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Mr Hamm is filming in Winnipeg
Jon Hamm was spotted at the Jets vs. Penguins game at Canada Life Centre on Saturday.
The “Mad Men” star is in town to film the television series “American Hostage,” which tells the story of a beloved radio reporter who finds himself in the middle of a crisis when a hostage-taker demands to be interviewed on his news program.
November 13, 2025
I had a wide-ranging, fun conversation with Hamm over breakfast this past spring for his GQ Hype profile, but this time he called me from the set of his latest project to talk specifically about The Morning Show, dramatizing the morally grey tech billionaires our country is beholden to in real life, and turning up to Bad Bunny.
GQ: Watching season three, it felt like Paul’s arc was a one-season arc kind of thing, so it was a pleasant surprise when you popped up for an encore in season 4. What were some of the conversations involved around bringing your character back?
-Jon Hamm:Well, without getting too into conversations above my pay grade, I think what we had really discussed was that maybe there's just more story there to tell and that these two characters had more to get through in their relationship. And I think both Jennifer and I felt that way, and the response to the character was really good from an audience standpoint. And I think from a dramatic standpoint, there was certainly some more to be mined in that particular load. And honestly, we both had a lot of fun with it, so we were very excited to come back and revisit the relationship here. That's really what the gist of it was.
GQ: How much of that decision was a result of the natural chemistry between you and Jennifer—did that make it feel necessary to keep exploring there?
- I think that was a big part of it. Honestly, that kind of jumps off the screen at you. I think we really— not only just us as actors and people who know each other personally and socially—we like working together, and the way the writers constructed that relationship, they had left it relatively open-ended. Obviously, neither one of us had anything catastrophic happen to us, so there still was a world in which these two people's orbits would still intersect. And I think that the way that the writers had constructed [the story] as well, there were still some emotional leftovers that they had to manage their way through.
What do you enjoy about working with Jennifer specifically? Didn’t you once say she's the one who reached out to you in the first place about joining the show?
- I can't remember if she reached out or or somebody from the higher-ups had reached out, but it was definitely something that was a no-brainer once it was presented, I think, to both of us that this would be a really interesting fit. And we both really sparked to the idea. I remember sitting in the room with the writers and discussing what might it look like. Jennifer was in those meetings as well as she's an executive producer and we both just were on the same page from the beginning and thought, let's really make this an interesting situation for both characters, not just for Alex Levy to have to navigate a relationship, but also for Paul, and getting into a relationship with somebody who's so high-profile. What does that look like to characters that are in their 50s and successful and what are the wants and needs in a relationship? And I thought they did a great job of accurately presenting that.
It's funny, there's so many relationships on the show that are in a constant state of fluctuation, but it feels like you guys have now become endgame. There's a “ship” element to it now—people want you crazy kids to figure it out.
- Yeah, I think part of that obviously comes from the chemistry that we both have, but I think part of it too is that those two fit very nicely in each other's lives.
It’s also funny to me that when you first joined in season three—obviously the character is very morally complex, but the part did kind of fit with a run that you were on at the time of playing more outwardly villainous characters. And now they've got you on a redemption arc. Writers just can't resist making Jon Hamm a little greyer!
- Well, I mean, yeah, in order to have a redemption arc, you have to have something to redeem yourself for. So that is sort of the natural wave for anyone that comes in and is a bit antagonistic—if they return, that’s the second act. And then we'll see what the third act brings. But without spoiling anything, I think they did a really nice job of presenting this in a real way. Alex has something that she needs from Paul. Paul has some ability to provide that for her, and that brings them closer and back into each other's orbits again. And there is something undeniable between the two of them.
I was always intrigued by Tig Notaro's character and the nature of her and Paul's relationship, and obviously that becomes a really interesting wrinkle in this week’s episode. But a lot of their dynamic or lore isn’t made explicit in the show. Have you and Tig had ever discussed what their backstory might be?
- We never really discussed it explicitly. I think it was just sort of left to be interpreted as this is a longtime employee and confidant of Paul's. And Tig and I go back 20 some-odd years. There's a built-in relationship there already. We don't really work together, but we have a lot of friends in common. So we do have an intertwined past with friends and relationships and whatnot. I've known Tig through many iterations of her career and her life, and we've been friends through it all. And she's known me through various versions of my life before I was famous, before I was on Mad Men, blah, blah, blah.
So in many ways our careers have grown together and I've always been a fan of hers. And I think her specific energy and her particular approach lends itself to being very kind of off-putting. What is that relationship? But I think that's very much on purpose to keep the audience wondering, Is she secretly pulling some strings behind the scenes? Does she know more than she lets on? And then Tig has a tremendous ability to play things very close to the vest. And I think that that's very helpful in creating the kind of dramatic confusion or wonder that her character plays that's presented.
When you initially joined, your character represented putting a face to this concept of these modern, immediate anxieties about big tech and specifically big tech encroaching on the media. Now in this season Paul is also wrapped up in this other prevalent anxiety, this idea of foreign powers interfering with American politics and journalism. So I just wanted to know what you make of all of that being dramatized here, and if you think that's important to present it here in this fictional context as we're dealing with it in real time in the real world?
- Well, I think one of the pitches I remember thinking about was, what if we had tech oligarchs that weren't necessarily all completely narcissistic and completely profit-motivated, and what if some of them had the country's and others better interest at heart? Google's first slogan for want of a better word or logo or whatever was just "Don't be evil" and things like that. And then as they slowly grind up and assume everything that's in their path, their actions start to resemble, kind of, evil, a little bit.
And Amazon started as a bookseller and now they're delivering to all four corners of the earth, and their owner bought a boat that's worth a half a billion dollars. And we think, "Well, maybe there's a version of that person who instead of buying a boat, endows a fund or builds schools or builds something like the robber barons back in the 19th century to build Carnegie Hall or funds a learning institution of higher learning or whatever."
So I think the writers have had a nice idea to maybe push Paul into the latter category from the former and for him to say like, "Okay, well maybe there are different iterations of this." And maybe in dramatizing it, people can see, okay, well if you look at Bill Gates, he's funded a foundation for the better part of half a quarter-century that has tried to do good in the world. So maybe there's some good examples too. And maybe, fingers crossed, maybe Paul can see the light and maybe Alex is instrumental in showing him that there's a better way.
So without giving away too much, there's one episode left and the show's already renewed for season five. We're going to see some more of you in the mix?
- Well, I won't spoil anything. I'd say stay tuned and see what you think after the final episode. Obviously Jen's character has a lot of choices to make and a lot of options in front of her. So the options I think she will figure out as the story continues.And this season should be an interesting one.
While I have you, I have to ask you as you've become a very notable Bad Bunny fan, how much you're looking forward to the Super Bowl next year.
- I'm very much looking forward to it. First of all, it's going to be in San Francisco, which is an amazing town. And I've never been to that stadium. I try to go to the Super Bowl every year. It looks like my schedule's going to allow me to this year as well. So I am looking forward to it. I'm sure he will not disappoint because he has yet to in the six or seven times that I've seen him.
We have to get a new reaction shot of you going up.
- Yeah, exactly. I'm sure the cameras will be looking for me.
And you're working on Friends and Neighbors season two right now?
- No, I finished that over the summer. I'm working on a new project up in Winnipeg called American Hostage that'll come out at MGM+ next fall. It's very different from both Friends and Neighbors and Morning Show.
What can we look forward to for Friends and Neighbors season two when that comes back?
- Well, we've kind of set these things in motion and we've seen that Coop is sort of unwisely going back to his old ways. There's fallout from all of the things that happened in the first season. Season two is dealing with all that fallout, and again, managing what seems to be very difficult for Coop, which is a very tricky, morally compromised personal and professional life. And we have a pretty big disruptor that comes into the community in the face of James Marsden's character. So that presents some difficulties as well.
Last time you and I talked, you were preparing for a big move back to New York. How's that been going, how are you adjusting to being back in the city full time ?
-We were back in the city all summer. I love living in New York, it's great. My wife and family are actually back in LA now, so we kind of maintain a presence on both coasts, which is also very cool. Although I'm up here in Winnipeg now away from my wife and dog, unfortunately, so it's very cold up here. But I'm getting to do some pretty cool work, so it's worthwhile.
"I think holding on to her family like this is not just about the company, it's about not losing the last vestige of Monty."
I can't lie, I miss not having Hamm around already. Given that Moore was so incredibly underused in Landman season 1, I can see how we needed to get him out the way so that she could thrive... but even so. So, how did things change behind the camera without Hamm around?
"We do miss him, because he was so fun," Moore says. "But it's part of Taylor Sheridan's brilliance. Who would have ever expected to have somebody like Jon Hamm be who we then lose?
"Taylor's just so smart about keeping things surprising, unexpected, those twists and turns. As the actor, playing and being part of a show makes it always interesting and intriguing, but I think also as a viewer too. It keeps Landman so alive."
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