Don't cry for me, Don Draper, Hamm's 'Mad Men' redefines masculinity

By April MacIntyre Sep 12, 2010, 20:48 GMT

AMC “Mad Men\'s” recent episode that featured ad exec Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and copy writer Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss), saw a pivotal scene where an emotional Draper wakes up drunk in his own vomit-stained shirt, calling to confirm the news that he avoided with a bender: that the only person who truly knew him had died. He has lost his ex wife. And then, the stoic Draper cries.

Don't cry for me, Don Draper.
    
AMC “Mad Men's” recent episode that featured ad exec Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and copy writer Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss), saw a pivotal scene where an emotional Draper wakes up drunk in his own vomit-stained shirt, calling to confirm the news that he avoided with a bender: that the only person who truly knew him had died.  He has lost his ex wife. And then, the stoic Draper cries.

Sad Don, courtesy of urlesque.com

The crying has elicited a slew of Internet mirth-making with stills of Draper being interjected like PedoBear all over other celebrity shots.  Website urlesque.com supplied a free image of the crying Draper for people to Photoshop as they see fit.
 
After years of struggling, Jon Hamm finally arrived with "Mad Men," creating a style icon who’s come to help American men rediscover their lost masculine cool. 

Hamm appears on the October cover of Details Magazine where he discusses that in high school he played sports as much as he acted, but something kept pulling him back to performing. 

He says, “I never minded standing up and looking like an idiot, which is tremendously helpful in this industry.”  After years of struggling to make it in Hollywood, the feels lucky that his “overnight success” took as long as it did saying, “Absolutely, I don’t know how the Twilight kids or Miley Cyrus handle it.  You make one bad decision and people in Thailand Twitter about it.” 

Speaking of Twitter, Hamm’s new movie The Town might not appeal to those who spend their days updating their status. “It’s almost like an old Hollywood movie. It’s got a love story, it’s got a crime element, but it’s very much for adults,” says Hamm.  “There’s not a lot of candy for the Twitter-obsessed.  It just deals with adult shit- no werewolves, no vampires.  Yet … they’re retooling it for 3D.”
 
Hamm on the youth-obsessed reign of the CW and the WB. 

“If you didn’t look 18 years old, you weren’t working. And I didn’t look 18 years old when I was 18. I always looked 10 years older than I was.”

On Warhol's 15 minute predictions:
 
“L.A. represents opportunity. And, as has been proven over and over in the current media landscape, it doesn’t take much for them to put you on TV.  If that’s all you want you can just be on The Bachelor or The Real Housewives or whatever show just wants oversized personalities, ridiculous behavior and zero dignity.”

On the craft of acting:
 
“When you try to learn how to act, you approach it with respect.  But if you just want to be famous…that’s not much different than porn.  ‘I’m a movie star!’ Well, no, no you’re not. You’re a porn star, and that’s completely different.”

“One of the greatest pleasures of the job,” says Mad Men creator Matt Weiner, “has been to see Jon create the character of Don Draper.  He’s smart, deep, and a natural leader.  I can’t imagine making the show without him.”
 
Sarah Silverman, who met Hamm in 2000 through a group of friends, said, “When I turned in to Mad Men, I couldn’t believe he was this smoldering, brooding, sexual man. I was like ‘Oh my God—that’s Hamm!’  To me, he’s just this super-silly idiot.  He’s one of those very few actors who are comedian-compatible.”  Hamm played a cable guy on Silverman’s Comedy Central Show in 2007.

Full Hamm - Mad Men article:
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Women of Mad Men
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Jon Hamm Career Timeline
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