An enigmatic aura was a key ingredient to what made Don Draper one of the vital compelling TV characters of all time, however this won’t have been potential had “Mad Males” creator Matthew Weiner not fought to solid a comparatively unknown entity. Talking in a current interview with The Hollywood Reporter for its “Awards Chatter” podcast, present “Your Mates and Neighbors” star Jon Hamm reminisced concerning the casting course of for the present and the lengths executives went by to show he had what it took to be a number one man. In the end, Hamm shared it got here all the way down to Weiner speaking the necessity to embrace the actor’s anonymity as a function, not a flaw.
“The entire level of this present is that no one is aware of who this man is,” Hamm stated of what Weiner advised executives. “You’ll be able to’t put — for one of many higher examples — Rob Lowe into this present. It might be bizarre. You’d go, ‘Oh, it’s the Rob Lowe present. Like, okay, cool.’ So that really labored to my profit moderately than towards me.”
That being stated, convincing the community to place Hamm as #1 on the decision sheet nonetheless proved fairly the trial. He ended up having to audition “six or seven” occasions earlier than being flown out to New York for a last assembly with the executives at AMC.
“I feel that there have been some high-level discussions about, ‘Are we actually going to make this child that no one is aware of the lead of our present? That is the primary present on our community that’s ever existed,’” stated Hamm of AMC’s considerations. “The traditional knowledge was, you rent any person that has credit or a factor.”
Fortunately although, through the assembly in New York, Hamm was formally supplied the half. Past the truth that nobody actually knew who he was, Hamm additionally used private expertise and historical past to construct his understanding of the position. Particularly, he was reminded of his father, who would’ve been a recent of Don and shared many comparable qualities.
“There was a resting type of melancholy that I feel my dad had in addition to Don had, which is a little bit bit like, you’ve all of these items,” he advised THR. “You have got all of this privilege. You have got all of this entry. Every part, it appears, goes your approach. So why aren’t you happier? And I feel that that’s a part of what drove the present as properly.”
Hamm can presently be seen on the Apple TV+ collection “Your Mates and Neighbors,” co-starring Amanda Peet and Olivia Munn.
“Your Mates and Neighbors” streams on Apple TV+ with new episodes dropping Fridays.