As Mad Men fans gnaw on their forearms awaiting the two-hour, season-five premiere in eleven days, a timely Playboy interview with Don Draper's alter ego, Jon Hamm, gives us some insight into the forty-one-year-old actor's life. We learn that Hamm was orphaned at twenty, and in 1995 struck out for L.A. with $150 in his pocket, and dreams as large as Don's tolerance for scotch.
Like many before him, he paid his dues, waiting tables, which he calls a "part of my identity," and even working as a dresser on soft-core porn sets. He said, "I did set dressing on some soft-core porn films. That was hands down the worst. I was working on the crew from seven to seven, and it was horribly depressing." He also enjoyed attending Monday-night comedy shows at an L.A. club called Largo, where he would watch the likes of Sarah Silverman, Paul F. Tompkins, Patton Oswalt, and Zach Galifianakis, all of whom he's friendly with today.
Skip to "and the rest is history." Having played Kristen Wiig's love interest in two movies now (Bridesmaids and Friends with Kids), Hamm, responding to a question about the potential embarrassment of on-camera sex scenes, said:
"It's like running in the rain. There's a certain point where you go, 'Fuck it, I'm already wet. I'm not going to get any less wet so I might as well enjoy how this feels.' I mean, sure, there's an awkwardness about being in a weird flesh-colored thong, bouncing on top of an actress. And I am not a small human being. I weigh at least 200 pounds and I'm six-foot-two. And Wiig is a twig; she's a skinny little thing. I told her, 'Just punch me in the side if I'm hurting you.' It's weird and uncomfortable at first but then all the awkwardness melts away and you think, 'All right, we're doing this, so let's have fun with it.'"
Below, you can further torture yourself with some teasers for the season-five premiere, which is still eleven days away, no matter how hard you wish it were otherwise.