When Mad Men premiered in 2007, the American actor Jon Hamm was a virtual unknown. Through his portrayal of the mercurial advertising executive Don Draper over six seasons, the actor accumulated a string of acting awards, including a Golden Globe for Best Actor and six Emmy Award nominations. Speaking on the eve of the final season, screening exclusively on MBC 4 from Saturday, he talks about parting ways with the character that made him a star.
Since your character plays a central role in the last series, did you have any influence in terms of how to end the show?
I don’t have any creative input on the show other than what I bring to it as an actor. Matt’s (series creator Matt Weiner) been very clear in all of the press and all of the surrounding intelligence about the show in that it’s very clearly his baby and we are simply servants to that vision and that’s fine. But, you know, I don’t have any intelligence. I don’t have any importance. I don’t have any input, really, in that world. And I honestly am kind of happy that I don’t, because I don’t want to have to think up the end of this thing. It’s been seven seasons of characters advancing and, honestly, I’m glad I don’t have to think it up. I’m glad I just have to memorise lines.
After years of living with this character, what is your personal take on Don Draper? Anything you admire or loathe about this guy?
A very wise man told me once about acting that if you ever judge the character that you’re playing, you’re going to do it a disservice, and so I try not to judge our guy Don. I think that’s maybe been the biggest challenge of portraying this guy who is fairly odious in his behaviour patterns often, and to just try to humanise him and sort of understand that we can all be kind of hateful in our own ways when we’re feeling bad or misunderstood or confused.
Are you dreading shooting the final episode?
This show has taken up essentially a decade of my life and it’s been a great decade, honestly, and I’ve met a lot of people who I think will be friends for the rest of my life and I’ve had a lot of amazing experiences and I’ve got to go to award shows and just experience these things that when you start down the road of being an actor, you think that’s never going to happen and yet, it did to me. So it’s been an emotional roller-coaster ride for me. So when it’s time to get off the ride, I’m going to be like: “I don’t want to get off, man, I want to stay on the ride. Come on, the ride’s over?” But as it’s been mentioned before, all good things do come to an end. And I am glad that the show is ending, but I’m going to be an absolute disaster when it does.
The bright side is you will finally be available for other projects. Any decent roles that came your way?
I don’t necessarily have anything lined up and I don’t know what the future holds, honestly. It’s a brave new world out there.
After it's all done and dusted, what do you think will be Don Draper's legacy?
I really do hope people take away that this is a story of a person who, in all of his faults and all of his troubles and all of his missteps, was trying to do the right thing and I think that’s the thing that people can identify with the most.
• Mad Men screens exclusively on MBC 4 Saturday at midnight. For more details go to www.mbc.net
sasaeed@thenational.ae
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Day 1, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Dimuth Karunaratne had batted with plenty of pluck, and no little skill, in getting to within seven runs of a first-day century. Then, while he ran what he thought was a comfortable single to mid-on, his batting partner Dinesh Chandimal opted to stay at home. The opener was run out by the length of the pitch.
Stat of the day - 1 One six was hit on Day 1. The boundary was only breached 18 times in total over the course of the 90 overs. When it did arrive, the lone six was a thing of beauty, as Niroshan Dickwella effortlessly clipped Mohammed Amir over the square-leg boundary.
The verdict Three wickets down at lunch, on a featherbed wicket having won the toss, and Sri Lanka’s fragile confidence must have been waning. Then Karunaratne and Chandimal's alliance of precisely 100 gave them a foothold in the match. Dickwella’s free-spirited strokeplay meant the Sri Lankans were handily placed at 227 for four at the close.
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ITU Abu Dhabi World Triathlon
Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
- September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
- October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
- October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
- November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
- December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
- February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
'The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey'
Rating: 3/5
Directors: Ramin Bahrani, Debbie Allen, Hanelle Culpepper, Guillermo Navarro
Writers: Walter Mosley
Stars: Samuel L Jackson, Dominique Fishback, Walton Goggins
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
SNAPSHOT
While Huawei did launch the first smartphone with a 50MP image sensor in its P40 series in 2020, Oppo in 2014 introduced the Find 7, which was capable of taking 50MP images: this was done using a combination of a 13MP sensor and software that resulted in shots seemingly taken from a 50MP camera.
