vincent Kartheiser: Oh, I like that, because we had already finished our season, so I already knew that wasn’t going to happen. It was fun to know that I was going to disappoint oh-so-many people.

**GQ: While shooting Season 5, did you ever fear that Pete was actually going to die? **

Vincent Kartheiser: I didn’t have that feeling, so I think Matt [Weiner] might have reassured me at some point. During the first two seasons, anyone could be fired from the agency, and [the show] was so much focused on Don Draper and his family and Sterling Cooper. Now it’s expanded so much that even if you do go away, you’re still in the world, you know?

GQ: Earlier this season, Trudy (played by Allison Brie) decided she was done with Pete. Were you and Allison surprised?

Vincent Kartheiser: I mean, we’re always surprised! That’s the thing about the show; it’s always surprising when you go. And I was excited. I mean, it’s a juicy plotline for Peter. But yeah, she was letting me get away with a lot before then. I think it was good for Allison as well, to have this character go to a place where she’s not going to be doting on him anymore. I think that’s been exciting for her.

**GQ: One of my favorite Season 6 scenes was Peggy, Ted and Pete’s Ocean Spray celebration dinner, at which Pete told Peggy, "Please tell me don’t pity me, because you really know me." Where does that come from? **

Vincent Kartheiser: I think he really feels that she knows him better than anyone else. I mean, what we often forget—and I don’t, because I’m me—but what I think some people often forget, is that the first night right before Pete got married, he went to Peggy and they spent the night together. And who knows what those conversations were, how deep they went? They were both kind of back and forth in love for the first couple of seasons. There was even a line, I think, in Season 2 or 3, where he said, "You really know me. You know me better than anyone else." I’d have to hunt back to the script sometime to find the actual line, but I believe something like that was said before. And I think he does feel a connection—kind of the same as with Beth Dawes (Alexis Bledel) last year, that she saw part of him that the rest of the world didn’t see. I mean, Trudy loves him, but not really _him, _so much. He keeps a lot from her, and they have a very surface relationship in some ways.Â So I think with Peggy he really does feel that way. But it’s not necessarily some romantic thing; it’s just the way it is.