Jon Hamm actually really seems to love being in insurance commercials
By Sandra Gonzalez, CNN
(CNN) — Flo’s old flame Jon Hamm apparently has nothing but love for his now-iconic appearances in Progressive Insurance commercials.
In May 2022, the actor, best known for playing ad man Don Draper on AMC’s “Mad Men,” went meta when he became a man in an ad after teaming up with the insurance company for a campaign.
In it, Hamm, playing himself, comes face-to-face with the fictional saleswoman, the central character in Progressive’s ads for nearly 15 years, only for audiences to realize it’s a case of unrequited love. Hamm’s still smitten. Flo loves insurance more.
It’s silly and corny and not the kind of gig one would expect from a man who won an Emmy Award for best actor in a drama. That is, according to Hamm, sort of what he liked about it.
“To get a chance to do that kind of stuff, it’s funny in so many different ways,” Hamm told CNN’s Chris Wallace in the Season 5 premiere of “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” “Obviously that that campaign has been so successful and so fun for all of the people that get to work on it. And it was just nice to be asked to play in that sandbox.”
It was not a sandbox most expected, Wallace says, particularly because Hamm was riding a huge wave of success, having won his Emmy in 2015 and lining up big-time roles.
“If this was 1995, I think there would still be that kind of reticence and weird bifurcation of ‘Well, you if you’re on TV, then you’re not a movie star.’ ‘If you’re in the movies, you would never do commercials.’ And I think all of that is gone,” he said. “I think that’s been a real shift in our industry that, even now, the definition of television has shifted so much with streaming and with limited series and with TV movies, and so any of that those previous kind of silos have been obliterated.”
Hamm once again follows his gut – and Tina Fey – in his latest role as Coach Carr in the “Mean Girls” musical film. He’s also recently appeared in the most recent seasons of “Fargo” and “The Morning Show.”
“I like what I do,” Hamm said, asked why he’s packed his scheduled. “And I’m fortunate enough to get to do what I do. And I remember when I didn’t have the opportunities that I have.”
He is excited about down time, though, admitting, “Maybe starting a family might be something fun for me to think about, which I hope happens.”
Hamm talks about his breakout role as Don Draper in “Mad Men,” working with Tom Cruise in the 2022 summer blockbuster “Top Gun: Maverick” and more in the episode, available for streaming now on Max, which like CNN, is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery.
New episodes of “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” debut Friday on CNN Max.
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