was originally due for release in July 2019 but was repeatedly pushed back
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Live Discussion and Q&A with stars Miles Teller, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer
May 3 at 4:30 pm. in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Jon Hamm Says He Was 'Brought To Tears' After Seeing 'Top Gun: Maverick' | EXTENDED
Top Gun: Maverick | Global Red Carpet Premiere Livestream!
May 4, premiere of "Top Gun: Maverick" at the USS Midway in San Diego, California
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Jon Hamm Talks About Tom Cruise Boot Camp & His Stunts For 'Top Gun: Maverick'
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Top Gun: Jonn Hamm REACTS to Tom Cruise’s Helicopter Premiere Entrance
Watch Tom Cruise CRASH Jon Hamm's 'Top Gun' Interview With Helicopter Entrance
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Mexico premiere
JON HAMM - TOP GUN MAVERICK - MEXICO CITY PREMIERE - CINE
JON HAMM - TOP GUN MAVERICK ENTREVISTA - CINE
Top Gun: Maverick - Itw Jon Hamm (Official video)
Top Gun: Maverick Movie Interviews
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Jon Hamm Talks ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ ‘Fletch’ Reboot & More In-Studio w/ Rich Eisen
Jon Hamm: 'Top Gun: Maverick', Legacy of 'The Town', Why He Likes Making Fun Of Himself
He spoke with Rolling Stone for the Last Word interview earlier this spring
“It’s a memory that I’ll never forget,” said Hamm. “Because I remember walking onto the set for the first day, and I’m in my Navy gear, in my very crisp officer’s uniform, and on an active naval base in San Diego. And walking onto set, there was a huge American flag. Everybody’s sitting in their chairs. And I see Tom Cruise and I’m just like, ‘Whoa, this is actually happening. This is very, very cool.’ And he came up to me with his million-dollar smile and said, ‘We’re so glad to have you. This is going to be so fun. I can’t wait.'”
You were 15 when Top Gun came out. What did you think of it?
I did multiple viewings. And that also coincided with the golden age of home video, as well. So the copy of it at the local video store was pretty worn out, too. It was a very big, important movie for kids my age at that time.
Why?
Because it was so cool. I mean, there weren’t a lot of movies like it. Tom Cruise was in that sweet spot of being twentysomething years old. I mean, he was great looking. He was an amazing actor. We all saw the writing on the wall as to what he was about to become. And then you had Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, Tom Skerritt. You had a pretty, pretty solid lineup. You had a young Meg Ryan in a very small role. It was just a cool movie that really somehow tapped into that Reagan-era zeitgeist of being a little jingoistic, but not too much to where it hits you over the head. And obviously, the overarching vibe of the way that movie looked was just to make it look cool. I mean, it seemed like every shot was at sunset and everybody was sweating just enough to look extra awesome.
Were you Team Maverick or Team Iceman?
Obviously, Tom Cruise is who you want to be. You want to be Maverick. You don’t want to be Iceman. But it’s funny, I just watched that documentary on Val Kilmer’s life, and just watching him go through his whole life and his career and how young he was and how important that was for him, too, and how good he was in the film. … He’s a genuinely believable kind of heel, even though he’s playing kind of both sides of the equation. It’s a really great performance that he brings to it as well.
What are the challenges in playing the character who disapproves of the guy everyone’s coming back to root for?
Part of it is in the writing. There’s very much a sensibility that makes sense, that is sort of seriously believable. His questions to Maverick are real. Like, “What are you doing? Why are you still a captain in the Navy? You should have been running things by now. And what’s your damage? What’s your malfunction?” And we obviously know that Maverick, by definition, has an anti-authoritarian streak. His call sign is not Go Along to Get Along, it’s Maverick. From my standpoint, to be able to play the guy whose incredulity at Pete Mitchell’s capacity to succeed in this mission, it made sense. I’m a little bit younger than Tom and my character has risen through the ranks in a way that Tom’s hasn’t, and it’s like, “I’m who you’re supposed to be. And yet you’re still here doing grunt work.”
You’re an actor, and a role is a role, but given how important the movie was to you when you were younger, did you have any concern of, “Do I want to play the jerk who tells Maverick he’s washed up?”
No, honestly, because there’s also a second level to it in my character. There is what becomes of begrudging respect. Part of it was in Tom Skerritt’s character in the first one, where you’d see, like, “OK, this guy, he’s got a job to do. He’s got to train these guys. And he can see a lot of himself in Maverick.” And it’s all baked into the script in that way. So, Cyclone does eventually come around and kind of get that “OK, Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell’s skillset is a pretty unique one, and it’s something to be valued, for sure.”
As Mad Men was winding down, what did you want your career afterward to look like?
You have this legacy, right? That never goes away. So mostly, it’s, “What do you want to make of the rest of it?” I’ve had an incredibly fortunate run, and to get to do things that I’ve always wanted to do, like be in a Top Gun movie, host SNL, work with people whose work I totally respect, like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and Kristen Wiig. … I’m not chasing accolades or anything like that. I’ve had my fair share, and I feel like I earned them. Mostly, I just want to do things that I would want to go see.
You became famous for drama, but you go out of your way to do a lot of comedy.
It always feels nice to be invited to play in that sandbox. Whether it’s Tina Fey or Larry David or Bill Hader, those people are all operating at a very high level. I just got off a podcast with Dana Carvey and David Spade, and I’m like, “Oh, my God. I watched you guys from my friend’s basement.” It’s the Sally Field thing, right? “You actually like me. That’s very cool. Thank you.”
Do you think your looks have limited the amount of opportunities you’ve gotten to work in comedy? Are there downsides to being Jon Hamm and wanting to be funny, as opposed to being Carvey or Spade?
I mean, I don’t know. Paul Newman’s pretty handsome. He was pretty funny. I don’t necessarily think that there’s a barrier to entry, so to speak. And I’ve seen David out and about in the world. He’s doing just fine. I’m not worried about him. But I’m pleased to have some kind of credibility in that world.
Ever since I moved to L.A. in 1995, I was really plugged into the comedy circuit here. I’m kind of an only child, or at least while my mom was alive — my half-sisters lived with my dad — and I would go to the library and check out the record albums that were comedy records, and to my mother’s consternation it was Richard Pryor and Cheech and Chong, and stuff that wasn’t the most appropriate for a nine-year-old boy. But I thought it was so funny. I’m sure that I didn’t get half of the jokes, but I got the pace and I got the rhythms and I knew that was what jokes sounded like. And I was very aware that those people put a lot of time into constructing that and telling that joke and how that comes across. And even guys like Bob Newhart and the Smothers Brothers, you could tell that there was a rhythm there. It was almost like a magic trick. Then when I got into Steve Martin, and then later Eddie Murphy, and the big kind of arena comics of the Seventies and Eighties, it was just like, “Oh, man, these guys are at another level.”
What did you do to pay the bills before you started acting regularly?
Anything I could. My first steady gig was at a restaurant down in Venice. Within a few weeks of me starting, Darren [Pettie], the guy who worked the raw bar, was quitting to go to Juilliard, and suggested I do his job. I don’t hear from him until I’m shooting day one of the pilot of Mad Men, where he played [Sterling Cooper client] Lee Garner Jr. We saw each other in the makeup trailer, and he goes, “Who are you playing?” And I said, “Don Draper.” He goes, “[Long pause] Oh, my God, that’s great.”
Your mother died when you were 10, and your father died when you were 20. Have you ever thought about whether you would have moved out to L.A. to become an actor if one or both of your parents had still been around?
I think about it quite a lot. It’s the sliding doors of it all, right? Mostly I think about it in the sense that I wish they could see what I’ve been able to make out of my life. But I have my aunt, my uncle, and my other aunt. And I have extended family that have gotten to experience this with me, and my sisters, and my nieces, and my great-nephews and great-nieces. But, yeah, your mom and dad are your mom and dad. There’s never a good time to lose a parent. But, yeah. I’ve got pictures.
You’re playing Fletch in a new movie. When did you first encounter the character?
I saw the Chevy Chase movie, and it said in the credits it was based on a book. I went to Waldenbooks in the mall, and they had half a row of all the books in the series on a shelf. I just thought, “Oh, man, are you kidding me? I need eight of this!” I didn’t have any money, so I shoplifted them. I think the statute of limitations has run out, but I owe Waldenbooks $35 plus interest.
What’s the best advice anyone ever gave you?
Show up on time and be prepared. That was my high school acting teacher. And I can’t say that I’ve always done that, but I am a ridiculously punctual person. Those two things are pretty good lessons, not just for actors, but for anybody, to really be cognizant of other people’s time and be aware of your own as well. Demand what you need. And there’s a right way and wrong way of doing a lot of things; try to always be on the right side of that collision.
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London premiere
Their Royal Flyness! Kate and Will Rock Top Gun Red Carpet
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Top Gun: Maverick London Premiere - Itw Jon Hamm (Official video)
Jon Hamm: Tom Cruise Left "NOTHING in the Can" on Top Gun
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TOP GUN : MAVERICK : Jon Hamm et le casting joue à "Tu préfères..."
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His latest film role is the authoritative cherry on the authoritative cake: as Admiral Beau “Cyclone” Simpson, he’s the force that wants to “ground” Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in Top Gun’s long-awaited sequel. “You can’t have all mavericks, there needs to be somebody in charge,” Hamm says (personally, he himself feels “equal parts of both”).
In a neat, neutral hotel room overlooking the grand buildings of Whitehall (“Good old London,” Hamm remarks when sheets of grey rain suddenly begin to fall), the actor is in the midst of a Top Gun: Maverick publicity blitz. He’s been answering questions about the film since 7:30am; it’s now 4:30pm, but he betrays no tiredness beyond removing his blue chequered suit jacket.
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Hamm is generous with warm, face-crinkling smiles. He’s entered a new decade since the film first began shooting in 2018 (what else but Covid delays). Naturally, he looks older than Cyclone does on screen. “I’ve got a little more salt in my pepper these days,” Hamm says.
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“It’s true, man, he is an ageless wonder,” Hamm says, “He’s a few years older than me and somehow looks a lot younger than me on camera.” He says it good-naturedly – Hamm doesn’t appear to be clamouring to hold onto past versions of himself. “I think it’s a nice thing,” he says of ageing, “I think in our western culture and society, we place a premium on youth, but there’s something to be said for the wisdom of time.”
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“The training that the pilots went through is real,” Hamm says, “the rigours that your body has to go through just to be in those aircraft are serious… So, I was very happy that I didn't have to go through that.” I say it must’ve been strange to be in a Top Gun film and not fly; I ask if he snuck onto a plane on set. “I did not get to sneak on a plane, I don’t think they would have looked too kindly on that,” he says (point one to the rule makers).
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. “I was very, very happy to leave the shirtless parts to the younger generation,” Hamm says. Undoubtedly, some cinema-goers will be disappointed. Has the actor minded, over the course of his career, being repeatedly objectified ?
“It’s all in the doing, right? If it’s annoying and obnoxious, sure,” Hamm says. He becomes philosophical: “I think there is a physical capacity to human beings that we visually partake in. And I think that some people find certain things attractive or pleasant, and some people don’t. That’s part of the wonderful tapestry of life.” But surely, now we are reckoning with how wrong it is to objectify women, we should do the same with men?
“Everything comes out in the wash, doesn’t it?” Hamm says. “Eventually people will kind of figure out that both sides of that argument are sort of silly. And eventually, I think people will start judging people as human beings in their own right. It’s a slow and steady journey, but I think we’re getting to the right place.”
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Hamm calls it, “a superhero movie where nobody’s wearing a cape.”
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it’s a role filled with tiny jaw twitches and one late-stage voice crack. “The last thing you want to do when you’re playing somebody who’s the guy that makes the rules is to play it as a one note kind of a fuddy-duddy,” Hamm says, noting that the film was screened at various naval bases across the US. “I got a couple very nice compliments on my performance. People said that’s really the way that that your superior officers treat you. Nobody’s got the screaming-in-your-face drill sergeant kind of mentality.”
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“I think Naval recruitment went up by something like 500 per cent,” he says reverently. “I spoke to quite a lot of the guys, and they said that the movie made them want to be in the Navy, fly and do all that stuff. It was not lost on them how important this story was.”
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he doesn’t remotely seem to mind playing a stuffed shirt in a film that celebrates rebels. (About that shirt: He “very much enjoyed” wearing his pressed khaki with its star-studded collar. “Everybody looks good in that uniform,” Hamm says – although, it was “very tight”.)
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“There’s a time and a place for the maverick and there’s a time and a place for the more controlled attitude,” Hamm says, exuding the latter........
“The world is growing up as well. I think we’re seeing a much less macho iteration of [masculinity] in this film. There’s female aviators. Jennifer Connelly’s character [love interest Penny Benjamin] has agency and has her own thing going on, and she calls Maverick out on a lot of stuff,” Hamm says.
“I think there’s a lot more nuance to it. Because we live in a more nuanced age – I mean, it's not 1986 anymore.”
“The cultural conversation has certainly shifted, as it should,” he says, though his even-handed nature suggests that he personally doesn't want to give it too hard of a shove. “We’re stumbling towards some goal.”
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Everyone’s been talking about how daunting it’d be to shoot the flight sequences thousands of feet above ground. But the prospect of touching a legacy as beloved and revered as that of Top Gun alone surely would’ve been terrifying enough. Was there a defining moment or particular element of this entire production that convinced you to sign on?
Jon Hamm: Sure. The main element was the fact that it was Top Gun and the fact that it was Tom Cruise. So those two elements combine to make it a pretty easy decision to want to be a part of. It’s a pretty out-of-body experience to be a part of something like this, that meant so much to me – personally – and my friends, and people of my generation.
It was a pretty seminal piece of filmmaking back in 1986. And while I wouldn’t say it made me want to become an actor, it certainly defined what it meant to be cool for a certain generation. And this is continuing that legacy.
Was every day sort of like a pinch-me moment?
Jon Hamm: [Laughs.] Yeah, yeah. Pretty much every day had some element of that. It’s a pretty special feeling to be able to work with an actor of Mr Cruise’s magnitude. He’s one of the last kind of true movie stars with a capital ‘M’ and a capital ‘S.’ They don’t make ’em like that anymore, really. It was pretty fun to come to work, I’ll say that.
So the novelty never really wore off?
Jon Hamm: Not for me. It’s actually still happening. Even when I do stuff like this and I look at the poster and think, ‘Wow… that’s pretty cool. I’m part of that.’
On a scale of 1 to 10, how relieved were you to discover you didn’t have to go through Tom Cruise’s pilot boot camp or shoot any scenes in the sky?
Jon Hamm: About 30 on that scale. Had I been about 20 years younger, that would’ve been an exciting challenge, I think. At my ripe old age, it’s probably less of a challenge and more of a… painful prospect. But I was impressed by all the young actors going through that. They took it very seriously, as they had to. And the results are right up there on the screen. It’s impressive what they accomplished.
So there wasn’t even an offer to have you up there to test some g-force?
Jon Hamm: There might have been offers, I think I politely declined [Laughs.].
Is this your way of telling us we shouldn’t be expecting a Top Gun: Cyclone?
Jon Hamm: [Laughs.] I don’t think so. That’s the sequel that no one’s demanding.
Top Gun: Maverick can be interpreted as a metaphor for modern filmmaking. Everyone keeps telling Maverick what can’t be done, how it’s all about the next-gen technology, how he should let go of the past, etc. But, as we know, both the film and Maverick prove the naysayers wrong. Practical effects still have a place in cinema, the spirited rebel can still get the job done. As a Hollywood veteran, what’s your take on the current CGI-heavy landscape?
Jon Hamm: You know… first of all, that’s a very interesting take. I think it’s true to a certain extent. I think the advances CGI has enabled in storytelling have made certain genres of film much more vibrant and exciting. I don’t think you — if you look at the superhero movies back in the 80s and now, they’re very different. And that’s all great.
But what I think we’ve made is a movie about heroes and about exciting people doing exciting things that aren’t wearing capes. They’re not mutants or gods or monsters or anything. They’re real people doing real things. And I think there’s still plenty of room in the filmmaking landscape to tell those stories as well.
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Actor Jon Hamm recently spoke with Sports Illustrated to hype his role in the Top Gun: Maverick movie, as well as discuss his love of pro-wrestling, most notable the 1980s era of WWF.
“In film acting, you’re only as good as the person you’re sharing that space with, and in this case, I had the opportunity to share it with one of Hollywood’s greatest movie stars,” says Hamm, who plays Admiral Beau “Cyclone” Simpson. “It’s no different [in pro wrestling]; you need that [heel], that someone to play off of. And when you have a guy named Maverick, you know he’s the one who’s going to break the rules. You also need the guy who’s going to establish the rules; and that was my job. Through that relationship comes a lot of dramatic tension that builds up throughout the film.”
All these years after his wrestling fandom, Hamm found a real connection to the art form in his acting. He put an especially strong emphasis on his facials, conveying emotion through a mere look on his face—just like one of his all-time favorites.
“I was a big Andre the Giant fan,” Hamm says. “He made everything he did so interesting. And Hogan slamming Andre, that’s a moment you never forget. I’ll always be in awe of that ’80s era.”
Hamm now has the opportunity to put his own indelible mark on an ’80s classic in Top Gun.
“I’ve been a fan of Tom Cruise as long as I’ve been a cognizant moviegoer,” Hamm says. “He’s only getting better with time, and he’s certainly getting crazier with time—he wants to shoot a movie in space, and I wouldn’t put it past him. It’s a tremendous honor to be asked to be part of a franchise that means so much and get a chance to contribute.”
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Between going toe to toe with Maverick and making Iceman references, what does your 15-year-old self think of all this?
My 15-year-old self is blown away, as is my 51-year-old self. I’m on both sides of that equation. It was a tremendous experience made more interesting by the fact that it had to be put on hold and paused for two years. The unintended consequence of that is that it built expectation and anticipation. Paramount knew that they had something really good. Tom certainly knew that he had something really good. At various points during shooting, he would grab me and go, “You gotta come see this,” and he would take me to his trailer to show me ten minutes of raw footage. And I was like, “Oh my god, I’ve never seen anything like this.”
It’s got the perfect amount of nostalgia while still being accessible for a new audience.
It’s so redolent of the first film and hits all those nostalgic elements, but it really does stand on its own. The interesting thing about coming back to a truly beloved property after so much time is that there’s two generations of kids who have never seen the original movie. If they have, they saw it on cable or something, but they didn’t have the experience of going to see it in a theater. So for this generation, this is a brand new thing, and [Top Gun: Maverick] is going to be what the original was to its generation.
Your character, Cyclone, is clearly the foil to Maverick, and his resistance is a key ingredient to what makes this movie so satisfying. But he’s not a Jaws mayor-type or a Die Hard deputy chief-type because he’s absolutely right about Maverick being reckless. Did you view him similarly?
That’s a great observation, and I think you’re correct. He’s the adult in the room. He’s not the petulant angry chief, and he’s not the cigar-chomping guy [James Tolkan’s Stinger] in [Top Gun], whose ego is writing checks his body can’t cash. Cyclone is way more in the Tom Skerritt vein, who I really looked to for inspiration. First of all, I love Tom as an actor, but I loved him in the film, too. He’s got that tough-love sensibility, but he also has that great line at the end, “I’ll fly with you.” It’s a begrudging mutual respect, and my character has a lot of that, too.
There comes a lot of responsibility with being the boss. My guy, the vice admiral, is in charge of not just lives, but billions of dollars of taxpayer-funded material. So that’s a lesson that he’s trying to impart to Maverick as well. He’s saying, “What are you doing? This is not where you should be. You’re too talented, and you can impart all of this wisdom to someone else and pass it on down the line. Why are you stuck? What’s happening here?” So a really emotional part of the story is watching Maverick grow up a little. He does owe a debt of responsibility to not only his former friend [Goose] and the family that he left behind, but also the next generation. So it hits on a lot of levels.
Your character said this to Maverick as a pejorative, but did Cruise’s reputation precede him in the best possible way?
Yes, absolutely. And I don’t think that line [“Your reputation precedes you … It wasn’t a compliment.”] was exclusively a pejorative. There are a lot of ways to read that. But when you walk onto the set of a Tom Cruise movie, you know exactly where Tom Cruise is at all times. It’s usually because he’s right there in your face, smiling and welcoming you to the set. His enthusiasm is so incredibly obvious, but it’s also incredibly infectious. It energizes the whole set. So, yes, Tom is as advertised, as they say.
Since you were a football star back in the day, did you throw some stiff-arms in between takes of the beach football scene?
(Laughs.) No, I didn’t want to get all sandy and gross. We were covered in fake sweat and spray tan, so I would’ve come back looking like a piece of sandpaper.
Cyclone was a TOPGUN graduate a couple years after Maverick. How much backstory were you given beyond the movie? How much did you invent for yourself?
Not much, but I have a pretty active imagination. I met with a lot of the guys who would’ve been in Cyclone’s orbit and would’ve been running things in that very high-level, executive, administrative capacity. So that was enough for me to understand that all of these guys came out of the same circumstances. Some of them made more of it than others, some of them washed out, some of them got stuck and some of them died. There are a lot of ways that those careers can take turns, but I did meet quite a few guys at Cyclone’s level and they were all a lot older than me. (Laughs.) They were like, “If you’re a three-star admiral, there’s no way you’re this young.” And I was like, “Well, I’m older than I look, but I’ll take it.” (Laughs.)
I don’t think there’s anybody better than you at scenes involving contemplation near windows, and you have another — no spoilers — great one in this movie as Cyclone weighs options.
Was that a scene you circled on your calendar and really dug into ahead of time?
(Laughs.) Not particularly. I’m not really a “circle it on the calendar” kind of guy. Every day on this film was an exciting day, but I was very happy when Tom told me, “This is what it’s going to be. You’re going to be near the windows, it’s going to be raining and it’s going to look amazing.” And I was like, “Well, I do, do good window work, so you can count on me for that.” So it was great. Again, it was a wonderful experience to be in a scene with Tom, who’s one of, if not the biggest, movie stars of our generation. So when we finished the scene, it was great to see how pumped he was to have this moment captured on film forever.
Some of Cruise’s former co-stars have expressed that when they see him going to such extreme lengths for his art, it makes them want to up their game in a variety of ways and acquire new skills for the screen. Did you feel that at all?
We had met socially here and there at various parties and functions and whatnot over the course of the last couple of decades, but at one point, we had a conversation on set. He said, “Jon, what do you do for fun? What are your hobbies? Do you skydive? Do you ride motorcycles? Do you fly helicopters?” And I was like, “No.” (Laughs.) I was like, “I play tennis. I hike. I walk up the hill with my dog. Those are my hobbies.” They’re radically less dangerous and adrenaline-filled, but I find them just as entertaining.
Between the aircraft carrier premiere and the Top Gun: Maverick private plane, have you ever been on a press tour quite like this?
This is its own animal, that’s for sure. I keep saying this, but it very much feels like Hollywood is back. This is what it is. This is what it is to go and see a big-time Hollywood blockbuster movie. This is your invitation to come on in, have a seat, eat some popcorn and be entertained for two hours.
Decades from now, when you reminisce about the making of this movie, is there a day you’ll likely recall first?
The first day. Easy. I walked onto the set, which was in an aircraft hangar. There were two F-18 Super Hornets parked, and there was a two-and-a-half story American flag. Everybody was there in costume and in full gear. I kind of got lost when I first walked to set, but once I finally walked on set, I heard applause as someone said, “There he is!” And I said to myself, “Who is that? I can’t see.” And it was Tom Cruise with a big million-dollar smile. Then he gave me a big hug and said, “Welcome to the show.” And I was like, “Thank you.” It was a pretty good feeling. (Laughs.)
It wouldn’t be a press tour for a Tom Cruise movie without some obligatory cake questions. Are you now on the Cruise cake list?
(Laughs.) Yes, I am. It’s a very anticipated cake, that’s for sure. I don’t know when that particular piece of information got out, but I had been on it even before I worked on this film. I don’t know how, but I remember getting it at one point and thinking, “This might be the best cake I’ve ever had in my life.” And it still delivers, even over the pandemic.
Do you savor it over many months, or do you devour it quickly?
It does keep, I’ll say that. It keeps for a while, and like a lot of cakes, it’s good a little stale, too. So we savor it. We do not descend upon it.
I always try to find patterns in actors’ choices, but your recent work doesn’t seem to indicate any rhyme or reason. You’ll pop up on Curb Your Enthusiasm or Barry as yourself, but then you’ll do voiceover work for various animated shows. You even appeared in an EELS’ music video not too long ago. Is this variety a response to playing Don Draper for eight years?
I’ve said it before, but if you wanted to do the same thing over and over again, I don’t know why you’d be an actor. The fun part of being an actor is getting to do different things. So, yes is the short answer to your question. It’s just fun. It’s fun to work with Larry David. It’s fun to host Saturday Night Live. It’s fun to do animated stuff. It’s fun to do my friends’ podcasts. I’m very, very lucky in that I get to play in a lot of different sandboxes, so to speak, and I have some measure of credibility on both sides of the dramatic, comedic aisle. So I love doing it all. I love when they ask me to read the opening day piece for the St. Louis Cardinals, or they want me to read a hype-up speech for the St. Louis Blues. So I’m very lucky that I get to do all of that, and I appreciate it.
Lastly, what can you say about your new take on Fletch?
Well, we finished principal photography last summer in Rome. It’s a very good film. We’re not sure where it’s going to be distributed, so I can’t really speak on that. We’ve got a couple things happening, but I hope people get to see it in the coming year and I look forward to them enjoying it. It’s very different from the Chevy Chase version. So if you’re going in expecting me to be wearing a lot of funny wigs and doing a lot of voices, it’s probably not the movie for you. But we’re very excited about staying true to the books that Gregory Mcdonald wrote, and we have the option, hopefully, to make quite a few more. So the exciting thing for me is to get in on the ground floor and hopefully do a few more of these and produce them and make them in the way I find very funny.
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During a Q&A moderated by PEOPLE's Editor-in-Chief Liz Vaccariello, Hamm joked about the toll the role took on his body — as one of the film's stars that did not get into an actual fighter jet during filming.
"My training program was much briefer," the Mad Men alum said. "It involved going to a spray-tanning place."
"Shout out Chocolate Sun," said Ramirez, 29.
"Which is how you're going to go in my phone," Powell chimed in.
Later in the conversation, the joke went on and Powell referred to Hamm as "Chocolate Sun."
"Chocolate Sun. Scream Queen. If that was your call sign, that [would] have been so good," Hamm said.
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Though Hamm's training might not have been as grueling as his costars', as his character remains grounded throughout the film, he still raved about his time on set.
"Well, the fun part about being in a movie with Tom is just being in a movie with Tom," he said Thursday. "I mean, he is one of the last movie stars that we have. I think you've highlighted excellently in the special edition, you just see the length and breadth of his career. And he just loves making movies. He loves his job, and that energy is incredibly infectious."
Hamm said when he realized many of his scenes would be acting across from Cruise, he knew it would be a "fun" time.
"Tom is the biggest cheerleader, as the guys can attest to, of everybody else too," Hamm said. "He just wants everybody to be excellent. And when you bring that excellence to him, he's even more enthusiastic."
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Jon Hamm Interview: Top Gun Maverick
Paramount and Skydance’s Top Gun: Maverick grossed a massive $51.8 million Friday — including $19.3 million in previews — as it opened in more than 4,700 theaters in North America.
That puts the Tom Cruise movie on course to score the best Memorial Day opening of all time with a projected three-day domestic haul of $123 million and $150 million for the four days. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End is the current record holder at $139 million, according to Comscore. Maverick‘s launch will also be a career best for Tom Cruise as predicted by THR earlier this week.
