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.”

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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

HuffPost caught up with the cast — including Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Christina Hendricks, John Slattery, January Jones and creator Matthew Weiner — who were all as tight-lipped as ever about what to expect next season. They would only non-jokingly joke that they’ll get fired if they say anything. (They will.)

The “Mad Men” cast did, however, have some things to say about the new season. “I think this season is the best yet. I really do,” Slattery said. “We were all commenting that it felt like the first season. We’ve somehow circled back after all the details and all the plot development that’s happened with everybody … it’s kind of circled back to the sort of tunnel vision on each character and various elements of each character that they’ve dialed in on. It’s somehow simpler.”

Do his castmates agree? “This season I think is our best season, script-wise. 100 percent,” said Rich Sommer, who plays Harry Crane. “I really can’t imagine how anyone would be disappointed, and I think that it definitely rewards those people who have been there from the beginning. It’s not a show you can start from the middle … well, you can, but you’ll not only miss information, you’ll miss nuance. There are literally glances that happen between two characters where it’s like, ‘Oh shit!’”

“A lot happens this season!,” Hendricks agreed. “A lot of last season, we were wondering what was happening with Don Draper, what was happening with his marriage. But every character experiences so much this year. It’s very exciting.”

“I heard something that Matt [Weiner] said tonight,” Moss said, “which is that this season is about every man for himself. I just thought that was so interesting … I’d never heard him say it before, but I think that is the most perfect way of describing this season. And I think that’s the parallel to Season 1 as well.”

Speaking of Season 1 — and all the previous seasons — the castmates had to answer an even tougher question: What’s your favorite “Mad Men” episode ever?

Jon Hamm (Don Draper)

“My favorite episode is still the pilot ['Smoke Gets In Your Eyes']. It was just such an amazing experience, and the first step in this incredible journey. But I’ve never ever worked on something and felt the way I felt after we shot the episode in Season 4 called ‘The Suitcase’ [Episode 7]. That one … I can’t even put it into words, but that one over there [pointing to Elisabeth Moss] is so talented and it was such a lovely performance. It was really just great to be able to say those words next to that person.”

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