John Slattery: Jon Hamm on ‘Mad Men’ made actors forget lines
“When Hamm walked into a room in that getup, people would just go catatonic,” Slattery said of his co-star.
According to John Slattery, it was hard not to be impressed by Don Draper himself.
The ‘Mad Men’ actor revealed guest stars on the Emmy-winning AMC series would forget their lines on set while acting alongside Hamm.
“When Hamm walked into a room in that getup, people just went catatonic,” Slattery told The Independent. “Sometimes guest stars would come up to him and their lines would go right out of their heads. They just wouldn’t know what to do. It happened more than once.”
He added, “Christina Hendricks walked into the room and people shit their shit — it was amazing.”
Slattery played Roger Sterling, one of the partners at Sterling Cooper advertising agency. Hamm famously portrayed Don Draper, a depressed advertising executive Lothario. Slattery confirmed that he read first for the role of Don and was eventually cast as Roger back in 2007.
“[Jon Hamm] claims it made me in a bad mood the entire time we were filming the first episode, but I don’t think that’s true,” Slattery said. “At one point I saw him and I was like, ‘Oh — they definitely have this guy.'”
Set in the 1960s, “Mad Men” marked breakthrough performances for Hamm, Slattery, Hendricks, Elisabeth Moss and January Jones, earning 16 Emmy wins over seven seasons before ending in 2015. The series is heralded as the beginning of the second wave of the Golden Age of TELEVISION.
Emmy-winner Moss, who played editor Peggy Olson, said earlier this year that she has a “mentor/protégé relationship” with co-star Hamm. “[It was] very older brother, little sister,” Moss said, admitting she cried real tears in a pivotal scene of season five.
“Those are actually real tears, which I hate to bring you, but a lot of times we fake it,” Moss said. “He held my hand and wouldn’t let go and then kissed it. None of this was scripted and he did it on my close-up. That’s where the real Jon is.”
She added, “The only costume I have from ‘Mad Men’ from all seven seasons, 90-something episodes, they asked me which costume I wanted to keep and I said I’d keep this one because of that scene would like.”
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https://www.indiewire.com/2022/11/john-slattery-jon-hamm-made-mad-men-actors-forget-lines-1234783635/ John Slattery: Jon Hamm on ‘Mad Men’ made actors forget lines
