Jon Hamm Explains Why He Reprised His ‘Mad Men’ Role For, Of All Things, Jerry Seinfeld’s Pop-Tart Movie

Whenever an actor is ready to reprise the character that made them famous, it normally means that they have found the exact right circumstances to bring said character back to life. Michael Keaton thought that 30-plus years was enough time in between his Beetlejuice reprisal, while Hugh Jackman waited for Ryan Reynolds to offer up a big paycheck for him to reprise his role of Wolverine. For Jon Hamm, however, all he needed to reprise his role of Don Draper was a call from Jerry Seinfeld and a stale toaster pastry.

Hamm appeared in Unfrosted, Seinfeld’s first movie since the acclaimed 2007 cinematic adventure Bee Movie, as Don Draper, his infamous Mad Men character. Hamm hasn’t sported Draper’s suit since the series ended in 2015. Surprisingly, he was only on board when John Slattery got involved.

Of the return, Hamm told The Hollywood Reporter, “I was of two minds. I told Jerry, ‘I don’t enter into this lightly. I’m not trying to be too precious about this, but I don’t want to devalue it.'” He said. It’s very important to keep Draper’s integrity intact since he basically works in PR.

Hamm continued, “[Seinfeld] goes, ‘I understand that, but this would be very funny.'” Seinfeld prides himself in knowing what’s funny, it seems. But Hamm wasn’t convinced. He added, “Then I called Slattery and said, ‘If you don’t do it, I won’t do it, but it could be really funny.’ He goes, ‘Why wouldn’t we do it?'” Shockingly, they did it. And it was harder than Hamm expected to get back into that Draper mindset… and suit.

“I look at pictures now and God, I’m, like, 20 pounds heavier, 10 years older, and it’s just like, yuck. But it was literally like putting on a very familiar, very comfortable suit. You’re just like, ‘Oh sh*t, I can do this.'” He added. So he did!

You can watch the clip below:

Unfortunately, it was slightly overshadowed by that fact that Unfrosted wasn’t very good. But at least he got a nice suit out of it.

Unfrosted is now streaming on Netflix. Bee Movie is not.