Jon Hamm reveals the final season of Mad Men was ‘very difficult’ to film
Fair enough.
Jon Hamm has reflected on the time he spent filming Mad Men, sharing that the final season was ‘very difficult’ to get through.
The 54-year-old is currently stealing the show, literally, as Andrew Cooper in acclaimed Apple TV+ series Your Friends and Neighbors.
Before this, he played Don Draper to perfection for eight years in the AMC drama about a charming advertising executive at a New York-based firm in the 60s, alongside Elisabeth Moss, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, John Slattery and Robert Morse.
The award-winning show first hit our screens in 2007 and ran for seven seasons before ending in May 2015.
In a new interview, Jon touched on the 10-year anniversary of Mad Men ending, revealing that he was gutted to spend so much time away from his co-stars, as Don found himself on a separate journey during those last episodes.
‘It has been 10 years since Mad Men went off the air. And then you go, “S**t”,’ he told GQ. ‘A lot of that stuff from the last season I remember was very difficult to do, for many reasons. My character was going out on his kind of vision quest.
He opened up about the tough final shoot (Picture: Shutterstock) Jon was met with huge acclaim for his role as the ad exec (Picture: GC Images)‘I realized, oh, s**t, there’s probably going to be three or four episodes of the show that I’m not going to be working with the main cast of the show.’
The finale also became extremely poignant for the actor, who met wife Anna Osceola while filming Don’s final moments in Big Sur – they shared the screen for a few moments before the credits rolled.
The couple also tied the knot two years ago in the exact location that they met, and where audiences bid farewell to a very complicated character.
Speaking of the impact the series had, and how his career changed afterwards, Jon continued: ‘I knew it would be unlikely to have another experience like Mad Men. Because it was culturally defining, it was a moment in time.
He starred opposite John Slattery as Roger Sterling (Picture: Lionsgate)‘Everything lined up for that show to be what it was at the time it was. And I was okay with that. Some people don’t even get the one. So I got one.
‘I got all the awards I needed. [After it ended] I was like, “I’m good”. I just want to work with people I find compelling. And I hope that I get to do stuff that other people like. But the only real barometer is that I like it.’
In Your Friends and Neighbors, the Bridesmaids actor took on a totally different role, playing a hedge fund manager who gets sacked from his high-paying job after a consensual sexual encounter with a colleague.
He is also struggling to cope after divorcing his wife, but attempts to keep up appearances by stealing from his affluent neighbors.
Coop is the latest in a line of twisted, dark role that Jon has portrayed throughout his career and, speaking to Metro, he shed light on how he gets into the mind frame of such a complex character
Jon is currently starring in Your Friends and Neighbors (Picture: Apple TV+)‘Part of it is really working with the creator of the show, the writer of the show, and having the discussion of where are we going to go? Especially telling the story the way we tell it,’ he told us.
‘Mostly it’s really establishing the story of the character first, and that’s just having a central line of communication with the writer, creator. I had that with Matt Weiner on Mad Men.
‘Matt knew exactly where Don had come from, and he knew exactly where he was going to go. He just didn’t know how many episodes he was going to have in between. That was the fun journey, as well, on that show.
‘With this one, it was that Jonathan knew that he was going to have the arc of the first season really well planned out.
‘I knew that it was going to get very dark, and that was going to be the central gravity of the show, but I also knew that we were going to have a lot of fun telling that story as well.’
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