Actor Jon Hamm the talk of the town

Jom Hamm in <i>The Town</i>. Photo / Supplied.

Jon Hamm is such a newcomer to the spotlight that he doesn't know how to behave at a press conference. Slouched over the table with his hand under his chin as he looks quizzically at his director, Ben Affleck, talking up their movie The Town, the star of TV's Mad Men seems about as far from his methodical sharp-dressing Don Draper character as you can get.

This was immediately apparent in our interview, when I note how today his hair is parted differently and is more free-flowing.

"Hair is significant," he responds in that definitive manner fans would recognise from the hit show. Then he beams playfully. "The BP oil slick isn't that bad once I've washed that crap out of my hair. There is a lot less gunk in it right now."

Just like George Clooney, Hamm's talent had been stewing for years on television before his hit series came along. Initially he'd quit his job in Missouri as a high-school drama teacher and for a decade worked as a bartender while appearing in minor movie roles and in the odd episode of Charmed, CSI: Miami and Gilmore Girls.

"Clooney is a good example," he says. "You have these things called overnight successes and, in my case, my overnight was 10 or 12 years of trying to work and become successful. Clooney was the same way - he worked on failed television pilot after failed television pilot, was a guest star on every show under the sun and then ER comes along and gives him the vehicle where he really fits in and showcases his abilities. There are worse people to model your career after."

Certainly that is true, although the once hilarious, unguarded star no longer gives interviews, whereas Hamm is, thankfully, ready to talk. And at 39, with no children and a stable long-term relationship with Jennifer Westfeldt, co-writer and star of the 2001 comedy-drama Kissing Jessica Stein, with whom he has a new film, Friends with Kids - he is happy to be working non-stop and to include her into the bargain.

"It is a good problem to have, to have too much work," he says. "I have certainly been on the other end of that equation where I have sat on a couch for three or four days in a row, thinking, 'Why isn't my phone ringing? What is happening here? Does it still work? Oh yes, that was a credit card company calling wanting some money that I don't have.

"It just takes diligence. When we shot The Town I had just finished season three of Mad Men.

"Then I went directly from that to the set of Zack Snyder's action-fantasy Sucker Punch and went directly from that into award-season craziness. So that was difficult and very tiring and challenging."

He enjoyed working with Affleck. "He is wildly intelligent and a very funny guy," says Hamm. "What makes him an excellent director is that he is curious about learning how to do things and he is tremendously prepared, knows exactly what film he wants to make and is very good at communicating how best to make that happen."

In The Town Hamm plays a big-city know-it-all detective, who is determined to land Affleck's working-class Boston bank robber and his gang in prison. Like the actor's 50s advertising exec Don Draper, he has little morality about him, though he is a very contemporary character.

"I have been very fortunate over the last few years to do a lot of different things and avoid being typecast."

He says he wouldn't say no to anything. When Mad Men is finished he would gladly do another television show.

"If it is a quality project tat is intriguing or inspiring to me in some way or working with people that are inspiring or exciting to me in one way, shape or form, then I would jump at the chance."

The Town is in cinemas from Thursday. Mad Men will be back on TV next year.

-Herald On Sunday /View