‘Mad Men’ season 7: Jon Hamm’s perspective on rehab news
When the news first broke that Jon Hamm secretly spent a month in rehab prior to starting his “Mad Men” promotional tour for his final season, we were at first reluctant to report on it. Obviously this was something he did not intend on releasing to the public (at least at this time), and there comes a certain point where you start to pry into someone’s life where it starts to become weird.
Of course, it’s not lost on us that there are countless similarities drawn in the media between Hamm and his character Don Draper, a frequent drinker who is constantly seen with a drink in hand. (It was hard to find a promotional photo for the final seven episodes without one.) Hamm was in rehab for alcohol, so the whole art-versus-life debate is starting up … even though we feel like much of it is nonsense. To say that someone is in need of treatment for something simply because of a character, and one that they finished playing around the middle of last year, is completely insane.
The main reason we decided to write about this today is to share a quote from Hamm to Australian publication TV Week, possibly because this is one of the best quotes we’ve ever seen from someone in this situation. It shows that there is a way to “break your silence” on the subject (i.e. admitting that it happened) while still demanding respect and privacy:
“I understand it constitutes news these days, but it’s between me and my family and not something for public consumption … I’ve been very fortunate that throughout the most recent 24-hour period. I’ve had a lot of family and friends support me. I guess that’s all I will say about that.”
So long as Hamm sticks to that, the questions will eventually start to go away and he can focus more on his responsibilities promoting the show. What he may elect to do is choose interviews that will take on other subjects more so than aspects of his personal life. This isn’t “hiding from the questions”; if you plan on saying nothing further on the matter, why must you continue to endure the questions?
We wish Hamm nothing but the best. If you want to read some other TV updates on everything we cover at CarterMatt, be sure to sign up now for more via our newsletter.