Jon Hamm: Don Draper... is a fundamentally fucked up human being

by Dimitris Ioannou

For the May cover of Esquire UK, the talented Mr. Hamm leaves aside suits and ties, walks into a restaurant, eats a hamburger and talks about almost everything we want to know about him. His “Mad Men” character Don Draper, the show and even about being considered sexy by the majority of women all over the world.

Jon Hamm explains that in order to play the role that brought him to stardom, he had to go deep into his life and find things that related him to the character. However he doesn't think of him as a man who could be his best friend in real life. “There is no Don Draper,” he says. “Don Draper was blown up in a ditch in Korea. That whole ‘Be Don Draper’ thing, I feel it’s… sad. This is a fundamentally fucked up human being.”.

You might wonder what was Jon's first reaction when he got the script of “Mad Men”, but you will be surprised to know that he didn't like it from the beginning. “I remember picking it up. Mad Men: sh**** title. AMC: network no-one’s ever heard of. Two strikes. Then I read it. I said to her (girlfriend Jennifer Westfeldt), ‘This is the best pilot I’ve ever read in my life.’”.

Every woman wants to marry him and every guy wants to be like him, even though Don Draper isn't that good of a man. But Jon is. And he also is sexy, although he doesn't feel like it. “There’s a lot of talk about, ‘Oooh, you’re so sexy!’. If people put that mantle on you, fine, but you take it with a wink and a pinch of salt. At 41 I’m like, give me a break, man, I’m no Ryan Gosling. And that’s fine. I don’t aspire to be that. That’s not my jam.”