You know why I’m disappointed? Because W Magazine c-ckblocked me into thinking there would lovely photos of Jon Hamm that I could drool over. Of course, there is a pictorial, and of course, The Hamm is gorgeous. But I would have enjoyed this whole thing a lot more if this slut Rebecca Hall wasn’t all over My Hamm. Anyway, The Hamm and Rebecca Hall (Hamm ‘n Hall, to friends) – together to jointly promote their roles in The Town, the Boston-based action/drama/thriller directed by Ben Affleck. W Mag sums up the story: “The paths of Rebecca Hall and Jon Hamm converge in the September film The Town, a morally complex cops-and-robbers drama set in director Ben Affleck’s hometown of Boston. Hall plays a bank manager who is traumatized by seeing a colleague brutally beaten by a masked thief. When she meets a handsome man, played by Affleck, who offers her comfort, protection and romance, she has no way of knowing that he was the violent offender’s accomplice. Hamm is less charmed: He plays the man in blue, hot on Affleck’s trail.” Did that just turn you on? I’m turned on. Just thinking about The Hamm on someone’s “trail” is enough for me.
The full W Magazine interview is here. Here are some of the highlights (FYI: all of my highlights are Hamm-related):
W: Did you both have to audition for The Town?
Jon Hamm: I was on a list of people that the studio was considering. They go down the list, basically.
Rebecca Hall: I don’t think I was on a list. I auditioned. My agent flew me to New York because I couldn’t afford to pay the airfare, and then if I got it, I’d pay her back. I met Ben in some hotel room and we chatted for about two hours. I didn’t hear anything for about three months, and then I got the call.
Hamm: Do you know who else they asked to do it?
Hall: No. Do you?
Hamm: Maybe.
Hall: Spill the beans. Jessica Simpson?
Hamm: I was going to say Lindsay Lohan, but that’s not really funny anymore. It’s sort of sad.
Hamm: I play law enforcement, basically. I play the cop to Ben’s robber, but it’s not just black versus white. Ben is playing the lovable rogue. My character still thinks he’s a piece of s— because he’s a horrible criminal. That was fun—to be the counterpoint to Ben’s charming rogue.
Hall: The film is old-fashioned—proper Hollywood. There are thrills and there’s violence and there’s action and there’s a significant romance.
Hamm: It’s an adult movie. Those are in short supply. I hope that there’s still an audience for that kind of film, where you can go see adults behaving like adults.
W: And it deals with adult themes.
Hall: It’s an age-old tragedy setup. Can you do bad and get away with it, or does it always come back to bite you in the ass?
Hamm: No one is 100 percent good and no one is 100 percent bad. What’s interesting is that many bank robbers don’t think they’re doing anything bad, because the money is insured. They don’t consider themselves criminals.
W: What was Ben like off-set?
Hall: He’s kind of what you expect: He’s incredibly smart; he’s good fun. It’s got to be odd being that famous, especially in Boston, where he can’t walk a block without having to put his hood up. He is Mr. Boston.
Hamm: I mean, the guy is a patron saint of that city. [When you’re] walking around with him, everybody of every walk of life is like, “Hey, Ben!”
W: When did you both realize you wanted to perform?
Hall: I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be an actor. It has just always been an inevitability on some level.
Hamm: I played Winnie-the-Pooh in first grade. I was an early adopter of standing up in front of people and looking like an idiot. In high school I was a middle linebacker and I played Judas in Godspell.
W: After you joined the William Morris Agency, you didn’t work for three years.
Hamm: I went up for everything. I’d get down to the end on big movies and then I’d flame out, which is devastating. It just sucks, especially when it’s fraught with, “Oh, then I can pay my bills.” I would get so in my head that I would f— up the auditions.
W: How long were you willing to stick it out?
Hamm: I had given myself five years to be self-sufficient as an actor. I was already self-sufficient as a waiter. But I knew a lot of 40-year-old waiters and I didn’t want to be one of those. I had taught school and I knew that I could always go back to teaching. I gave myself to my 30th birthday, and my 30th birthday actually happened on the set of We Were Soldiers, which was my first big Hollywood movie—a Mel Gibson vehicle. I was making enough money to quit my waiting job.
W: Is there value to trudging the long road as opposed to getting a fast track?
Hamm: I guess the benefits of my trajectory were learning humility, learning to be patient and learning how the system works in some way. But I think the benefits of Rebecca’s path are that you get to spend some great years doing some pretty cool s—. Your 20s are fun. If you can manage to also do good work, which Rebecca clearly has, then you’re very lucky.
W: Rebecca, would you label Jon a man’s man or a ladies’ man?
Hall: I don’t know. He’s proper manly, like Gregory Peck, old-school. He hangs around with the boys and does sports. But can he talk to women about emotions and shoes?
Hamm: Absolutely. Can and do. I was raised by a single mother. I think the definition of a man’s man has shifted in recent times to this sort of fratty bro, different from the older version, which was aloof and distant—Gary Cooper or Cary Grant or James Bond. Now it’s a little vulgar, kind of lowbrow, adolescent. I’m not that guy. Part of being an adult is treating women like women.
Hall: The grand pendulum has swung backwards a little bit. Women are allowing themselves to be objectified as “empowerment.” I suppose to some degree you have to go through that phase of, like, “Look, I can make myself a sexualized object.” Still, I just hope that it’s okay for women to read and be bright and talk about interesting things and be sexy.
Hamm: To be able to read and talk about complicated things is sexy. It’s not just having a pair of bolt-on tits.
W: Jon, the old rule is if a man wants to flatter, he tells a beautiful woman she’s smart and a smart woman she’s beautiful. What does one say to Rebecca?
Hamm: That she’s very funny.
W: Rebecca, in stories earlier this year about the breakup of Sam Mendes and Kate Winslet—
Hall: Oh, you’re going to do that, are you?
W: —your name was mentioned in a way that implicated you in the breakup of their marriage. Is there any accuracy to that perception?
Hall: No.
Hamm: The reality is that I broke them up.
Hall: Jon Hamm was sleeping with Sam Mendes.
W: Wow. Does a sex tape exist?
Hamm: Does it? He directed it. It’s beautiful.
[From W Magazine]
Okay, so I included Rebecca’s denial of being involved in Kate Winslet’s divorce just because I thought it was interesting. Do you see how The Hamm came to her rescue with a joke? That’s a gentlemen, ladies. While I don’t really think anything of her, The Hamm is so lovely, it hurts. Also – the part where he’s talking about what he finds sexy in a woman? Jesus, this man turns me on. I need to take a “break” and smoke a cigarette.
Photos courtesy of W Magazine.
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