Having an award-winning series leading his career, Mad Men's Jon Hamm is breaking down barriers.  Despite being on the premium cable network AMC, the show's success has encompassed the expectations of both critics and audiences.  After his phenomenal work on the recently wrapped-up second season, Jon Hamm opens up to AMC about his character of Don Draper. 

Asked about any differences in approach regarding the character, Hamm answered that he continued to portray advertising exec Don Draper with the same amount of passion.  “He's still the same character.  His circumstances have changed a bit, but what's really been cool about this show is we don't see a lot of what transpired over the fourteen months that we skipped over.  It's cool that we maintain that little bit of a mystery.”

He also discussed the season 2 ending, revealing that it was best to maintain the ambiguity of the series and the characters' intentions.  “There could have been any number of things Betty could have said to Don at the table there, and anything that he could have said in response.”

“We don't know what's going to happen to these two people next -- they've clearly got a pretty dysfunctional relationship and a pretty broken marriage.  But I think we are able to maintain a tension when there are more things that are unseen, when we just get little drips and drops.” 

There's more to the identity of Don Draper than what we know.  With his identity slipping in the sophomore installment of Mad Men, it might have been challenging for the actor to portray it.  “At 37 years old, the cracks are starting to show in Don's façade.  But that's fun to play because here's this guy who is ostensibly a sort of ruler of all he surveys,” he said.  “Any actor can relate to that, I think. It's not that big of a stretch to say that actors are people who are constantly putting a face on and dealing with the question of what their character's life means.” 

On his character's encounters with unstable health, Jon Hamm said, “Don has been trying to be the good guy and play the straight and narrow, but the circumstances of his life keep interrupting that desire and again, he's stayed in place quite a bit.  Who knows, maybe next season will be all about me trying to quit smoking. Good luck.”

Without a doubt, Mad Men is going to rise into more prominence during its much-anticipated return.  As for Don Draper, Hamm says that the societal changes that would occur could affect the character's development greatly. 

“I think that the reason Mad Men has been so successful is that it lives in this transitory period of the '60s.  Once we move through that into a post-Watergate, post-counter culture world the symbolism of the time shifts into a totally different thing.  I don't think we need to follow Don into the late '70s or '80s.  His story will have been told by then.”

The full interview conducted by the network can be found here.


-Maria Gonzalez, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: AMC
(Image Courtesy of AMC)