Tag Archives: Jon Hamm

Jon Hamm Interview For Black Mirror Christmas Special

Posted on by

jonhamm

Black Mirror : White Christmas is on C4 at 9pm on 16th December. 

For a generation of Mad Men fans, actor Jon Hamm will forever be known as Don Draper. But this Christmas, they will see him in a new role – starring in a feature-length special of Charlie Brooker’s gloriously dark comedy drama Black Mirror. Here, Jon reveals his love for both Black Mirror and cricket, and recalls a life when he had just $150 dollars to his name.

 

You’re in the feature-length Black Mirror Christmas special. You must get offered so many roles – what was it about this relatively modest British drama that made you want to do it?

Well, let me disabuse you of the notion that I get offered so many roles. The jobs that are out there are scarce, and as with almost every actor, it can be hard to get good stuff. I had been a fan of Black Mirror, and Charlie Brooker, because I have a strange predilection for offbeat British things, and this was no exception. It came about in this very odd way, with me asking my agent if I could meet Mr Brooker. I didn’t know he was even working on a third series or a Christmas special or anything, it was simply that I really liked his work and really wanted to meet the guy.

 

So how had you encountered Black Mirror before?

Oddly enough, here in the States there is a channel on Direct TV called The Audience Network. They have some original programming and some stuff that they purchase from other sources. And Black Mirror was one of those acquisitions. My friend Bill Hader, of Saturday Night Live fame, told me I had to watch this show. So I watched it, and I thought it was really, really good. And that’s how it all came together. So I got a meeting with Charlie, and about three days later I flew back to LA, and a couple of days after that I got an email from him, and he said he’d really enjoyed our meeting and he had this character who was meant to be English but didn’t necessarily have to be, and why didn’t we have a go at putting me in this thing? And I said “Why not indeed?” It was a totally serendipitous situation. He couldn’t be a nicer guy, for someone who writes such dark stuff, and it’s a project that I thought was so interesting and unlike anything else I’d come across. And I love working over in the UK. It’s something that I’ve done for the last four years in a row, whether it’s been Todd Margaret or Young Doctors’ Notebook. It’s been lovely. I consider myself very fortunate to have been given these opportunities to come over there.

 

What can you tell us about the story?

Very little. Charlie’s written a very specific story that unfolds at its own pace, and you don’t want to spoil anything for anybody. But I think what I can say, for those people that are fans of the show, is that it delivers on the central, dystopian, Twilight-zoney unsettling situation that Black Mirror has delivered in the past. There’s always a deeply unsettling aspect to Black Mirror, and we definitely deliver on that. It’s not a mistake that they were able to get actors like Rafe Spall and Oona Chaplin to be a part of this. They are quite wonderful in this. It’s an excellent way to waste an hour-and-a-half over Christmas and not talk to your family.

 

Did you enjoy the shoot, and working with Oona and Rafe?

I did, I loved it. I didn’t work a tremendous amount with Oona, as will be made clear when people see the show. But I did work with Rafe, and I hung out with Rafe and his wife and had dinner. It was great. I’d only seen him on stage in New York, in Betrayal, with Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig. He was wonderful in it. I got a chance to meet him after the show and say as much, but that was the only time I’d met him. So it was great to get a chance to actually work with him and meet him and his lovely family.

 

Can you tell, when you’re shooting something, how good it’s going to be? If so, what are your expectations for Black Mirror?

You can only hope. There are so many steps between here and there, it’s a situation where you hope something will be good, and if it’s not, you start pointing fingers! You can believe in the material – no-one sets out to make a terrible TV show, and yet we have quite a few of them out there – so everyone sets off with the best of intentions. But sometimes things happen. There are a lot of moving parts to a television show, especially one that’s very ambitious. That’s why I was so blown away when I first watched Black Mirror. I found it so ambitious, it was trying to achieve so much, and it succeeds. When we shot the pilot of Mad Men, I thought “Well, this is a very good pilot. Let’s hope that everybody that gets their hands on it between here and it going on air doesn’t mess it up.” And thankfully they didn’t.

 

Speaking of Mad Men, what are the roles that have meant the most to you over the years? I assume Don Draper looms fairly large in that?

Yeah, that’s the career-defining role for me, as it stands. But I can look back at every part I’ve ever played and think it was meaningful in some way, shape or form. It sounds cheesy, but I think every part that an actor takes has the opportunity to make them a better actor. Don Draper was certainly that for me, because it was about showing up and being prepared and being aware and being good in a lot of aspects. It was a very challenging role. At times it was funny, at times it was heartbreaking, at times it was violent, at times it was pathetic. I got to show a lot of colours. But I can also look at something as silly and as seemingly throwaway as the character in Bridesmaids, whose name I believe was Ted, and it came with its own set of challenges. Working in comedy isn’t exactly in my comfort zone, especially when you work with somebody as ridiculously talented as Kristen Wiig and the director Paul Feig. You’re terrified you won’t be able to pull your own weight. There’s a movie that Jen [Westfeldt , Hamm’s longtime partner and actress and screenwriter] wrote and directed and starred in, Friends with Kids, where you’re playing with people that are outside their comfort zones. It’s all a challenge, and it’s all something that you can look at and ay “I hope I got better because of it.”

 

How has your life changed in the last seven years? [Since the advent of Mad Men].

Oddly, not that much. It’s a strange thing, celebrity and fame and all that nonsense, it can be a millstone around your neck, but only if you let it. It’s only as powerful and as meaningful as you make it in your life. I’ve never really assigned that much meaning to it, so therefore it’s never really affected me. I mean, it’s weird when you’re walking down the street and people stop and point, or try to take your picture surreptitiously in a restaurant, which is never as surreptitious as you think it is. Nobody checks their email with a phone pointed directly at someone else. I appreciate that people appreciate my work, and I hope that it’s because of the work and it’s not because of some other dumb thing that doesn’t mean anything.

 

Do you think the fact that you didn’t become this famous until you were in your mid-30s was in many ways, a good thing?

Yes, is the short answer. I don’t even understand how young people operate today in a world dominated by social media. How do people manage anything? It’s so overwhelming. People wake up in the morning, and the first thing they do is check their Instagram account, their Twitter account, their Facebook account, their Vine account, their Tinder account. You do that, and then I guess you make coffee. I have enough problems managing all of my Words with Friends games. I can’t imagine maintaining this online virtual existence. That’s one of the things Charlie is digging into in this world of Black Mirror – you see what happens when social media goes sideways.

 

Is it true that you moved to LA in 1995 with just $150? What was it like living hand-to-mouth?

Well, it didn’t kill me, so I suppose it made me stronger. It seems apocryphal at this point, but it is in fact true. That’s what I had. Fortunately, I was 25 years old, and your capacity to deal with difficulty is considerably higher. You have a higher tolerance. You don’t mind sleeping on a broken futon, or sharing a house with five other broke idiots. That’s just what you do when you move to a new city to make it as an actor. There’s no version of it where you just jump to the head of the class. It just doesn’t happen. So you pay your dues. And, that isn’t the worst thing in the world. You learn a lot about yourself, and about the business, from paying your dues. And where you go from there is often to do with luck. It’s a massive component of it. I’ve been lucky. And I’ve also put the work in that enabled me to be lucky at the right time.

 

Your first ever role was as Winnie the Pooh in first grade. Where does that rank on your list of performances?

Well, as I said, every role helps you be a better actor!

 

You were able to really ‘become the bear’?

Oh yeah. My mother sewed the costume, which was essentially a really comfortable pair of pyjamas. And I strapped a pillow around my stomach, with a belt, and that was my Winnie the Pooh. Oddly enough, there is some Super-8 recorded footage of this out there in the ether, but I don’t think anyone’s ever going to see it!

 

Is it also true that you are that great rarity, an American who likes cricket?

Yeah. I’m not sure I’m a fully-fledged fan, because I haven’t spent the time on it, but at one point, when I was over shooting A Young Doctor’s Notebook, it was during the Ashes. And this somehow became really exciting to me. We’d finish shooting pretty early, because Dan [Daniel Radcliffe] was doing The Cripple of Inishmaan on stage in the West End. So we’d wrap by 5:30pm, and I’d go home and watch the highlights, which is, I found, an excellent way to watch cricket. So I really got into it. And England were playing very well, I think they trounced Australia. And then I went off and did Million Dollar Arm, and was in India when the IPL was happening, and every night there was cricket on TV in primetime. It was very easily digestible, the two-hour version, and fast-paced and very exciting. Watching it in India, where people are mad for cricket, was great fun as well. You’d go to the bar, and people would just be losing their minds.

 

The Black Mirror Christmas special, ‘White Christmas’, starring Jon Hamm, Rafe Spall and Oona Chaplin airs on Channel 4 on 16th December at 9pm. 

If you are an actor then check out my book How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur. It is available in print and in all eBook formats on both Smashwords and Amazon.

 

 

MAD MEN SEASON FIVE PREVIEW

Posted on by

Well, here we are. After an agonizing seventeen months off the air, Don Draper and his fellow advertising companions of Madison Avenue are set to return to our screens the end of this month as Mad Men enters its fifth season. For a show notorious for its dense plotting and ruthlessly addictive storyline, the wait has been agonizing to say the least. After slow but steady word of mouth building on BBC Four the new season has been bought up by Sky and being marketed to much larger audience more aware of the show’s presence since it suddenly burst onto the TV radar back at 2007. For those who have yet to dip into its stylised world of intrigue and glamour they have quite some catching up to do.

Mad Men takes place primarily in New York City at the outset of the 1960’s as the country enters what was to be arguably its most turbulent decade. The action centres on the fictional advertising agency Sterling Cooper and its head executive Donald Draper (Jon Hamm), a walking enigma of man who appears to optimise the smooth, fast talking family man with both hands wrapped firmly around the American Dream. But Don is hiding some devastating secrets and his supposedly pristine life is not the Eden it appears. In fact it isn’t for anybody; seemingly all of Draper’s family, co-workers and acquaintances are hiding something from one another (and in some cases themselves as well) and in the world of advertising where a single image substitute’s reality, their infidelities, debauchery and outright deceptions mark them out against a world which is rapidly changing around them and shedding their preset ideals. To recap recent events very quickly, Don has just managed turned the tide of his bitter divorce to Betty (January Jones), his alcoholism and the agencies failing fortunes. He also takes the surprisingly brash decision to propose to his secretary Megan (Jessica Pare) who seems to be the light at the end of the tunnel. But tough times still lie ahead for the agency, the war in Vietnam is escalating and one of Don’s spurned lovers ominously warns him, ‘You only like the beginning of things.’

The world portrayed in the show initially feels like something out of a science fiction drama given the startling contrasts to today’s attitude to social mores. The civil rights movement was just taking off and chauvinism was a firm fixture in the office place. It’s an environment where the men in charge have carte blanche to harass and insult the women that work alongside them. One of the dark joys of the show is seeing these narrow-minded views slowly torpedoed one by one as history changing events foreshadow major plot points; for example Don and his striking yet distant wife Betty facing major revelations about their marriage whilst the Cuban Missile Crisis threatens to engulf them and all around. None of the characters have a chance to be complacent; the world is moving too fast around them. However if the world doesn’t catch up with them first, their frighteningly extravagant lifestyles will. The naivety of the time period also means that all of the major characters smoke and drink to an almost comical degree; the air never seems to be free of smoke whilst a baby shower with flowing martinis provokes laughs and gasps aplenty. Thankfully the substance abuse is not easily dismissed and is shown to have a steadily detrimental effect upon these men who find that they are not as invulnerable as they think.

Draper is a fascinating character; a man who struggles to keep barriers between the lives and worlds he inhabits and is drawn to self-destructive behaviour like a moth to flame. With a main character with so many reasons to potentially dislike them, you better have an extremely charismatic leading man. Thank heavens then for Jon Hamm in what is destined to become an iconic performance; he will have to work very hard to emerge from Drapper’s shadow. His features convey the look of a traditional film or television star of the period yet he lays it with hint of both danger and vulnerability that is utterly compulsive. It’s a role that requires extreme confidence, notably in scenes where Drapper simply dominates sales pitches and board room meetings and Hamm grabs it with both hands and makes it a tour-de-force.

Of course very great T.V. drama needs support for its lead to bounce off of and Mad Men is bursting at the seams with fascinating characters. Listing them all would go on for a considerably long time but I would like to focus on two supporting characters, one of whom arguably stands next to Don as the show’s co-lead. First up is Peter Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser), Don’s astonishingly ambitious and (initially) spineless understudy with a huge sense of entitlement and the need to prove to both his own distant family and his new needy wife and her parents. Both baby-faced and predatory in equal measure, Kartheiser is a joy to behold in the role. He masterfully flits between Pete’s bitter resentment and his comically naive grasp of shifting office politics. It’s in these scenes that we’re reminded that for all of the intense dramatics, the show walks a fine line of humour both subtle and broad. One of Pete’s permanent series storylines is established in the opening episode where he embarks on a fool hardy one night stand with new secretary Peggy Olsen (Elisabeth Moss), who enters Sterling Cooper at the bottom rung and rapidly becomes a vital part of Don’s inner sanctum, both professional and personal. Moss’ performance is simply stunning throughout the series. She conveys the rift between traditional values and bright new ideals without ever falling into cliché or being preachy as we follow her journey and watch her character change and not necessarily for the best. Her initial ‘fish out of water’ scenes are amusing but the dramatics are where the true fireworks fly. The scenes where she butts heads with Pete and later Don are astonishing, most noticeably in the season four episode ‘The Suitcase’ where they gradually reveal themselves to one another over a hectic night and change their relationship permanently. It’s a staggeringly well written episode with both performers at the top of their game.

Mad Men is shined to within an inch of its life. The majority of scenes are filmed in interior Californian studios doubling for New York (presumably primarily for budgetary reasons) though they convince seamlessly whilst also reflecting the claustrophobic underlying theme of many of the storylines. Costume design and soundtrack choices are also impeccable firmly establishing the show as evidence for contemporary American television drama being on a par with feature film production. Mad Men has certainly built up enough hype to rival most major blockbusters and anticipation for the new season is at fever pitch. Personally I cannot recall another show where each season has been better than the one that preceded it so my fingers are crossed that Season Five can deliver the goods. I’ll certainly be waiting, suit cleanly pressed and tumbler of whiskey firmly in hand.

Mad Men Season Five Starts on Sky Atlantic on March 27th

Downton Abbey, Scorsese's Broadwalk Empire Compete For Emmy Awards.

Posted on by

Downton Abbey, Mad Men and Broadwalk Empire are all competing for Emmy Awards tonight. The Emmy Awards are the TV equivalent of the Oscars.

Mad Men have been nominated for outstanding drama series, for the fourth year in a row. Jon Hamm is also nominated for outstanding dramatic actor and co-star Elisabeth Moss has been nominated for best dramatic actress, Christina Hendricks and John Slattery are up for the best supporting actor/actress awards.

Kate Winslet and Hugh Laurie are keeping the British side up, Winslet is up for best actress in a mini-series for her role in Mildred Pierce, while the show itself is also competing for the mini-series award.

And Laurie is up against Jon Hamm in the outstanding actor category for his role as grumpy surgeon Dr Gregory House in the acclaimed drama House.

Downton Abbey – which returns to ITV tonight for a second series – is up for the best mini-series category, while Maggie Smith is nominated for her role as the Countess of Grantham. I have filmed a lot for Downtown Abbey, as a downstairs maid, so I am rooting for the cast and crew, who are all lovely.

And British actresses Eileen Atkins and Jean Marsh both received nominations for their roles in the BBC remake of Upstairs Downstairs.

Other shows with nominations are Glee – nominated in a few categories including best comedy – the medieval drama Game Of Thrones, serial killer drama Dexter and the US remake of The Office.
Martin Scorsese’s Boardwalk Empire is also tipped to win big at the awards.

The prohibition era drama is up against Mad Men in the best drama category, while Steve Buscemi is nominated in the same category as Jon Hamm, for the best actor trophy.

The awards, which will take place in Los Angeles on Sunday night, will be hosted by Glee actress Jane Lynch.

Mildred Pierce leads way at Emmys

Posted on by

‘Mildred Pierce’ leads the way in the Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

The HBO mini-series scored an astonishing 21 nods when the nominees were announced this morning (14.07.11) by Melissa McCarthy and Joshua Jackson, including Outstanding Lead Actress In A Miniseries Or A Movie for Kate Winslet, Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Mini-series Or A Movie for both Tom Wilkinson and Guy Pierce, Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Miniseries Or A Movie for Evan Rachel Wood, Melissa Leo and Dame Maggie Smith, and Outstanding Miniseries or Movie.

Elsewhere, ‘Mad Men’ – which received 19 nominations – has the chance to take Outstanding Drama for the fourth year in a row, while ‘Modern Family’ could again scoop Outstanding Comedy, with the category amongst the 17 nods the sitcom earned.

John Hamm received his fourth nomination in a row for Outstanding Actor in a Drama and could receive his first win in the category as ‘Breaking Bad’ star Bryan Cranston – who has taken home the honour at the previous three ceremonies – was not eligible to win this year as the show took a break between seasons.

Other leading nominations included Prohibition-era drama ‘Boardwalk Empire’ with 18, ‘Game of Thrones and ’30 Rock’ with 13 each and 16 for ‘Saturday Night Live’.

Despite being dropped by the History Channel and subsequently picked up by the lesser known ReelzChannel, ‘The Kennedys’ scored an impressive 10 nominations, including Outstanding Miniseries or Movie.

The 63rd annual Primetime Emmy Awards will take place on September 18 and will be hosted by Jane Lynch.

List of main Primetime Emmy Award nominations:

Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series:

‘The Colbert Report’

‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’

‘Conan’

‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’

‘Saturday Night Live’

‘Real Time with Bill Maher’

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series:

Edie Falco – ‘Nurse Jackie’

Tina Fey – ’30 Rock’

Laura Linney – ‘The Big C’

Melissa McCarthy – ‘Mike & Molly’

Martha Plimpton – ‘Raising Hope’

Amy Poehler – ‘Parks And Recreation’

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series:

Alec Baldwin – ’30 Rock’

Louis C.K. – ‘Louie’

Steve Carell – ‘The Office’

Matt LeBlanc – ‘Episodes’

Jim Parsons – ‘The Big Bang Theory’

Johnny Galecki – ‘The Big Bang Theory’

Outstanding Comedy Series:

‘The Big Bang Theory’

‘Glee’

‘Modern Family’

‘The Office’

‘Parks and Recreation’

’30 Rock’

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie:

Taraji P. Henson – ‘Taken From Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story’

Diane Lane – ‘Cinema Verite’

Jean Marsh – Upstairs Downstairs’

Elizabeth McGovern – ‘Downton Abbey’

Kate Winslet – ‘Mildred Pierce’

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie:

Idris Elba – ‘Luther’

William Hurt – ‘Too Big To Fail’

Greg Kinnear – ‘The Kennedys’

Barry Pepper – ‘The Kennedys’

Edgar Ramirez – ‘Carlos’

Laurence Fishburne – ‘Thurgood’

Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Programme:

Tom Bergeron – ‘Dancing with The Stars’

Cat Deeley – ‘So You Think You Can Dance’

Phil Keoghan – ‘The Amazing Race’

Jeff Probst – ‘Survivor’

Ryan Seacrest – ‘American Idol’

Outstanding Reality Competition:

‘The Amazing Race’

‘Dancing With The Stars’

‘American Idol’

‘So You Think You Can Dance’

‘Project Runway’

‘Top Chef’

Outstanding Drama:

‘Boardwalk Empire’

‘Dexter’

‘Friday Night Lights’

‘Game of Thrones’

‘The Good Wife’

‘Mad Men’

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama:

Kathy Bates – ‘Harry’s Law’

Connie Britton – ‘Friday Night Lights’

Mireille Enos – ‘The Killing’

Julianna Margulies – ‘The Good Wife’

Mariska Hargitay – ‘Law and Order: Special Victims Unit’

Elisabeth Moss – ‘Mad Men’

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama:

Steve Buscemi – ‘Boardwalk Empire’

Kyle Chandler – ‘Friday Night Lights’

Michael C. Hall – ‘Dexter’

Jon Hamm – ‘Mad Men’

Hugh Laurie – ‘House’

Timothy Olyphant – ‘Justified’

Outstanding Miniseries or Movie:

‘Downtown Abbey’

‘The Kennedys’

‘Cinema Verite’

‘Mildred Pierce’

‘Pillars of the Earth’

‘Too Big To Fail’

 

 

Bridesmaids Review: Is The Tide Turning For Women In Film?

Posted on by

Women in films used to be sassy, brilliant, full of quips, But somewhere along the way, we lost it all. Rosalind Russell was replaced with Shannon Elizabeth (The actress in American Pie, who was there to be a sex object and show her breasts), and Katherine Hepburn, replaced by, oh, all those actresses in those dire 1980’s films, too many to name, who were there solely to take their clothes off.

Some people think the film Bridesmaids is ‘ground-breaking’. It is, because Bridesmaids just became a Box Office hit, taking a smidge below $150 million – so far. It was a mainstream comedy written by women, starring women, about women, which won in the only way Hollywood recognises, by making money.

Helen Mirren once said that Hollywood wasn’t sexist, it just made films that people wanted to see. Young men go to the cinema more often and go to see films they liked. Women will only see more films with women if they go out and see them. Vote with your purses!

Bridesmaids is funny, it has wowed critics and audiences alike and it breaks even more boundaries, the actresses are (shock, horror!) not all 21 and a size zero. Some of them are in their 30s and are beautifully curvy. There is nothing wrong with being thin (I have been discriminated against for being thin, so I know it works both ways), I am just sick of my friends thinking they are fat when they are not.

Zoe Williams said this film was more feminist that Thelma and Louise and urged everyone to go and see it.  I am doing the same. Salon’s Mary Elizabeth Williams went even further, saying the film is ‘your first black president of female-driven comedies’.

It is ironic that as women have progressed, on screen we’ve only gone backwards. As an actress, I know more than most about what people cast and what they want. Women have to be between a size 8-12. Size 12 being a grey area, it hurts an actress to be more than a size 10. I was told by one casting director than anything above a size 10 meant ‘character actor’.

Some people have attacked Bridesmaids for not being ‘feminine’. Do they ever attack men for not being ‘gentlemen’?  I think not. Women have to be celebrated, we have to have our stories told and not just as naked, skinny, 21-year-olds. I will soon be making my own movie about women and their lives, and I thank Bridesmaids for clearing the way.

1.Bridesmaids
2.Production year: 2011
3.Country: USA
4.Cert (UK): 15
5.Runtime: 125 mins
6.Directors: Paul Feig
7.Cast: Chris O’Dowd, Ellie Kemper, Jill Clayburgh, Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig, Matt Lucas, Maya Rudolph, Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Terry Crews, Wendi McLendon-Covey