CNN anchor Chris Wallace was stunned to learn that Mad Men actor Jon Hamm nearly became Wallace’s father — in a movie.
Wallace interviewed Hamm for this week’s edition of his Max series Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace on a variety of topics, but in a preview clip, Hamm revealed he was once offered the role of the legendarily tough interviewer Mike Wallace.
As it turns out, Wallace had seen the script about his dad’s life, and told Hamm it was “bullshit”:
WALLACE: After creating such an iconic character as Don Draper. How concerned were you about getting typecast as that guy? And how hard was it to avoid that?HAMM: Well, you know, after Don Draper sort of made an impact in the zeitgeist, I was…every script I was offered had a cigarette and a hat and a skinny tie. In fact, I was offered to play your father at one point.WALLACE: Really?HAMM: In a movie. It was it was an original script that someone had written about your dad’s life.WALLACE: You know, I know about that script. And they sent it to me. And I said, this script is total bullshit.HAMM: That’s, part of that is why I did not do the part. The other part is that I consciously kind of went away from, from parts like that because that was my day job. (Right.) The greatest part of being
an actor is that you get to do other things. You know, you don’t have to do the same thing every day. And so I very fortunately got to do and I give all the credit in the world to Lorne Michaels honestly who said…WALLACE: The executive producer of…HAMM: of Saturday Night Live who said I wonder if this guy’s funny? And I got to host SNL in 2009 I believe it was and that kind of gave me a little credibility on the other side of the aisle so to speak. I got a whole other side of my career to explore.
Watch above via Max’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace.