“Mad Men” actor Jay R. Ferguson told HuffPost Live that his character Stan Rizzo first came to the show as a “smug pig,” but he saw a big shift in fan’s reactions after one specific change.

“Once [the writers] allowed him to go full hippie, that endeared him to a lot of the audience,” Ferguson told host Ricky Camilleri on Monday. “I think the weed-smoking does wonders for making the audience fall in love with you, I tell you what. More than anything else, it seems.”

Stan is just one of the many “Mad Men” characters we’ve seen engaging in illicit substances, and Ferguson said fans “absolutely, without question” started to like Stan once they saw him toking. The reaction has been so positive, in fact, that Ferguson said fans sometimes approach him asking to smoke a bowl together.

Ferguson said he always answers the same way: “My response is, ‘I’ve got three kids.'”

Watch the full HuffPost Live conversation with Jay R. Ferguson here.

Sign up here for Live Today, HuffPost Live’s morning email that will let you know the newsmakers, celebrities and politicians joining us that day and give you the best clips from the day before.

– This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.