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A decade after Mad Men officially ended, Jon Hamm has opened up about taking on his next leading role, playing the anti-Don Draper in an addictive, White Lotus-style show.
The new Apple TV+ series Your Friends and Neighbors is coming at the perfect time and will fill the void left by season three of Mike White’s drama, with a ridiculous amount of fun sprinkled on top.
The program, also starring Amanda Peet and Olivia Munn, follows Andrew ‘Coop’ Cooper (Jon) who resorts to stealing from his neighbors’ homes when he gets fired, only to discover that the secrets hiding behind their closed doors ‘might be more dangerous than he ever imagined’.
In a surprise move, TV bosses have already confirmed a second season before the first even premieres on April 11, showing their confidence in the lead star.
Speaking to Metro about what fans can expect, Jon shared his delight at taking on another meaty role – while also teasing how it is similar to the White Lotus, and Netflix smash the Perfect Couple.
‘We’re looking at quite a few shows that deal with rich people maybe behaving not so well,’ he told us. ‘If you look at the White Lotus, or you look at other things that are in the culture right now… The Perfect Couple is another example.
‘Part of the genesis of [Your Friends and Neighbors] was meeting with Jonathan Tropper, who created the show, and wrote most of the first season. We came to this idea and thought, “Well, this is a good jumping off point for what could be a really interesting show”.
‘Not just an entertaining world, but it could really say something about where we are as a culture, how much is too much, and why do we seem to be on this never-ending hamster wheel of trying to accumulate more and more and more and more.
‘To what end? What does that tell future generations? How does that set up our society? There’s just a lot of big, big questions that the show sets up and doesn’t necessarily answer in the first season, but definitely sets up and resonates in our culture now.
‘I enjoyed getting the opportunity to be in a show that that raises these questions, also a show that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
‘It’s a drama, but it’s got some pretty absurdly comical elements in it, as well. I really wanted us to be able to lean into those moments. Because, otherwise, I think the show loses some credibility.’
In the trailer, we see hedge fund manager Coop hit rock bottom multiple times – he finds himself without a job after a consensual sexual encounter with a colleague, while also struggling to cope after divorcing his wife (Amanda Peet), who he found in bed with his best friend.
To put it lightly, it’s not a fun time to be Andrew Cooper.
In a bid to keep up appearances, he begins stealing from his affluent neighbors as his rock-bottom sinks even lower – with critics suggesting that Your Friends and Neighbors is a winning combination of Big Little Lies and Breaking Bad.
Coop is the latest in a line of twisted, dark characters that Jon has portrayed throughout his career and, asked how he manages to get into the mindset needed, the Emmy-winner explained that he knew exactly where the arc would begin and end, thanks to those behind the scenes.
‘Part of it is really working with the creator of the show, the writer of the show, and having the discussion of where are we going to go? Especially telling the story the way we tell it,’ he said.
‘Mostly it’s really establishing the story of the character first, and that’s just having a central line of communication with the writer, creator.
‘I had that with Matt Weiner on Mad Men. Matt knew exactly where Don had come from, and he knew exactly where he was going to go. He just didn’t know how many episodes he was going to have in between. That was the fun journey, as well, on that show.
‘With this one, it was that Jonathan knew that he was going to have the arc of the first season really well planned out. I knew that it was going to get very dark, and that was going to be the central gravity of the show, but I also knew that we were going to have a lot of fun telling that story as well.’
While Jon made a name for himself on one of the biggest dramas on TV, he has also excelled at comedy over the years, with scene-stealing stints in Bridesmaids, 30 Rock, Fargo, Parks and Recreation and the Morning Show among many others.
Which made it all the more fun to explore his entire range in one project, as he continued: ‘I made sure that we were able to highlight both sides of that. Not just because I happened to do both sides of that well, but I think it lends the story a richness that is compelling.
‘It adds more spice to the soup, for want of a better analogy.’
‘The sleuthing crime aspect of it, we wanted specifically to be very sloppy and very amateur, because that’s what it was meant to be,’ he added.
‘There’s a scene where Coop is watching a YouTube tutorial on how to pick a lock. There’s something to this guy who is very good at one part of his life, and is learning as he goes on the other part.
‘The other part can get him thrown in jail or killed, so there are some high stakes, but the humor in that, the comedy in that, comes from him being for want of a better phrase, bad at it.’
Your Friends and Neighbors premieres on Apple TV+ on April 11.
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