Jon Hamm, the guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, is an actor who became a TV legend by bringing to life what the Times of London described as “the most iconic role in the most iconic show in the golden age of TV” — namely, 1960s Madison Avenue ad exec Don Draper on AMC’s Mad Men, which ran for seven seasons spanning 2007 through 2015, becoming the first basic cable program to win the best drama series Emmy and bringing him a best actor in a drama series Emmy.
Now, a decade after Mad Men ended, Hamm, 54, is again anchoring another major drama series for which he could once again contend for that same award: Apple TV+’s Your Friends and Neighbors, which debuted on April 11, and on which he plays a wealthy New York hedge fund manager, husband and father whose life collapses around him, leading him to turn to robbing his wealthy — you guessed it — friends and neighbors.
Over the course of a conversation at the L.A. offices of The Hollywood Reporter, Hamm reflected on a range of topics. He talked about how losing his mother when he was nine and his father when he was 20 may have influenced his decision to pursue acting and how, after struggling to find traction in Hollywood for a number of years, he wound up landing the lead role on a show with a weird title, for a network not known for scripted originals, that ended up changing his life. He also talked about how he has approached his career over the years since Mad Men, during which he has appeared in a lot of comedies, from TV’s 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt to the film Bridesmaids; several Noah Hawley projects, including the film Lucy in the Sky and the TV series Legion and Fargo; other buzzy TV series, including The Morning Show and Landman; and the blockbuster film Top Gun: Maverick. And he revealed why Your Friends and Neighbors so appealed and appeals to him.
