Interview

PR: I'm really upset because of the looks that we keep getting from that couple over there at the Cheesecake Factory.

JH: Should have called it the Beefcake Factory with us around, right? Pound it! [raises fist]

PR: Oh, pounding!

JH: Boom.

PR: So you have this intense schedule doing Mad Men. What do you do when you're not shooting? How does Jon Hamm spend his day? Don Draper is a tightly coiled man.

JH: Yes, he is. But I'm not. You know that. It's kind of fun to be that guy, though, on the show because my character's got a lot of secrets, and he's got a lot of parts of his life that are very compartmentalized, whereas I am not so much that way. I have a dog and my girl, and it's great. You've stayed at my house before.

PR: Many times. I've come over to your house to watch different programs on television.

JH: We watch our stories.

PR: Didn't you just do a movie with Keanu Reeves?

JH: I did. Point Break II: The Search for Curly's Gold. He was incredibly nice, incredibly kind.

PR: I like him. He strikes me as a cool dude. My wife has the biggest crush in the world on him.

JH: The movie we did together was actually a remake of a huge science-fiction movie. I play, like, a random science guy, and he plays the main character.

PR: What was the movie?

JH: The Day the Earth Stood Still. You've probably seen the original, which came out in the '50s.

PR: I believe that's Preston Clarke's father Ernie Clarke's favorite film of all time.

JH: It is. Preston said that when I told him I was doing the movie.

PR: It all goes back to the Clarke family.

JH: It begins and ends there. In the original version of The Day the Earth Stood Still, my character is a little more nefarious than he is in the remake. I'm just sort of the guy who heads up the team that investigates the day the Earth stood still. I'm the person who brings Jennifer Connelly onto the team. Dr. Helen Benson.

PR: That's Jennifer Connelly's character's name, not yours.

JH: Yes, that's her name.

PR: Got it. Where did you shoot The Day the Earth Stood Still?

JH: In Vancouver. Ever been up there?

PR: I've never been to Vancouver.

JH: It's stunningly beautiful. It was during wintertime, so it was sort of snowy and rainy and cold. The director of photography on the movie was David Tattersall, who shot the Star Wars prequels. He had the coolest stories.

PR: Did he tell you a particularly cool Star Wars story?

JH: He just kept saying how cold it was on the ice planet of Hoth.