Jon Hamm’s dark days

Jon Hamm spent years learning to live with loss, said Elaine Lipworth in the London Daily Mail. He was 10 years old when his mother died of stomach cancer. “It was a sad realization how permanent [death] was,” he says. “When you’re a kid, permanent is like a weekend.” Hamm moved in with his grandmother and his father. “He was good with people. But he had a dark side. He was a drinker [and] also a diabetic, so that didn’t mix well.” When Hamm was 20, his father died. “I dropped out of school, moved into the basement of my half sister Julie’s house, and sank into depression.” Struggling to find acting work, he took a job as a set decorator on soft-porn movies. “I made decent money, but it was gross and sad.” He often considered suicide, and was eventually prescribed Prozac. “The therapy and pharmaceuticals clear up your brain chemistry just enough so you can start taking steps forward.” Hamm, who was cast in Mad Men at age 36, is still astonished to have made it as an actor. “I was at the very bottom of the list,” he jokes. “I wasn’t even on the list.”

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