I’m not sure if Jon Hamm gave this interview to The Irish Independent or if the newspaper has reprinted an interview Hamm gave with another outlet. For what it’s worth, I can’t find these quotes anywhere else, so I think this is an original piece. Jon is promoting Million Dollar Arm, Mad Men and various assorted projects, and as always, he’s brassy and opinionated. You can read the full piece here and here are some highlights:
His disdain for social media: “This constant recording of your life and updating of your ‘status’ . . . I don’t do that. No event ‘happened’ unless you took a picture of it. Going to a concert or a ballgame, are actual things. But you’re not watching because you’re busy trying to record it so you can tell your friends about it and put it on YouTube. It’s totally meaningless.”
Religion: His parents’ deaths put him off religion “fairly early on in a real quick way”, he says. “That was pretty much it for me. I don’t get the mystery of faith. I’m too much of a math guy. The numbers didn’t add up so I was like, ‘OK, moving on.’ I don’t need an afterlife; I don’t need a second act.”
His career post-Mad Men: “I’m not struggling, but that presents another set of difficulties: you don’t know if a project’s going to be good or be bad. There are a lot of things I wanted which have gone to other people.” For example? “Ridley Scott’s new film The Martian. It should be amazing, it’s a beautiful script and I was like, ‘I’d like to do that’. They were, like, ‘ . . . it’s not for you’. It’s going to be Matt Damon.”
Reality shows (UK): “The Only Way is Essex and Geordie Shore point a camera at awful people and then get them drunk and shake the box. They’re supposed to make you feel better as a person by showing an example of a more terrible person so you can sit above them and say, ‘Well, at least I’m not that person.'”
He’s okay with reality shows about actual talent: “All of those, The Amazing Race, Britain’s Got Talent and Project Runway are showcasing people who have talent. I don’t watch them, because I find them manipulative, but I do appreciate that at the end of Top Chef, a guy who was plugging away in some kitchen in Pittsburgh gets a shot at opening his own restaurant.”
Fame: “I’ve seen it. I know Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio. I wouldn’t trade my life for theirs. It’s horrible. You can’t go anywhere; you can’t do anything. Matt’s actually got the right balance and George has a pretty good life too. Don’t get me wrong. I’m just saying that they have this double-edged sword that you really can’t control.”
It kind of bothers me that Jon Hamm can get away with talking about what films he really wanted to get and who has a sucky life because they’re famous. If a woman was saying these things, she would be blasted by many people, at least that’s what I believe. Plus, there’s an element of “get off my lawn, whippersnappers!” to Hamm’s refusal to accept social media and reality shows as the new normal. Granted, I think there’s a lot about Selfie Culture that’s stupid, and granted, I don’t watch most reality shows either. So I’m not sure what my point is except that Hamm needs to be my curmudgeon boyfriend. Yes, that’s my point.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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