Like always, no new scenes…

“If you’re going to be pigeonholed, ‘handsome womaniser’ isn’t the worst thing to be,” says Jon Hamm with a knowing smile, eliciting an audible swoon from the overwhelmingly female audience at London’s Curzon cinema in Mayfair last night. The former GQ Man Of The Year may have broken that mould recently with stints as Boston cop in The Town and a narcissistic brute in Bridesmaids, but we’re equally pleased to see him return as to the role that made him: Donald Draper. Taking to the stage to be interviewed by Jo Whiley about Mad Men series five followed by an audience Q&A (genuine sample question from one blushing audience member: “Can I just ask you to say my name?”), Hamm shared his thoughts on his short-lived stint in erotica, whether Don will get with Joan and what to expect from the fifth series. Here are some of the highlights…

Jon Hamm on…

His previous career as an erotic film set-dresser…
“First of all there was no penetration. It was soft-core porn. But essentially I had to move furniture around sweaty naked people. It wasn’t a great job.”

Smoking and drinking like Don
“The stress [of making Mad Men] makes me imbibe more. On the show we drink water and smoke leaves, but it’s still lighting a fire and inhaling smoke, so while it’s non-addictive, I don’t recommend it.”

Why Don never got with Joan
“Who says he hasn’t? The Don-Joan dynamic is something we do explore as the show goes on. They have worked together for a long time they know one another very well and… I’ll leave it at that.”

How the cast have fun on set
“There’s a place outside the make-up trailer with AstroTurf, like a garden, where we play dominoes and there’s a new board game every week. We’re all staggeringly competitive. We had a running series of dominos and Vincent Kartheiser is a very good player – so good he wanted to keep score. After half a season, I had 64 wins and 64 losses.”

The delay after the fourth series
“There’s studio people here so I better watch my ass! Part of what happens now in the wonderful world of media consumption that we live in is that everything is monetised. The people that own things have to determine how that money gets split up. That was a discussion that was happening at a level far higher than my pay grade but those deals had to be worked out. It was incredibly frustrating, but it’s part of the business. I wish they had said at the beginning of the show that they would pick up the show for seven years. I would have been very happy – but that’s not how it works.”

Being injured on set
“I’ve been hurt more on this show than anything I’ve done. In the first season a piece of wall fell and hit me on the head, [causing] seven stitches. That’s not funny – I had to go to the hospital! Then I broke my hand in a Korea flashback. There was an explosion and during the rehearsal I’m jumping onto this lovely soft cushion. So I jumped through and instead of landing I caught it, rolled over and heard my hand break. I went over to the director and said “I’m pretty sure I broke my hand, so can we be sure to make this in one [take]?” In the first season where I promote Peggy to copy writer, I have a removable cast – you can actually see it if you watch episode 12 or 13.”

Who he would play if not Don
“Roger Sterling – he gets all the jokes. We’d be doing a read through and I would say to John Slattery, [mimes flipping through a script] ‘Another great joke, another one, another’ and he would say, “You get to make out with her” – pointing at January Jones.”

Directing an episode in the fifth series
“The year I felt ready to do it and confident. Part of it is being confident enough to say “OK, we’ve got [the shot], let’s move on.” How am I as a director? I’m pretty laid back. I’m not a yeller or a screamer. I found it easy to direct people are essentially my friends and characters that I’ve known for years.”

What else we can expect from the new series
“The fourth season was about stripping this guy down, his family, job, everything, while also seeing an uptick in the booze and the philandering. The part that we’re getting to is him trying to repair the relationships he has broken. Don’s marriage [to Betty] did not survive season four, so that’s starting to reign in a little bit…”

Source

I added photos of Jon promoting “Mad Men” at The Curzon Mayfair in London today.

BAFTA‘s tweets:

- Already Hamm has admitted to being ‘terrible at musical theatre’ & his first taste of the stage being cast as Winnie the Pooh

- Even Jon Hamm’s been through his share of “bleak periods”. He explains “part of being an actor is being rejected over & over”

- Time to see the man in action, we get a taster of the new series which will be on @skyatlantic March 27th http://pic.twitter.com/ZiH1fFI4

- Hamm describes 1960s America as a time of changing moods when the youth began dictating what was important in culture

- Hamm on #DonDraper: “He’s done some pretty reprehensible things but I trust Matt as a storyteller to write these for a reason”

- Hamm explains the popularity of Draper’s character… “there’s a vicarious thrill in watching people go wrong & make mistakes”

- Don Draper is like a “sick puppy: people want to look after him,” says #jonhamm. People get a “vicarious thrill” watching him.

- Will Don & Peggy get it together? Hamm: “I strongly doubt it”

- Hamm on feminist issues in Mad Men; “they’re portrayed as realistically as possible. It was undoubtedly part of the culture”

- In order to find happiness Don is “going to have to try harder than he has been”

- In the 4th series Don Draper was a man “unmoored”. His relationship with Megan gives him something new to “cling onto”

- The gruelling element of the job is the intense amount of focus required for a long time. I’m pretty exhausted by the end of it

- Jon Hamm’s advice to wannabe actors; “if you’re scared of making mistakes you’re in the wrong business”

- Hamm deliberately rejects scripts that are set in the 60s to avoid being type-cast

- ‘The whole of the fourth season was about breaking this guy down’

- Hamm describes himself to be “diametrically opposed to #DonDraper. While I love playing him, I’m glad I don’t have to be him”

- To live the life of #DonDraper would be “exhausting” states Jon Hamm

- The Don / Joan dynamic is one that will be explored in the subsequent series. But Hamm will say no more…

- Being cast as a handsome womaniser (in bridesmaids etc) is a good way of not being typecast!

- That’s it folks. We’ve filmed the whole John Hamm interview & it’ll be up on BAFTA.org to coincide with the new series in March

WATCH THIS SOLD-OUT EVENT ONLINE

Join “Mad Men” creator and executive producer Matthew Weiner and cast members Jon Hamm, January Jones, John Slattery, Vincent Kartheiser and Jared Harris.

LIVE EVENT PASS – $4.95
(LIVE access plus 30 days unlimited, on-demand access)

FORA.tv Plus(+) Annual Members Receive a 20% Discount

More infos to buy the pass here.

Source and thank you grrreene for the info!

Curzon Cinemas and BAFTA are delighted to welcome award-winning actor Jon Hamm to share insights into his favourite moments from arguably one of the best television drama series ever made. Set in 1960’s New York, Mad Men chronicles the lives of a bunch of sharp-suited, savvy-minded Madison Avenue ad men and their colleagues, wives, girlfriends and mistresses. After four stunning seasons, the BAFTA and multi-award winning drama from Matthew Weiner (The Sopranos) prepares to enter its highly anticipated fifth on Sky Atlantic HD this March. Critically acclaimed for its consistently outstanding performances and intelligent scripting, season four saw fledging ad agency Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce struggle to stay afloat. Newly divorced creative director Don Draper (Jon Hamm) became an increasingly solitary figure, drinking heavily as he battled with his inner demons. Meanwhile, Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) and Don’s bond tightened, and Joan (Christina Hendricks) and Roger (John Slattery) reignited their affair, with married Joan falling pregnant. As Jon Hamm makes his directorial debut in series five, join us to explore how the craft of his work continues to evolve as well as the secrets behind Mad Men’s success. Alongside clips from past seasons, Jon will be talking through key moments in the series and will chat about the upcoming season. Co-hosted by Sky Atlantic HD.

SHOWING AT: MAYFAIR

Wednesday 15 February 6.30pm – DURATION: 75 mins

Source Thank you Joy for the info!

“Mad Men’s” Matt Weiner, along with FremantleMedia’s Cecile Frot-Coutaz, RCN TV in Colombia’s Fernando Gaitan and Fox TV Stations’ Dennis Swanson were fetted at the NATPE based awards.

“Dear world. We get it. You like giving Matt [Weiner] awards,” Jon Hamm quipped in a video tribute to his Mad Men showrunner, who was being honored with a Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award in Miami Beach Tuesday.

“Enjoy it. Take your Legacy Award and your 100 Emmys, put them all over your head… it’s still not going to be this,” he concluded, pointing to his own face as the crowd gathered to toast Weiner and the three other honorees — FremantleMedia’s Cecile Frot-Coutaz, RCN TV in Colombia’s Fernando Gaitan and Fox TV Stations’ Dennis Swanson — roared with laughter.

Hamm, along with his cast, crew and corporate bosses, was one of many to deliver a message of pride, humor and genuine appreciation at the 9th annual Legacy Awards, bestowed in honor of broadcasting legend Brandon Tartikoff at the NATPE conference. Among the evening’s speakers on hand to celebrate this year’s television visionaries was Tartikoff’s widow Lilly, who days earlier had announced she was donated a vast collection of Tartikoff’s industry correspondences to USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.

Source and more: The Hollywood Reporter

Wearing a black tailored suit, swirling a drink in his right hand, Jon Hamm might as well be Don Draper. But Hamm is only drinking water with lime at the Television Critics Association party and he’s fielding questions deftly, unlike the character he plays on Mad Men, whose answers to a journalist on the season four premiere ended resulted in trouble for his firm.
As approximately 10 reporters pin Hamm in a corner with their recording devices thrust in his face, he speaks eagerly about Draper, his love for his day job and the relationship between Peggy and Don.

Anyone who has ever caught a glimpse of Mad Men knows that alcohol plays an important role in the series, especially with Don.
“I think he has a dangerous relationship with alcohol that a lot of creative people have. And fill in the blank with either alcohol or whatever. It’s a depressant, yet it uninhibits you creatively. It’s a fine line and Don has crossed it many times… [but] Don recognized that and seems to have backed away from the edge a bit.”

Draper, of course, also loves women. In the season four finale, we were left with the indelible image of Don in bed with his brand new twenty-something fiancé, Megan. She’s sleeping on his chest and he turns and stares out the window thoughtfully. When prodded about just what Draper may have been pondering at that moment, Hamm slyly avoided the question.

“Yes, he was in fact thinking of something,” the actor admitted.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed in Draper with the way season four ended. I kept asking myself how it is that Don is so creative with his work, but ends up seemingly moving backwards in his personal life, becoming engaged to his secretary in record time. Responded Hamm to this quasi paradox:
“Don makes his money and his livelihood on being creatively ahead of the curve, and finding out what makes people tick. And what happens when you get older? And there’s another generation of people coming up right behind you who are out-moving you and out-thinking you? What happens to a creative person? Don is getting older. It’s not The Simpsons where everyone stays the same age 20 years in. People age and we try and depict that realistically.”

Read the rest of the article

Mad Men’s notoriously tight-lipped creator, Matthew Weiner, is actually talking about the AMC drama’s March 25 two-hour premiere. “It’s called ‘A Little Kiss,’” Matt reveals. “I like the title to have some kind of synergy with the show so it will pique your interest.” Consider us piqued! Assuming that Jon Hamm’s Don Draper is one half of the titular kiss (I know that’s a big assumption), who might be on the receiving end? Perhaps new fiancée Megan (Jessica Paré)? What about ex Betty (January Jones)?

“Who says Megan’s even going to be part of Don’s life?” says Weiner. “He may be back with Betty. One of my favorite scenes from [last season's finale] was when Betty offered herself to him again. And let’s face it — those two look really good together.”

Unfortunately, when I recently bumped into January, she told me she couldn’t recall having shot a single kiss in the new season. Damn, guess we’ll just have to watch.

Source: TV Guide

“Mad Men” is featured in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly. I added the scan to the gallery. Thanks to my friend Kelly for donating it!