Jon Hamm Recalls Television Executive Who Predicted He’d ‘Never Be’ A TV Star

The “Mad Men” actor revealed that he auditioned “over and over and over again” for the network head.

Jon Hamm is looking back at the television executive who didn’t see TV fame in his future.

The “Mad Men” actor, who recently took part in the The Hollywood Reporter’s Drama Actor Emmy roundtable, did not reveal the person’s name while the actors gave the “funniest or strangest” feedback they’ve received.

“I had a head of this television network tell my representatives, actually, that Jon Hamm will never be a television star,” said Hamm, who has an Emmy, two Golden Globes and two Screen Actors Guild Awards under his belt.

Actor Nicholas Galitzine later encouraged the actor to “spill the tea” and asked “how wrong” the executive was about him.

“He’s no longer at the head of that network,” Hamm revealed.

Hamm, in an previous THR Emmy roundtable back in 2012, recalled that he was testing for his seventh network in a pilot season at the time of the executive’s prediction.

The actor, in his 2024 THR Emmy roundtable, recalled hearing about the comments “much later” and revealed that he auditioned “over and over and over again” for the executive and the network.

“And for whatever reason didn’t get the part, and didn’t get the part, and didn’t get the part,” he said.

“It would always come down to the last two, me and the guy who’s going to get it. But it was one of those things.”

The actor later brought up Steve Martin, who wrote about auditioning being “the worst” in his book.

“It just stinks, but that’s the only way we’ve got,” he said.

“And there’s so many variables that are completely out of your control, so the ability to let it go is an amazing point in one’s career. And then, of course, that’s when you don’t ever have to audition again.”