The October 2010 issue of Details magazine features Mad Men's Jon Hamm.
I'm only just starting to get into Mad Men. My only previous exposure to Hamm is his turn as hilarious boyfriend to Tina Fey's character in 30 Rock.
In Details, in a story titled Jon Hamm: The Last Alpha Male, Hamm spills.
Here is an excerpt:
"Fuck. You. Motorcycles," Jon Hamm says in a low, grinning growl. The delivery is pure Don Draper, but the guy behind the wheel is looking a whole lot more laid-back in his madras shorts, Wayfarers, and beat-up St. Louis Cardinals cap than his tortured television alter ego ever does.
It's a sunny summer day in Malibu, the kind that makes any trip up the Pacific Coast Highway feel like a car commercial or a scene from a jubilant surf movie. Or that's how it would feel if this pack of leather-trousered bikers would kindly unclog the road. The moment there's an opening between the hogs, Hamm hits the accelerator and we take off, a silver blur hurtling toward Oxnard. The blur, in case you can't make it out, is a not-yet-released gullwing SLS AMG, on loan from the good folks at Mercedes-Benz.
This is, as Hamm notes, a "bizarrely lunatic car." It's insanely fast. "That was 140," he says calmly as he eases back down to a reasonable, autobahn-worthy pace. Hamm recently became the voice of Mercedes, lending his sonorous, all-comforting, all-promising pitchman's authority to its TV spots.
"It's funny, right? Kind of this weird synergy," Hamm says, alluding to the fact that the role he's most identified with—Don Draper, the powerful and powerfully conflicted master of advertising on AMC's Mad Men—has now led to an actual gig selling cars.
"It's strange, but it's good for me. I vote yes."
And here's a short Q & A on the man:
On deciding to become an actor: “I never minded standing up and looking like an idiot, which is tremendously helpful in this industry and not so much in others. At a certain point. I figured I was way too far down the line for a normal career. I was waiting tables with a friend who had been a business major, and he really wanted to get this job selling copiers. I just thought, ‘Really? You really want that job?’ My dad was a salesman. He could sell anything to anybody. I was like, ‘Nah, not for me.’”
On life/work beyond Mad Men: “I do this show for four months of the year. I can’t live on it—I gotta keep hustling. I went right from the show into The Town, working with Ben Affleck for six weeks up in Boston,” he says. “Then right from that up to Canada to shoot a little part in Sucker Punch with Zack Snyder, who did Watchmen and 300. This guy is a genius-level-weird artist. It was just amazing—a-mazing—how much energy he puts into it day to day, how excited he was about it. This guy is totally inspirational, in every way. It was like, ‘I’m on board! Let’s do it! F-ck it! F-ck, let’s do it!’”
On The Town: “It’s almost like an old Hollywood movie,” he says. “It’s got a love story, it’s got a crime element, but it’s very much for adults. There’s not a lot of candy for the Twitter-obsessed. It just deals with adult shit—no werewolves, no vampires. Yet . . . they’re retooling it for 3D.”
What if Mad Men hadn‘t come along? “If [Mad Men] had been on any of the major networks,” Hamm says, “I never would have been cast, ever, period, done, never, no way. They would want someone like Rob Lowe who’s got a proven track record. I would’ve gotten all the way to the end . . . and then I wouldn’t get cast… I would have been perfectly happy, I think, continuing my career the way it was. Just being that guy in shows. I probably could have had a very nice career doing that. And still may, honestly. The big book ain’t written yet.”
Is he happy with his later-in-life success? “Absolutely, I don’t know how the Twilight kids or Miley Cyrus or whoever handle it. You f-ck up, make one bad decision, and people in Thailand Twitter about it.” Hamm’s mostly left alone, he says: “I’m old, I’m boring. I usually just duck the paparazzi. It’s literally someone waiting for you to pick your nose or scratch yourself. I’m sorry, I scratched my balls—who doesn’t do that? You’re really going to run that story? What the f-ck?! Everyone has picked their nose at one point in their life too.”
Read More http://www.details.com/celebrities-entertainment/cover-stars/201010/mad-men-actor-alpha-male-jon-hamm#ixzz0zjQZqyuN
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