YOUR FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS Star Jon Hamm Covers MR PORTER’s Latest Edition of THE JOURNAL

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Jon Hamm is reflecting on what it’s like to be famous. On what it’s like to be Jon Hamm.

“Everyone that goes through it goes crazy,” he says matter-of-factly. He was told this a long time ago by a friend, the late director Mike Nichols, during the early days of MAD MEN, when a handsome drifter from St Louis transformed from mid-thirties journeyman actor – knocking around town, waiting tables, occasionally booking roles such as “Gorgeous Guy at Bar” in ALLY MCBEAL and a bit part in WHAT ABOUT BRIAN – into an Emmy-winning star of prestige television’s Golden Age.

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On what it takes to be a leading man: “It’s ego, its confidence, there are a million different words for it, but if you don’t have it, the audience might not follow you. It doesn’t mean that you don’t get anxious. There are a lot of ‘what ifs?’ But it’s about taking that anxiety and energy and focusing it outwards.
“It’s a real lesson. Some people have it, some people have it and lose it, and some people can’t manage it, and it eats them up.”

On Mad Men’s success: “A lot of it is a moment in time that won’t happen again, or it might happen again and you’ll get lucky and lightning might strike twice… you never know.  I’ve been very fortunate to be consistent with my output and to like what I do.”

On working with Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick: “He is 100 per cent committed to every moment that he is on stage. He knows that without him, a $500m production, none of it happens, so he’s 100 per cent all the time and it’s infectious. That’s how I try to be when I’m number one on the call sheet. I certainly did it as Don Draper.”

Photographed by Chantal Anderson
Styled by Benedict Browne

[Photo Credit: Chantal Anderson for Mr Porter – Video Credit: Mr Porter/YouTube]

• Benedict Browne
• Chantal Anderson
• Jon Hamm
• Mr Porter