After a 17-month long hiatus, Mad Men returned to American television screens last night. The excitement that greets the arrival of the highly anticipated fifth season is largely because of one man, Jon Hamm. He plays the charismatic, mysterious Don Draper in the 1960s set show about advertising executives working on Madison Avenue.
The title is both a reference to the Manhattan street that is home to the world's most illustrious advertising agencies and also a comment on the escapades of the men, and the women, all secretaries and housewives whose lives involve selling brands to consumers.
It's inevitable that the success of the show would mean that all of a sudden Hamm is becoming a regular fixture on the silver screen. More George Clooney than James Gandolfini, Hamm is destined for leading man roles, although like the ER star, the transition is taking time. As yet, Hamm has not done a role that is likely to have audiences thinking of him as anything other than Jon Draper.
In Howl, about the poem written by the Beat legend Allen Ginsberg, Hamm plays Jake Elrich, the real-life attorney charged with defending Ginsberg's poem at the obscenity trial that took place in San Francisco in 1957. The case was important in establishing the framework for freedom of expression in the US. On paper, it should be the central role in the film – Hamm battling head to head in court with his legal adversary, played by David Strathairn – but the courtroom sequences for the most part take a back seat to scenes of James Franco playing Ginsberg, reciting the poem and conducting an interview about the work. There is also an ill-conceived animated illustration of the poem that is a clunky interlude.
More encouraging was his performance as an FBI agent pursuing a gang of Boston criminals in the Ben Affleck-directed heist thriller, The Town. The actor shows just how far he will go to make sure his depiction of characters is as accurate as possible when he reveals: "I hung around with a lot of guys from the violent crimes and robbery task force in Boston, which is a combination of federal, state and local law enforcement and got to see what they do day-to-day and was amazed by the vast amounts of information they process and the work they do to try solving these crimes and catch the bad guys."
Strangely, just as with his TV show, in The Town it's actually not the clean-cut detective we find ourselves rooting for but the deceptive individuals. The difference being that Hamm shows off some of his versatility as, in The Town, he's the good guy, while in Mad Men, he gets to be mischievous. He says about siding with the deceitful: "It makes for a good story. It's not too dissimilar to the way that many perceived Don Draper; he's not necessarily the nicest guy, but audiences find themselves rooting for him."
It's a credit to the 41-year-old actor that he refuses to be typecast. "I kind of do things that I find interesting and inspiring. I don't want to do the same roles over and over again. I think that is boring to do and also to watch. So, hopefully I get to work with people who are better than me and inspire me to get better and do better work."
There is a great deal of modesty in the way he talks about himself, perhaps because it was no easy ride to the top. In the early 1990s, Hamm struggled to get roles and would visit his pal Paul Rudd in Hollywood as he tried to secure auditions for parts. He took a job as a waiter to make ends meet and it was only in 2000 that he finally landed a role that gave him a footing in the industry, playing a fireman in the NBC TV drama Providence.
Then came Mad Men and the rest, as they say, is history. Hamm says he has to switch into a different mode than the one he uses for the AMC series when acting in a feature film.
"It's different. It's not more or less difficult. It's just different. We shoot probably a 52-page script in seven or eight days making Mad Men. By way of contrast, the script for The Town was probably 120 pages and we shot it in 62 days. So obviously you have a lot more time to shoot a movie, so the pace is slower on features. Obviously you have car crashes and gunfights and big set pieces that you don't have on Mad Men and so it's different, but at the end of the day you still have to hit your mark, get your lines and try to be as authentic as possible, and that part of the job is very similar."
Hamm is also branching out into producing films with his long-term partner, the actress Jennifer Westfeldt. They have been together since 1997 when Hamm got a small role in Kissing Jessica Stein, the hit 2001 romantic comedy starring Westfeldt, who also co-wrote the film. In 2009, the couple formed the production company Points West Features and produced a film together called Friends with Kids, which they both star in alongside Megan Fox and Adam Scott. The story is about two platonic, childless, adult friends who decide to have kids with each other when they realise that all their peers are parents. The movie premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival in September last year and will appear in cinemas in Canada and Europe in the coming months.
Hamm also showed his penchant for comedy by playing a hapless doctor mixed up with the Saturday Night Live star Tina Fey on her hit show 30 Rock. The actor says he enjoys doing comedy just as much as the more dramatic roles he has made his own.
"I have no preference. I love them both. I've been fortunate to work on both sides and have found a measure of success doing both comedy and drama which is nice and it's great to play on both sides of the divide, which many actors don't have an opportunity to do. I wouldn't call myself a funny guy. I try to be light-hearted."
The good news for fans of Mad Men is that Hamm still enjoys appearing in the show. After 52 episodes shown over four seasons, he doesn't imagine that the fifth season will let up in any way as he still feels there are a lot of dramatic possibilities left for his character. He doesn't imagine he'll quit the show, or that he'll necessarily move into movies when the advertising executives finally make their last pitch.
That's largely because television continues to afford opportunities for actors that are found in movies less and less. As Hamm points out: "Honestly, I think there is some tremendous work being put on air right now. Whether it's our show or Dexter, I could name 15 TV shows right now that have been the best things that have ever been put on the air."
It's that modesty coming out again, as despite all the shows on air, there is nothing quite like Mad Men. Though, even if he believed it to be true, it's a line that Don Draper would never oversell. Sometimes, it's better to let the product prove itself.
