Hamm
'Mildred Pierce tops Emmy noms | 2011 Emmy nominations list (part I)
Emmy nominations list (part II) |
Full list of nomination reactionsJust when you might have thought Don Draper couldn't strip away any more layers, there was season four of "Mad Men."
But you didn't really think that, did you?
"I don't want to say I was surprised, because I have tremendous amount of faith in Matt's ability to tell a story," said Emmy lead drama actor nominee Jon Hamm of "Mad Men" showrunner Matthew Weiner. "The character I think from the beginning was set up as a character who had an awful lot of darkness in his soul. I think it was interesting to finally get to viscerally see that darkness. I was glad that people were on board for that."
The episode that many remember -- and that might propel Hamm to his first Emmy win after three previous lead noms -- was titled "The Suitcase" but could have been called "The Showcase" for Hamm and fellow nominee Elisabeth Moss.
"I had a wonderful time shooting that episode," Hamm said. "Elisabeth is a good friend of mine and is an incredibly talented actress, and I think it was a great payoff for both of those characters to see them come together on such a showcase moment in both of their lives. I don't want to say it was fun, but it was challenging and exciting to work on, and again I'm glad it resonated.
"It came right in the middle of the season or toward the end of the season, so I'm already pretty exhausted by then," Hamm added. "But again, what we do is not mining, it's not exactly training for a marathon or heavyweight boxing. It's acting at the end of the day and we get paid at the end of the day. It's pretty exciting no matter how you look at it. If you get a terrific story like that, the work is fun to do even if it can be physically exhausting at times."
Contact Jon Weisman at
jon.weisman@variety.com