Mad Males stars Jon Hamm and John Slattery have reunited for a panel on the present, calling the collection a “super honour” to be part of.
The actors portrayed Don Draper and Roger Sterling, respectively, on the AMC drama, which initially ran between 2007 and 2015 and follows promoting executives within the Nineteen Sixties – principally Hamm’s inventive director Draper.
The 2 actors appeared collectively over the weekend on the ATX TV Pageant in Austin, the place they spoke in regards to the present’s legacy, in addition to the variety of faux cigarettes they smoked on digital camera.
“I believe any individual did a rely, and within the pilot alone, I spoke 75 cigarettes… They’re faux cigarettes, however that simply signifies that there’s no nicotine in them,” Hamm recalled (through Selection). “It doesn’t imply you’re not burning one thing.”
He additionally revealed that a number of the youthful co-stars have been eager to smoke actual cigarettes as they wished to “really feel it and do it”, Hamm including: “I used to be like, ‘let me understand how that goes.’ And inside three days, they have been yellow and sallow. This can be a horrible concept.”
The actor went on to share how the collection marked a “transitional” time in his life, noting he was engaged on Mad Males between the ages of 35 and 45.
“Our actual lives occur, relationships began and ended, and other people had infants, obtained married and obtained divorced, and all this loopy shit occurred in the true world,” he mentioned. “It virtually appeared displaced from that in loads, in a bizarre method, as a result of a lot of engaged on the present was stepping right into a time capsule for actual.”
He recalled the “image excellent” set, earlier than including: “Clearly it’s an amazing honour, and it’s a beautiful factor to have labored on and contribute to one thing that has lasted this lengthy. I’m glad I’m nonetheless alive, principally due to the quantity of cigarettes I smoked.
“However the quantity of labor we put into it feels commensurate with the quantity of affection we’re getting again, which is a pleasant feeling as properly. In order that’s fairly superior.”
Slattery added that it “felt like a parallel life”, elaborating: “There have been about six months a yr we’d do that, after which we’d go away. For a few years there we have been fairly positive we have been going to do it once more.”
Draper and Sterling could also be off the clock, however nostalgia by no means goes out of fashion 📺 Jon Hamm and John Slattery joined the @ATXFestival crowd for a modern, fashionable stroll down reminiscence lane, toasting to 10 years since that iconic finale!
📸: Kevin Garner pic.twitter.com/CQ4xlqUG0f
— Paramount Theatre (@ParamountAustin) June 1, 2025
“And to be within the palms of these writers and people designers and people different actors, you had this extremely intimate relationship with these those that was not your actual life. However was simply as actual and simply as demanding and complex,” he added. “Yeah, it was all faux, and we went residence on the finish of the day, but it surely was such a present. I believe, to just about an individual, we clocked that straight away.”
Elsewhere, final yr Mad Males star Kiernan Shipka – who performed Don and Betty Draper’s daughter Sally – revealed that on-screen dad and mom Hamm and January Jones have been very protecting of her.
“They have been so protecting over me and my form of innocence and never exposing me to stuff that was delicate or extra grownup,” she informed the Dinner’s On Me podcast. “I all the time knew what I used to be reacting to. Like, I all the time knew what I used to be strolling in on. I simply didn’t must see it over and over.
“I believe at a sure level, I used to be like, ‘Guys, I do know what that is. Like, I’m good. I’m effective.’ However I actually, like, admire and respect the way in which that they dealt with it. However I do assume in my head, I used to be most likely like, ‘I’m mature. I’m an grownup. I do know what’s occurring right here. Like, it’s effective, guys.’”
In the meantime, again in 2023, Hamm married Mad Males co-star Anna Osceola on the location of the present’s finale, Large Sur.
