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'Mad Men' Star Jon Hamm on Don Draper: I'm Not That Guy

Entertainment Tonight, Wednesday, September 1, 2010, 6:30am (PDT)

Jon Hamm has made his "Mad Men" character Don Draper a household name, but he thinks that if Rob Lowe was to play his character it would have been perceived as "the new Rob Lowe show." He told Rolling Stone magazine, "There was no back-story with me, so people can project all this stuff and genuinely believe the mystery of this guy."

"I don't really have much in comparison to the way Don holds himself," Hamm revealed about his too-cool "Mad Men" character. "I'm not that guy."

He added, "Part of it is the suit, but another part is a choice. This is a person who takes himself very seriously at work, a guy who's going to walk in and command a room. I'm not that way in real life. I don't grab the mic."

Hamm said he had seven tests and zero jobs before landing the "Mad Men" part. He told Rolling Stone that finding work as an actor helps him relate to Don Draper. "My life at the time was trying to get a job. Talk about ruthless -- being an actor in L.A. and not working is nothing but hustling. I just really responded to it on some visceral level, and that may have been what Matt [Weiner] picked up on. That may be why the character resonates coming from me."

Hamm's stoic ex-wife Betty Draper is played by January Jones who said of her role, "I don't feel like I need to relate to her. The biggest obstacle for me is not to judge her."

For more with the cast of "Mad Men" and the show creator Matthew Weiner, check out the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine, on newsstands Friday.

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