Basket of Kisses

Jon and I spoke last Tuesday, November 3rd. He is fascinating to speak with; he is so intimate with this character in a way that is hard to imagine. Plus he’s just really, really cool. The voice is smooth, and deliberate and steadying. I was very much put at ease within the first few minutes.

Oh! And also? He spoke to me for so much longer than I expected him to. Extremely generous with his time.

Roberta Lipp: So, you know, as a fan, I want you to not be nervous.

Jon Hamm: Okay.

RL: You know, we’re very big, but, you know, just relax and be yourself.

JH: Can do!

RL: So what are you up to? Where are you right now? Are you making a movie?

JH: Yeah, I’m up in Boston right now shooting a film Ben Affleck is directing called The Town, and we are in like the last few weeks of that.

RL: So you went straight from wrapping to Boston; right? Like, you’ve been just not stopping?

JH: Yeah, I think it was kind of an error in judgment, I think, on my part because I was pretty beat by the end of the season and then went right into this. It was a lot of work.

RL: Yeah, I can’t imagine. So you got a few more weeks on that and then you’re going to relax?

JH: Well, I’ve got, you know, Thanksgiving and a couple weeks off, and then I’m going to go into another film that shoots up in Vancouver called Sucker Punch. It’s being directed by a guy named Zack Snyder who directed Watchmen.

RL: That sounds very cool.

JH: Yeah, I think so. I think it will be a good one.

RL: Congratulations just on everything.

JH: Well thank you.

RL: So we’re all freaking out; this is the greatest season. The last two episodes [the Gypsy and the Hobo and the Grownups] were haunting and really –I can’t even pretend to know where this thing is going, I haven’t guessed for weeks, and each episode doesn’t help; you know? It’s just amazing.

JH: Well, you know what, if I could continue by saying,it was sort of the theme and the watchword for the season would be change. And almost all of our characters’ lives; in their professional lives and in their personal lives certainly, we see a lot of things shift.
And, obviously, that’s being paralleled in the world around them, and in the culture around them shifting as well. We’re starting to see the beginnings of that change happen in the 60s in American culture. And, obviously with the events of the last episode with Kennedy’s assassination happening, that’s a pretty big watershed moment for a lot of people, and I think in retrospect for the culture at large.

RL: Yeah. You know, separately from each of the individual storylines, what people have been saying on our site is, “Oh, that’s what it felt like.” He really captured it.”

JH: Well, you know, I think obviously the closest thing that a lot of people have in their lives now is when 9/11 happened, and just sort of that bizarre feeling of what is happening and what is this and what does it all mean and what is the next day going to bring. And I think that there was certainly a parallel with those two situations, but maybe doesn’t have — because we obviously know the benefit of living four years afterwards. And of course you know everything will be all right and people will wake up in the morning, but it’s fundamentally shifted. And we know as people that live in the 21st century that this is only the first and one of many sort of really horrible seismic events to happen in this culture at this time and in a relatively short span. And so, you know, I think obviously there is a parallel between our — it’s disconcerting because we’ve had several, I think, serendipitous parallels politically with our show when we started season one we started in 1960 with the very contended and contentious election between Nixon and Kennedy, and then we’re coming out of an election of Kerry-Bush or Bush-Gore, and there was that whole sort of feeling where fully half of the country was dissatisfied with the results of the election. And then the second season with the Kennedy’s sort of descendant, we had Obama come in, and now it’s strangely similar in certain aspects. So we’ve been really kind of fortunate in having a secondary resonance that has happened with our show and in the culture at large, and I think that that’s enabled people to kind of keep relating personally. (more…)