No actors were harmed in the making of “Mad Men,” but you’d think cast members are tempting fate (read: lung cancer) with all the cigarettes inhaled in AMC’s new Kennedy-era drama.

While the cigarettes aren’t real, they do help establish the atmosphere and “feel” of “Mad Men,” which tracks the lives of Madison Avenue advertising execs in 1960 – in all their politically incorrect glory.

“Someone asked me what kind of research I did for my role and I said, ‘Well, I knew how to drink and smoke, ” says John Slattery, who plays silver-haired ad exec Roger Sterling, mentor to star ad man Don Draper (Jon Hamm).

“Cigarettes and drinking help you get into any role,” Slattery says. “If you have a cigarette and a martini, you’re off to the races.

“But these are human beings who happen to live in 1960 . . . in a simpler time where no one had any problems – except they had the exact same problems we do.”

That pretty much sums up “Mad Men,” which was created by “Sopranos” writer/executive producer Matthew Weiner as AMC’s first original scripted drama series.

Slattery, 44, has an impressive resume. He counts Clint Eastwood’s “Flags of Our Fathers” among his many movie roles, and “Sex and the City” fans will recognize him as the kinky mayoral wannabe who dated Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker).

He also has a recurring role as Gabrielle’s (Eva Longoria) slimy new hubby in “Desperate Housewives.”

On “Mad Men,” Slattery originally auditioned for the part of Don Draper, around whom the series revolves, but with his prematurely gray hair and aristocratic looks landed the role of agency president Roger Sterling.

“I never read for Roger and I was a little unsure about him because Roger wasn’t as clear [a character] in the pilot,” he says. “But Matt said, ‘Roger is gonna go to places you don’t expect, and I assure you I will take care of this character.’

“I dove in, and not only has Matt been good to his word, but this character is fantastically fun and interesting to play – and he goes all over the place.”

Slattery received a bonus when his real-life wife, Talia Balsam, was cast as Roger’s wife – giving the couple the chance to act together for the first time (Balsam is the daughter of the late actor Martin Balsam and actress Joyce Van Patten).

“We realized we didn’t even look at each other once when we were filming our first scene,” he says. “We were telling two different stories and commenting on each other’s telling of that story.”

Slattery says it wasn’t strange at all to be acting opposite his real-life wife (who was married to George Clooney from 1989-93).

“You have so many feelings about somebody that one of them is bound to be near what you’re supposed to be feeling in the scene,” he says.

“You can imagine having felt so many different ways about the person you’ve been with . . . and we’ve been together for 10 years.”

MAD MEN

Thursday, 10 p.m., AMC