Yes, we spoke to Jon Hamm. And yes, it consoled us (but only slightly) about the end of Mad Men. Here are the best bits...
He totally doesn’t ‘get’ why we fancy Don Draper. 'When I hear something like "Don Draper is God's gift to women", I certainly hope not. I hope God has a better gift because Don Draper is terrible to women and terrible for women. 'I grew up with a single mother and if my mom had started dating Don Draper I'd be terrified. I don't understand that part of it at all.'
He is pragmatic about the ending of Mad Men while we’re just gibbering wrecks. ‘Nobody died. We haven't lost each other forever but we have lost this particular experience. Everything ends. We're no exception.'
He won’t miss the paparazzi. Fair play. 'If someone takes a picture of me walking down the street looking grumpy I can't say "no, I wasn't, I was actually walking to the party and not away from it, but ok". There's nothing you can say. So I won't miss that. The interesting thing to me is the counter argument that this is what you asked for when you enter the public sphere - I don't think that's necessarily true.'
His BFF’s Paul Rudd and Adam Scott supported him when he was first starting out. 'Struggling in any city is no fun but it's easier in your twenties because you feel bulletproof and there were enough of us in the same boat to make it feel ok. We lived on the East Side of LA in a neighbourhood I still live in [Los Feliz] but in those days it was seedy and weird. You could go out for 20 dollars and have a pretty good night. We couldn't afford to go to the fancy clubs of West Hollywood. You'd be looking at the best part of 100 bucks and that was basically rent.'
He and his gorgeous actress/screenwriter partner Jennifer Westfeldt complement each other perfectly. 'We're constantly looking at things and developing things. She's a 24/7 professional motion machine. I'm a little more of a inertia master but she's constantly churning and looking for things.'
He’s not adverse to a bit of a rant. 'I think if you look at what is considered important in our culture I'm on the very far end of the age range of that. Our culture places all the value on what 14-year-olds think is important, just look at what makes money, look at music, look at movies. I'm not making up the rules.'
He loves us Brits. 'Charlie Brooker has a very similar sensibility to mine. I've always been an anglophile, growing up on Monty Python and Benny Hill.'
There is definitely life after Mad Men. 'I just hope I can get some stuff that people like and I can continue to work. There are a lot of jobs out there but there are not a lot of great ones. And you do find yourself in line with some pretty important people. But that's ok. It's a brave new world and I think the best way to approach it is to have your mind open.'
The final season of Mad Men is on Sky Atlantic on Thursday nights.
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