Jon Hamm on the Last Season of "Mad Men" & His Hopes for Don Draper

Um, what part of Canada are you from? Are you going to interview me? Just asking a question. Toronto. Oh, Toronto. I know where you're from. St. Louis. Cardinals. Hello. I actually don't watch hockey. I'm the only Canadian that doesn't watch hockey. I love hockey. Is it because you moved here too long? No, I just I don't know. Growing up all the guys would just go play hockey instead of being available and it was just annoying. So I boycotted the sport. Horrible hair. Hockey hair. Hockey hair is no good. No. The mullet. I actually kind of like a mullet. Really? You kinda do. Okay. I'm going to keep I'm going to make you stick to that. That also might be what you're doing wrong in dating.

In dating.

We're talking about my dating life before we started rolling. I feel like you could cure me of my dating issues. That's why I feel like you could give me some good tips.

Yeah, well, um well, no. I mean, you're you're old enough to know what you like and what good people are and

Oh, I know what I like. They just don't like me back. That's nonsense. It's so true. But let's talk about you, Jon. Did you have an acting equivalent where you said, "I've made it into the big leagues."

Um, you know, I guess. I mean, part of it is like part of it is just moving out here. I mean, it's it's I came from St. Louis and it's and it's, you know, it's only a two-day drive, but it feels like

You didn't drive, did you?

Yeah, I did. Uh, but it feels like you're you're you're moving to a whole other country. I mean, it's just a very different idea out here and it's

Oh, it sure is.

And it's uh, and it's it's daunting and it's it's uh, you know, it's nerve-racking and it's hard, obviously, you know, I would go into rooms when I first came out here and I'd be like, "Oh, great, there's nine other guys that look just like me and they all have like TV careers." So it's challenging. My equivalent would probably be like getting Mad Men. Uh, and realizing that, you know, I'd kind of bounced around on TV shows here and there and everywhere, but like Mad Men was I was throughout the entire audition process, which took about, you know, a month. I auditioned seven or eight times. I would have a psychological meltdown. I don't know how you sort of

It's not easy.

It's not easy and it's and it's hard and you and you So you go I'm like, "Well, you know, this will be fun. Like I'll get down to the wire and then they'll hire the guy that looks like me, but who is a movie star." And that'll be fun. Uh, but they didn't hire me. And, you know, it was it was a it was an eye-opening experience and it has been for the last basically last decade of my life. So that part was fun.

Getting into the zone as an actor. I know you've talked about this on Mad Men but if you're not 100% committed, the audience can actually see it. Sort of like a tip for getting in the zone, staying in the zone as an actor.

Um, you know, part of it is just being prepared and then feeling comfortable enough to um, fuck up. If you do. Oh well, you know.

Right. Having that freedom.

Yeah, if you if you mess up then you you go again, you know, and it's um, but but you have to be prepared at the beginning of it. Um, to really like to really feel okay enough to to play around in the in the space of it all.

Where were you? I had an early lunch. I can smell it. I know you're going to beat me here. You could have told somebody. Anybody. I don't have to tell anybody. That's my name on the door out there. This is my agency. I'm the president of this agency. I don't have to ask anybody anything. You know what I call a holiday for the whole office right now? I've been sitting in here waiting for you. I'm not going to slink out of here with my tail between my legs. I'll call a damn meeting. Um, just quickly, this season of Mad Men, how's it going to be sort of a fresh take on other seasons? Because I know the posters and that this sort of hinted that things are going to be sort of different.

Uh, well, I die in the first uh.

He says, There's a rocker. These guys have heard that joke 15 times today. Um,

Did it still kill? Did it still kill? Yeah, kinda it just did. Obviously, like time is moving forward and our and our people are getting older and our characters are getting older and everybody's moving forward and it's it's so so that part has has shifted. But when we left left Don was not in the best place. You know, he was he was uh without a wife, without a job, and basically without a family, and without a lot of stuff. And in the last note of the of the of Season 6 was hopeful in the sense that he's sort of with his children and kind of hopefully showing them a little more about his life. But um, you know, that's what I what I hope at least. I don't write the show, obviously, but what I hope for Don is to is to find some semblance of balance and peace and happiness in his life, because we've seen a lot of the other part. And um, so, you know, I I just hope it's um forthcoming. And I think that, you know, part of like the big uh downward spiral is is the hope for redemption. I didn't behave well. I said the wrong things to the wrong people at the wrong time. What did you say? I told the truth about myself.