‘Your country has a deep and glorious history of rich idiots — so does mine’

Jon Hamm on our obsession with wealth and why Mad Men isn’t coming back

- VICKY JESSOP

In 2022, Jon Hamm starred in an Apple TV+ commercial called “Everyone but Jon Hamm”. Clad in a Don Draper suit and apparently finding employment tough post-Mad Men, Hamm was seen slumped on a sofa, scrolling disconsolately through the streamer’s many TV shows. “What about Jon Hamm?” he asked, plaintively. It was a joke that was perhaps taken seriously, which is fine with him.

“I had so many people talk to me about that commercial saying, ‘God your house is amazing!’” he says. “I was like, that’s not my house! But it seems to have paid dividends, I will say, my goodness. I did not think it would bear this much fruit, but I’m very happy that it did.”

In addition to a much-vaunted appearance on The Morning Show, with Jennifer Aniston, Hamm is now fronting his very own Apple TV+ show. It’s called Your Friends and Neighbors, and opens with his character waking up next to a dead body — and finding his life goes rapidly downhill from there.

To the casual observer, Hamm’s new character — Andrew “Coop” Cooper — posseses much the same energy as his breakthrough character Don Draper. As does Hamm himself.

“Hello Vicks, we’re having a hard time hearing you, my dear,” he booms through the speakers, adding “I’m glad to meet you.” Classic Hamm, ever the gentleman, and of course he’s clad in a suit.