‘Mad Men’ Turns 10: How Jon Hamm Almost Missed Out On Playing Don Draper

Man Men centered on the story of handsome leading man, Don Draper, so it’s hard to imagine anyone else other than Jon Hamm playing the iconic ad man on the long-running period drama. Now, on the 10th anniversary of 1960s-themed AMC drama, casting directors from the show reveal that Hamm was hardly a shoe-in for the role of the dashing Sterling Cooper Draper Price creative director.

In a new interview with TV Guide, Mad Men execs revealed that Hamm almost didn’t get the life-changing role of Don Draper. Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner reportedly wanted to cast unknown actors in his show because he didn’t want them to bring the “baggage” from previous roles to the series, which premiered on July 19, 2007.

Mad Men director told TV Guide it was a “torturous” process to cast the role of Don Draper because the whole series was set to “stand or fall” based on the main character. Hamm, whose pre-Mad Men year included rejections for seven TV pilots, was experiencing a down cycle in his career. Hamm revealed that his grueling Man Men audition required him to come in seven times, including a trip to New York where he met with skeptical AMC executives.

While Weiner and the casting directors were sold on Hamm, AMC executives were unsure about the little-known actor. AMC scripted programming SVP Christina Wayne, who watched a taped version of Hamm’s audition, revealed that Weiner sent some of the directors tapes of Jon Hamm and fellow hopeful Peter Hermann. While Matt Weiner was leaning towards Hamm, Wayne said the rest of the team said, “‘Really? This is the guy you want?'”

“It was not a particularly great audition,” Wayne said of Jon Hamm’s reading.

Director Alan Taylor said he had more of an issue with Jon Hamm’s dashing good looks than his acting abilities.

“My theory, looking back, was that we had come off Sopranos and had this antihero, not classically handsome leading man,” Taylor revealed.

“And I had gotten into the habit of thinking, OK, that’s what it takes to do a serious show. It’s not just pretty boys. So I think I had reluctance about Jon’s handsomeness.”

Taylor admitted that once they cast Hamm in the role, the actor grew on him very quickly.

“It was only after we started to work with him and see that there was a kind of sadness and vulnerability… that I started seeing that side of him,” he said. “What [Mad Men] was doing was sort of dismantling masculine perfection and letting it fall apart. So it made perfect sense to start off with someone who seems from the outside to be that perfect American male. But it took me a while to catch up to that.”

Hamm sealed the deal after that trip to New York when he met with Wayne, Taylor, and other AMC executives, telling them he knew he was meant to play Don Draper.

“[We] took him for a drink, and it was immediately apparent in person that he would embody Don Draper,” Wayne revealed.

“I think that just shows the genius of Matt, that he knew. All of us were still floundering around, and he knew what he wanted and he was 100 percent right.”

Jon Hamm’s multiple pilot rejections may have helped him land the role that would change his life. Weiner told Entertainment Weekly that “Jon’s unknownness” was a huge plus for him. In fact, Hamm had him at hello.

“I had seen a lot of people read the part, and Jon was the most interesting, intuitively profound take on it,” Weiner told EW.

“It wasn’t glib. It wasn’t period. And he had a conscience, you could tell. He had intelligence. And in the end, I had a litmus test, which was at the end of the pilot, you find out that this character [who’s been romancing other women] is married. The person that I cast has to be someone that I won’t hate when I find that out. And Jon was the one. And that is not something you can write.”

Hamm went on to win an Emmy Award for his portrayal of Don Draper.

Jon Hamm isn’t the only Mad Men star who almost didn’t get cast in the hit AMC drama. Vincent Kartheiser, who played Pete Campbell on the series, came into his audition looking extremely disheveled and nearly botched his chances at playing the trouble making account executive.

“When he came in the first time in Los Angeles, he was under the weather with unwashed hair and like a sweatshirt,” casting director Kim Miscia told TV Guide. “And Matt looked at me like, ‘Are you insane?’ I was like, ‘No, I promise! He’s the guy!’ I had to call his agent back and tell him to take a bath, and then he came in and delivered the winning audition.”

Take a look at the video below to see a classic Mad Men scene.

[Featured Image by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Madame Tussauds]