Jon Hamm holds press conference before Game 3 of Stanley Cup Final
St. Louis native Jon Hamm goes one-on-one after Game 4 of Stanley Cup Final
Jon Hamm on Blues going into Game 4: 'It's not like they haven't been here before'
Jon Hamm Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuJbfgLqSLo
Did Jon Hamm Say He Wants to be With Adria Arjona When the World Ends?
Q: Hi Jon and Adria, welcome to The Quint. I’ll start off by asking you what’s your first memory of reading Good Omens? Did you read it when it came out in 1990? I’m sure you (Adria) read it much later.
Jon Hamm: I read it pretty soon it was first published. It was definitely from the early to mid-nineties when I read it. It was recommended to me by somebody and it was one of the first books that I took for reading, just for enjoyment and wasn’t assigned to me as part of my schoolwork. I didn’t have to write a paper on it or anything, I just really enjoyed the story and that brought me into Neil and Terry’s collected bibliography. It’s just a never ending parade of worlds and gifts and fun things to find and fun stories to read. That’s the thing I really remember the most about reading it was just how involved and epic and large and rich the story is.
Q: Now, reading a character in a book, only gives you only so much. Then you have to add layers to it, to the physicality of it. So what did you bring to your character, Archangel Gabriel (Jon Hamm), after you of course read the book?
Jon Hamm: The tricky thing is that my character is mentioned only in passing in the book, as just an idea. There’s no scenes, there’s no dialogue, there’s really nothing in the book other than he is one of the celestial entities and if you’re familiar with the Bible then you’re familiar with Gabriel and the whole deal, right? But the wonderful benefit I had was that I had one of the creators of the book sitting next to me to answer any questions and I don’t know if it is true or not but I’m virtually certain that Neil and Terry at some point of their years long process of writing the book, I’m sure that they had stories for all of the angels - Gabriel and Michael. But, probably they just didn’t need them, there had too much story. They needed to tell their story the way they wanted to. You could probably go off on a whole tangent about how the angels interact and behave and we see snippet or two of that in the show as the show goes on. That’s the benefit of getting another whack at telling the story. You can colour in parts that you didn’t have time to do in the book.
Q: Now, if the world were really coming to an end, Jon, who would you be with in your last moment?
Jon Hamm: Probably, Adria. It would be really awkward for her fiancé. Sorry guys, it is on brand for the movie and Amazon asked that I come by. I think you’d want to be around your family and your friends. I have very little family left at my advanced age. But I have really good friends and you know those are the people you spend your quality time with. And we live a crazy life, for in a moment’s notice we have to come to London and live in a hotel for six weeks to shoot this thing and it can be really lonely at times. Your family and friends are the people that really know you and you don’t have to be on or entertaining or anything. You can just be who you are and they are very accepting of that. Those are the people I consider very important in my life and obviously if the world was going to end, which I really hope it does not in my lifetime or anytime soon. That’s what I would choose, I think most people would choose.
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Jon Hamm: Or George Clooney. If you are anytime near George Clooney that would be really fun. There's always good coffee and a comfortable chair. So there you go.
Adria Arjona: Maybe I'll meet him at the end of the world.
Q: Thank you so much for talking to us and all the best for the series.
Jon Hamm: Thanks so much. Pleasure meeting you,
https://www.thequint.com/entertainment/hot-on-web/jon-hamm-adria-arjona-interview-good-omens-prime-video
Hamm, who was also in St. Louis for Game 3 when the Bruins defeated the Blues 7-2 in Game 3 on Saturday, said the atmosphere outside was "electric."
"This doesn't happen here very often, so it's really great to be a part of this," said Hamm, who has known Gretzky for years. "Just look around, everybody's got a smile on their face and everybody's wearing their gear and are pretty exciting. I think the numbers were insane about the amount of people we had Saturday and tonight is going to be just as rocking."
'Pride, joy, exuberance;' Jon Hamm provides sentiment no Blues fan will diagree with
Jon Hamm on the teen moment that changed his life and being a 'sex symbol' at 48
...the American actor tells 9Honey Celebrity he thought things might not work out quite so well for him when he was a teen.
After sleeping in through his university entrance exam, Hamm says he thought his life was over.
"I was like, 'I needed that test to get me into the school that was going to do the thing and that was the thing I wanted to do blah, blah, blah'... but I did not take that test, I did not go to that school. On the day I thought, 'I've ruined my whole life, 'cause I overslept'... but yeah, it turned out alright... I got here," he tells 9Honey Celebrity.
"But that's life, every decision... and we, as actors, I think tend to we do that all the time — 'Do I take this job?, 'Do I do this job?', T this is the one where I become a superstar'... and you never know.
"Even with Don Draper, we all knew we were making something cool that we were proud of, but we didn't know if anyone was going to see it. It was on AMC — who's got AMC? People think it's A&E, they don't even know what channel it is."
Sitting in a London hotel room, wearing glasses and sporting a salt and pepper beard, Hamm looks markedly different to Draper, the suave character that made the actor a household name.
The lothario character also made the actor a sex symbol.
"There are worse things in the world than being considered 'a sexy person'... It's just a bummer when it's the only thing you're considered," he says, using air quotes for the word sexy.
"I'm 48 years old, I am nobody's consideration of like a hot dude anymore."
Appearing to not be entirely comfortable with the often used description of himself, the actor jokes, "My name's not Chris" — referring to Hollywood heartthrobs Hemsworth, Pratt, Pine and Evans.
"[Because] I got famous for playing a person who is sexy or whatever... that's the thing I've constantly tried to play against in other roles," Hamm explains.
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"I'm a fan of laughing. It's the one thing that kind of connects us all. If you can make somebody laugh, it doesn't matter what language you're speaking, you're connecting with somebody," Hamm says, referencing Monty Python and The Goonies as huge childhood influences.
Now, he’s flexing his comedy muscles again in Amazon Prime mini-series Good Omens but in a very different, very British way.
The dark comedy also stars Michael Sheen and David Tennant as the angel and demon trying to avoid the apocalypse and save the world.
Hamm plays Archangel Gabriel, effectively the representative for Head Office (aka Heaven). It was originally a very small character in Neil Gaiman’s 1990 book of the same name, which was expanded out for the series.
“I get to portray the boss that everyone has, that everyone hates," Hamm jokes about the role.
"I was constantly smiling and telling you, 'Great job', while also subconsciously saying, 'You're terrible,' and I've worked for that guy before and hated him... but it was really fun to play."
Another part of the attraction to the role, other than living in London for six weeks and wearing plenty of cashmere, was the chance to work alongside both Sheen and Tennant.
"I had known both Michael and David before this and massive fan of their work and so pleased to be able to work with them.
"They're so good — you look at both of these roles and you think, 'It's so perfect for them'."
https://celebrity.nine.com.au/tv/jon-hamm-good-omens-changed-his-life-sex-symbol
Good Omens Cast Respond to IGN Comments
St. Louis Native Jon Hamm Talks Blues' Stanley Cup Title with Rich Eisen | Full Interview |
Jon Hamm And Nick Offerman Tell Us About Their First Times
Clint Eastwood’s forthcoming drama Richard Jewell has added Olivia Wilde and Job Hamm, Deadline has confirmed. The pair join previously announced cast members Paul Walter Hauser, Kathy Bates and Sam Rockwell.
Wilde is set to play real-life Kathy Scruggs who reported on the event while Hamm will play an FBI agent. Bates plays Bobi Jewell, Richard’s mother who was an insurance claims adjuster. Sam Rockwell is playing Jewell’s defense attorney in the film.
The 2019 NHL Awards return to Vegas Wednesday at Mandalay Bay. Saturday Night Live's Keenan Thompson will host the awards show with special appearances by Jeopardy's Alex Trebek and actor Jon Hamm.
Hamm talked to Variety about playing God’s messenger – and how he originally had the celestial character pegged as a posh Brit.
You’ve spoken about your admiration for the book. Can that add pressure – to live up to what is on the page?
I suppose it can; it didn’t necessarily for me. I was just pleased to be asked to be part of it. I haven’t had that experience before, to get an opportunity to work on something that I enjoyed in a completely different aspect. I really loved it. It would be like me getting the chance to work on a “Star Wars” thing because I have been a fan of “Star Wars” all my life.
The Archangel Gabriel character features much more in the series than the novel.
It doesn’t really exist in the book; he’s just mentioned in passing. I felt very confident in trusting Neil, because he co-wrote the book, to come up with a version of the Archangel Gabriel that would be compelling. Then it was working with [director] Douglas [Mackinnon], costume, and hair and makeup, and we all came down on the same side of who this guy is and what he looks like.
Did you have any input?
Neil had already pretty much adapted the six scripts. I hadn’t read them when I said yes to the part. I just said yes.
Once I started reading them, I said I think I know who this guy is: He is that over-officious boss. There’s a version of him from “Office Space,” Lumbergh, there’s a version who’s [Jack] Donaghy [in “30 Rock”] – the towering, confident person who is supremely certain of his own rectitude but is very often totally wrong.
What was your take on how to play the character?
I had thought originally that he was going to be British – this sort of posh upper-class person that would do one thing and tell you another. But Neil said, “No, he’s American, because there’s a certain confidence that American businessmen have.” Trump does it – it’s bulls—, it’s a firm handshake and all this other stuff.
Does the series say something about contemporary events and politics?
When they wrote the book in 1989, the [Berlin] Wall had just fallen. The Cold War had just ended. This existential threat to civilization and humanity and Western culture and the world was going because a couple of people went, “What are we doing? This is dumb….Let’s all back off.”Because of the nature of TV, it’s harder to play satire. Neil and Terry are such wonderful writers – the prose of the novel provides that. That part is lessened in the show, but there is a satiric element.
What does the series say about faith?
If it’s promoting anything, its faith in your fellow man, faith in humanity, not in an indifferent god or an indifferent devil. They’re doing their own thing, whereas humanity, we’re the people that have to live here.
Neil Gaiman has talked about honoring Terry Pratchett’s legacy. What would he have made of the series?
I honestly think – and I never got to meet him – that he would be tremendously pleased. Neil tells the story that this was his dying request that he adapt this, and he did it, and what a wonderful legacy to pass onto a dear friend.
Is making a high-end series like “Good Omens” indistinguishable from making a movie?
We’re living in a time when the traditional definitions are out the window. You could call this a limited series, a six-hour movie, an adaptation, a million different things. And you are invited to consume it in whatever way you like.
Do you distinguish between broadcast, cable, linear, streaming and so forth when thinking about projects?
The interesting thing about where we are now in the media landscape is [that] the challenge isn’t getting things made. It’s getting them seen and recognized. It has to have something that will break through the noise and the clutter, whether that’s an award-winning author of a prize-winning book, or a movie star, or this or that. There’s got to be something.https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/jon-hamm-good-omens-archangel-gabriel-amazon-bbc-series-
at the 2019 NHL Awards at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on June 19, in Las Vegas
Hamm introduces members of the Blues
Jon Hamm, Adria Arjona & Nick Offerman Talk Good Omens | TV Insider
Seth Meyers
GD (Chris): Last question from me and then Zach takes back over. All the years you were on, what was the best guest hosting night from somebody else?
SM: There’s so many good ones. Jon Hamm’s first show stands out for me because we had such a different expectation based on only knowing him as Don Draper as to what he was gonna be and he was the opposite of that.
GD (Chris): Goofy.
SM: He’s goofy but yet he’s goofy who can play that refined alpha, which is such a fun tool to have in comedy because to be able to puncture that is a really nice thing to be able to do. I think it was the first time he hosted, a bunch of the “Mad Men” cast came. It was a little bit like a mafia wedding between the two families. Even though “Mad Men” was a show that was filmed out here it felt like a New York show and obviously “SNL” is as well. I remember that night with not just Jon but also [John] Slattery and Elisabeth [Moss]. It was a really cool night.
https://www.goldderby.com/article/2019/seth-meyers-late-night-snl-documentary
Question: This is famous for being unfilmable, so how do you approach something like that?
JON HAMM: You hope that the people involved in creating it are involved in adapting it, and we were very fortunate to have Neil involved at every step of the game. In between Neil and Douglas who has an almost preternatural recall of the novel and would always have several versions of the book sitting around video village or something to just to reference. We were very fortunate in that respect. So it wasn’t filmable in the 90s and early 2000s and now here we are in a new world of content delivery and content creation where you can make essentially a six-hour movie and it’s not the world of Berlin Alexanderplatz. You’re not making that version of it. You can make it like this and you could deliver it to people and say, “Bite off an hour, bite off three hours, bite off six hours, do whatever you want”. So again, for people like us who get to be in front of the camera, it’s exciting because you get to do so many different things. So when an opportunity like this beautiful novel that they wrote so many years ago gets to be filmed you’re like, “Yeah, that would be part of that”.
The story was written about 30 years ago, but it stills speaks very much to our time. Do you see this as a political satire?
HAMM: Sure. Neil talks about it a lot and he has spoken at length in the press about it, but it was written during the post Cold War peace time situation of like, “Well, nothing bad’s going to happen. We already solved the big problem. So here we are in 1991 and the walls come down and glasnost does happen and everybody’s getting along and it’s, what could go wrong?” So the posit was like, “Well, this is what’s going to go wrong—is there’s going to be a biblical confrontation between good and evil”, and I think now we’re seeing a little more of practical experience of that happening of where there’s very much of a different kind of Cold War happening right now between… and it’s just as ideological between this sort of like tribalist and jingoist kind of idea of are we going to be a global community? Are we going to be a community of mankind? Are we going to be Americans versus Brits versus Europeans versus Asians versus Africans versus, fill in the blank. That’s why it resonates still because there’s… the conflict is seemingly never ending.
But the funny thing about the guys, Aziraphale and Crowley, incredibly is that they’re still on board, they’re optimists. They don’t want to end the world. They like it here. I like it here. I would rather it not descend into partisan bitching and rather just like, let’s all get along and go get lunch and have a nice day. Like it’s nice, let’s read a book and talk to each other and laugh and have a good time.
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HAMM: There’s a great sequence. I think it’s in episode three, I’m not sure where lives in the show. But there were… They’re constantly kind of bickering back and forth, but they’re sort of making deals like, “You do this and I’ll do that. I don’t want to do that, will you? I don’t want to do that. Why would you do this?” Okay. Like if truly like having an how can come to an agreement on something, then I’m pretty sure that like the Lib Dems and the Tories can figure out a way through. Like there’s a way to get… There’s a way to find a compromise in everything, but first it’s most of it is just agreeing that you want to make a deal first. I think that’s the biggest part of it.
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I’m assuming you did a read through before filming it.
HAMM: I did not participate in a set read-through. You did. Yes?
HAMM: I wasn’t there. I came on later in the process, either way.
When do you, for both of you, when do you feel like when you’re on set, when do you sort of feel like you’ve gotten it? Is it on that first day where you walk in confident or is it sort of like-
HAMM: Yeah, the first day at any job is rough. It’s like the first day of school. You don’t know anybody’s name, you’re brand new, you don’t know what you’re doing, your shoes are untied and you’re wearing the wrong clothes and just like, “I don’t know what I’m doing”. It’s always difficult and my first day was, I think on the airbase and you guys have been shooting for some time and I was kind of like, “Well, here I am”. Then everyone’s like, “All right, cool. It’s freezing cold and raining. Welcome. Hi and there’s 19 people in the scene and we’re going to be here for three days”
ARJONA: And 19 people in this tiny little truck.
HAMM: Tiny little deal. Yeah, we all were in this little camper out there. So it’s always difficult. You want to have like an idea of what you’re doing that you can present to the creek, the people that have invited you there and then you go, “Okay, you like that? Cool. Let’s do more of that. Or you’d want to have a little different, let’s do it a little different”. But yeah, first day stinks. It’s probably, Adria is right. It’s like the last day you’re like, “Oh, I finally got it. Hold on. Can we do everything else?”
Given that we touched upon the snappy closing downstairs and the horrible bosses will have to ask if you see any parallels between this and the infamous Mad Men?
HAMM: No, other than being a sharp dressed person and being very kind of particular about how you put together. But my take on my character in this particular thing on Archangel Gabriel was that he doesn’t dress himself. He’s just sort of manifests as perfect. So for him it’s kind of like, “Well, I don’t care about clothes necessarily. I just have to be, I have to represent myself as perfection”. So everything is done up and tucked in and perfect and tailored and like that’s just how it is. There’s no other version. So it was an interesting thing where Don Draper was very manufactured, kind of, there’s an artifice there. He’s portraying something else.
So they’re very different in that respect. But it was nice to like step into a suit that’s just been like perfectly tailored for you and everything is made out of 7,000 threads per inch cashmere. I was like, “Damn, this is…” talk about putting on the right shoes. I was like, “These socks are nice. Like everything is so great”. It was just lovely and her costume designer had a great time, I think sort of putting that all. I mean, I wore cashmere, like jogging suit. Who has that? Like you’re going to get the exists to be sweating. Sweat it in like… I didn’t plan it, it was nice.
Did you keep the piece?
HAMM: I wish. No, I was not. I was really bummed out. I was kind of like, “Who else is going to wear the suit? It’s literally tailored for me. Like I should probably take this with me, right? No. Okay. Okay. I’m leaving here”.
I think what you learned was to put as your next rider in your contracts.
HAMM: Yeah. Give me that suit. Give me the boots.
Do you care to release states on the bad bosses you’ve had? Was that before becoming an actor?
HAMM: Yeah, sure. Of course. I mean, I certainly had bad bosses in my acting career as well. But mostly it’s, I used to be a waiter and a bartender and forever, and when you work in the service industry, there’s always somebody telling you whether it’s a customer or your boss, how you’re doing everything wrong and you’re kind of like, “You don’t know I’m doing, it’s, trust me, I’m fine. I got it”. You just want, it’s hard to tell people how wrong they’re being. So yeah, I’ve certainly worked for a version of that idiot who comes in and tries to help and then ends up making it all worse.
Given it was one of the final wishes of Terry Pratchett to see this project being made, did you find that an extra responsibility and if so, did you relish it?
HAMM: I don’t think it was necessarily a responsibility. I mean, that’s probably way more on Neil because of the history there. Obviously in any job, I think Adria would agree, nobody wants to walk in and mess it up. You want to come in and do the best you can. There is a sense of, because there’s such a… the book is beloved, so there is a sense of like, “Oh, let’s make the best version of this that we can” and as Robert saying downstairs, like, Terry is all over this. Like there’s so much of him, not just in the writing obviously, in the story obviously. But physically, like he’s represented in little Easter egg ways in the production of the material and that’s on purpose. That’s sort of a loving tribute and that’s kind of the best way you can do it, with somebody who’s no longer with us, just keep them around, not only in spirit, but physically and it was really sort of lovely how they did that.
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