Jon Hamm, famed for his portrayal of Don Draper in AMC’s “Mad Men,” was also teaching in the drama department when Willimon was in high school. “Then he left, and the girls were still talking about him for years afterwards,” says Willimon, chuckling. “We run into each other from time to time. I love Jon. He’s so talented, and he’s such a nice, down-to-earth guy. We remember, with great nostalgia and warmth, our good old days in St. Louis.”
http://stlcurator.com/beau-willimon-house-of-cards-netflix-st-louis/
I was going to ask whether you, Jon Hamm and Ellie Kemper were part of a JBS cabal within the entertainment industry.
I saw Jon Hamm recently at a Burroughs event in New York. I run into him from time to time. We’re not close buds, but he is very good friends with some very good friends of mine in L.A. So we cross paths from time to time. I’m so thrilled for him.
I saw Jon Hamm recently at a Burroughs event in New York. I run into him from time to time. We’re not close buds, but he is very good friends with some very good friends of mine in L.A. So we cross paths from time to time. I’m so thrilled for him.
My very first writing gig that I got paid for was co-writing a pilot at AMC with a buddy of mine. But at the time, they were developing "Mad Men" and they hadn’t cast Don Draper yet. I know Matt Weiner was wracking his brain and trying to think whom he wanted to cast.
A year later when it went on air and I saw it was Jon Hamm, I was so, so happy. He’s such a talented guy. In fact, he came down to teach drama my senior year. When I was in 7th grade, he was a senior. When I was a senior, he had come back to start teaching in the drama program alongside Wayne. I didn’t study with Jon. But I was in a play with him. We were both in "Stage Door" together.
https://www.stlbeacon.org/#!/content/29754/on_the_trail_willimon_interview
https://www.stlbeacon.org/#!/content/29754/on_the_trail_willimon_interview
http://observer.com/2014/08/emmy-red-carpet-wrap-up-exclusive-talk-with-house-of-cards
“As a break from painting, I decided to write a play. I did theatre in high school — in fact, my high school had this incredible drama teacher who taught Jon Hamm a few years before me and Ellie Kemper a few years behind me.
http://junkee.com/8-things-learned-house-cards-beau-willimons-vivid-ideas-talk-leigh-sales/
Ultimately they didn’t make it. I think one of the big reasons is they were, you know they thought to themselves, ‘Well hold on, we need a full working cotton plantation and horses and hoop dresses’. And it was a brutal show, I mean we didn’t shy away from the horrors of slavery. There was lynchings and beatings and rapes that permeated the story, and I think they freaked out and so they went with Don Draper. I went to high school with Jon Hamm actually, we were in a play together. That’s another story. But yeah, so, writing TV. I had written that, and then there was a few screenplays that I wrote. One was a blind script for Warner Bros that was part of the Ides of March deal. I hubristically tried to tackle Tale of Two Cities, I was like the sixth writer in 20 years to try and make that happen for Warner Bros. And I think I wrote a good script, and I think the five scripts before me were also really good, they just couldn’t commit.
http://www.bafta.org/press/transcripts/bafta-bfi-screenwriters-lecture-series-beau-willimon
http://www.bafta.org/press/transcripts/bafta-bfi-screenwriters-lecture-series-beau-willimon
WILLIMON: I don’t know if the conversation between Jon and Matthew encapsulated the entire series. Maybe it did. If that’s the case, Matthew had a very grand vision in mind. I always knew where the second season would end and I knew a lot of the big things that would happen along the way. I had conversations with Kevin and Robin and a number of the cast about where their characters were heading and the general direction of the story and where they would end up by the end of season two. I think it’s a good idea to give the actors as much information as possible.
Hamm : about Willimon and Kemper
....people who would have been toiling away in a writer’s room for 20 years trying to get their shot to get their pilot on the air, somehow, are now getting deals."
"Beau Willimon, who was one of my students when I was a teacher in St. Louis, MO, is now running a show. A great show! Holy shit! He played Hamlet in ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’! Again, he was very talented as a 17-year-old. Ellie Kemper, same thing. She was a talented 15 year-old and now I’m in her show! It’s bananas, but it’s wonderful, too.
....people who would have been toiling away in a writer’s room for 20 years trying to get their shot to get their pilot on the air, somehow, are now getting deals."
"Beau Willimon, who was one of my students when I was a teacher in St. Louis, MO, is now running a show. A great show! Holy shit! He played Hamlet in ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’! Again, he was very talented as a 17-year-old. Ellie Kemper, same thing. She was a talented 15 year-old and now I’m in her show! It’s bananas, but it’s wonderful, too.
The show is a bit of a full-circle moment for Hamm and Kemper. Back in 1993, after graduating with a degree in English from the University of Missouri, Hamm returned home to teach an eighth-grade acting class at his former high school, the private John Burroughs School in Ladue, Missouri. Two of the students in his class were Kemper and Beau Willimon, who now serves as showrunner for the Netflix series House of Cards.
Now Hamm is starring in a Netflix series as Kemper’s Svengali-nemesis.
“Ellie, my former student!” said a beaming Hamm. “Honestly, it’s really great. I wish I could have said when I was 24 that I knew that girl—or Beau—would be famous. It wasn’t that specific, but in a school full of highly motivated and very high achievers, they were standouts. They just were. Ellie, for a young kid, was incredibly forthright and very confident, and Beau was wildly intelligent and creative. I thought, ‘I hope they do it and go,’ and they did. And it’s amazing.”
He paused. “I remember walking the red carpet at the Emmys and seeing Ellie there and going, ‘You’re here, too! This is so great.’”
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