Many people have been “over” Jon Hamm since we learned the details around a particular brutal story involving his fraternity hazing some pledges. This happened more than 20 years ago, but the details of the situation are horrifying and awful. We learned about that last year, when it seemed like Hamm’s life was falling apart in general. Mad Men was ending, he broke up with Jennifer Westfeldt, and he ended up in rehab for substance abuse. Now he has a new movie, Keeping Up with the Joneses, and he’s trying to… I don’t know, NOT talk about those old frat-boy-hazing stories. He’ll talk about anything else besides that. Hamm gave a lengthy interview to Mr. Porter’s Journal and surprisingly, the fraternity story didn’t come up at all. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:

He has weekly therapy: “I find it very helpful. I know the English are a lot more sceptical about it than Americans are, but maybe after Brexit, you’ll change your minds.”

His time in rehab: “It has all these connotations, but it’s just an extended period of talking about yourself. People go for all sorts of reasons, not all of which are chemically related. But there’s something to be said for pulling yourself out of the grind for a period of time and concentrating on recalibrating the system. And it works. It’s great.”

Whether he’ll have kids: “I don’t know. I don’t think it’s necessarily an imperative. I’m not going to psychoanalyse myself here, but… well, never say never. I’ve got nieces and nephews and I’ve been a teacher. I’ve probably been around kids a lot more than all my friends. I feel if you shut that off entirely you calcify. You turn into that guy.”

He doesn’t understand social media: “I speak to young kids starting out and they can’t even get into an audition unless they have a certain number of followers on Instagram. Of course, it doesn’t mean anything – you can go out and buy 100,000 followers. But it becomes meaningful if business decides it’s meaningful. In time there will be a correction and we will look back on this period and say, ‘Wow. We were really dumb.’”

He’s been in therapy ever since his dad died when he was 20: “After I’d lost my dad, I had this horrible paralysing inertia – and no one in my family was capable of dealing with it. So what do you do? Go and see a professional. I preach it from the mountaintops. I know it’s a luxury and it’s not something everyone can afford. But if you can, do it. It’s like a mental gym.”

What he learned from playing Don Draper: “I don’t share a lot of sartorial clues with Mr Draper, other than we’re the same suit size, but it did open my eyes to buying clothes that fit properly. I generally try and dress a little more appropriate to my age. It’s epidemic out here. So often I’m like, ‘What are you wearing? You have an Ed Hardy T-shirt and a wallet chain and biker boots and you’re 65 years old?’”

He turned down superhero movies? He has turned down superhero movies, despite being a Marvel fan as a boy. “I was very hesitant to be involved with any of that stuff. It takes so long as they don’t want one movie, they want three movies with two crossovers… You’re [just] doing it for the exposure.”

Frustration over the lack of roles: “From a features standpoint, it’s really difficult to get hard dramas made if you’re not Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Denzel Washington or Ben Affleck. That’s what those boys do and there are only so many slots. There are five or six leads who get the first look and if you’re lucky you might get a second. But hope springs eternal around this time of year. We’re done with the capes and tights and laser beams and we’re starting to see the serious movies that are up for awards.”

Growing up in St. Louis, Black Lives Matter: “Police violence is such a difficult thing to comprehend. If you sat me next to a black person who had also grown up in St Louis, simply by the nature of the colour of our skin, we’re going to have completely different experiences. It’s so difficult for people to grasp as it just rams up against our ideas of fairness and authority. The more and more sh-t that comes out like this, it’s harder and harder for people to dismiss. I’m an optimist. And I do think the more we find out, the more the centre of gravity in the culture will shift. I hate this idea that nothing matters. It can’t all be a dumbshow. Sorry, that got real dark real quick.”

[From Mr. Porter]

He also describes himself as “shy” at one point, which I don’t really believe – “shy” is not the word I would use to describe him, but I’ll buy that he’s not happy-go-lucky or a total famewhore. He also makes it sound like he’s single but he doesn’t want to talk about his love life at all. I tend to think he and Westfeldt are still spending time together but yeah, maybe he’s technically single. What else? I like what he says about therapy and I hope it’s helped him. I think he is sort of bitter about the lack of roles for… attractive white guys in their 40s. Because we all know how harsh Hollywood is for those guys! Maybe he should have taken a superhero movie after all, eh?

Photos courtesy of Mr. Porter/Journal.