Jon Hamm really wants to work with Julio Torres

In a new interview, Hamm also revealed that he auditioned for Rob Lowe's part in The West Wing, and is subconsciously "modeling [his] life" after Jeff Goldblum

By Emma Keates | June 19, 2024 | 5:29pm

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Jon Hamm really wants to work with Julio Torres

Jon Hamm; Julio Torres Photo: Gary Gershoff; John Nacion

Jon Hamm is an interesting figure in the Hollywood ecosystem. He was very much poised to become the next big thing after his unimpeachable run as Mad Men’s Don Draper, but instead reverted back to a sort of character actor, taking on smaller roles in action films like Baby Driver and Beirut, as well as comedies like Tag, Keeping Up With The Joneses, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day Of Camp, and even the new Mean Girls musical.

But this pivot was always Hamm’s plan. “I wanted to do different things instead of just being a leading man, whatever that is,” the actor, who recently experienced a renaissance of sorts in the latest season of Fargo, told The Hollywood Reporter. “[I wanted to] reengage with a life that isn’t Don Draper—that isn’t this character and isn’t this schedule. My life had been defined by this one track, and it was a lot. It was nice to be able to take the Etch a Sketch and just shake it and start over.”

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One of the ways he’s separated himself from the suit (despite briefly putting it back on for Jerry Seinfeld’s Unfrosted earlier this year) is by being especially discerning with the roles he accepts. “I’ve turned down a lot of things and other things have come my way, like Gone Girl, and I just wasn’t able to do them,” he said. He’s also as open to working with up-and-coming directors as he is with “lions of the cinema” like Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, David Fincher, and Bong Joon Ho.

“There’s also people like Julio Torres, who’s phenomenally gifted,” Hamm answered, after naming the “collaborator wishlist” above. “I’ve had my eye on him since he was writing for SNL. I remember going to a show, Emma Stone was hosting, and there was this weird outlier sketch called “Wells for Boys,” and I asked my friend, ‘Who wrote that?’ She says, ‘Julio Torres, keep an eye on that name.’ And I said, ‘I sure will.’”

Since that (excellent) sketch, Torres has gone on to write and create films and series like Los Espookys, Problemista, and recent HBO standout Fantasmas. His star is certainly on the rise, and it would be genuinely awesome to see him and Hamm as one of the next great actor-writer pairs.

Wells for Boys – SNL

Elsewhere in the THR interview, Hamm revealed that he could have been known as a very different suit. “I’d had an experience with another really good script that I read and I was like, ‘I would do anything to get this part,’” he said, speaking of Rob Lowe’s role in The West Wing. After the audition, he apparently thought, “I could murder this part,” but relented as soon as he heard it had gone to his future Parks And Recreation co-star.

Now, he has a new type of role model. “I look at a guy like Jeff Goldblum’s career—and I know Jeff a bit, we used to have the same therapist—and I’m just like, ‘God, how awesome to be able to do all the things he’s done,’” Hamm shared. “He had his leading man phase, and he does Marvel and he’ll just roll through and steal the scene, and then he’s doing commercials and he’s funny as shit. I see him out and he’s happy. So, consciously or not, I’m modeling my life to be that: varied and happy and fulfilled.”