Jon Hamm Says He Owes His Career to “SNL” Creator Lorne Michaels: 'I'll Be Forever Grateful to Him'

Jon Hamm says he will be "forever grateful" to Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels for his prolific career.

Speaking with reporters following his crowning as the 2025 Hasty Pudding Man of the Year at Harvard in Cambridge, Mass., on Friday, Jan. 31, the 53-year-old actor shared that Michaels, 80, gave him a chance to showcase that his talents extend beyond dramatic roles.

Related: Jon Hamm Graciously Gets Roasted While Accepting Harvard's Hasty Pudding Man of the Year Award

Hamm went on to explain that amid the success of Mad Men — in which he portrayed Don Draper, the enigmatic creative director of a fictional New York City advertising agency in the 1960s — he "was offered a lot of roles that were a version of that character where you had been smoking a cigarette and sort of brooding, looking out a window into the dark city of some kind of place."

"So I figured, I will do that for my day job," Hamm continued, referring to becoming a go-to for those kinds of dramatic roles. "But I think there’s more stuff out [there] to do."

It was Michaels, Hamm said, who helped open up new possibilities for him by bringing him on SNL.

"I really credit none other than Lorne Michaels for offering me a [chance to] guest host Saturday Night Live [for the first time in 2008] to really get the sense of, well, I do have a funny side to me," he told reporters at the event.

He explained, "Most of the people who knew me before they knew me for Mad Men knew that was the predominant side of me. So Lorne gave me that opportunity, which led to 30 Rock, which led to Bridesmaids, which led to a lot of other gigs in the Tina Fey, Robert Carlock, Lorne Michaels universe."

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Hamm — who went on to guest host SNL two more times in 2010 — added: "So I’ll be forever grateful to [Michaels] for that."

While he appreciates the diversification of his acting résumé, Hamm said his breakout role in Mad Men "will always be a high-water mark in my life and career." He described starring as Draper as one of the most challenging, yet fun roles he has tackled to date.

"It will be I think 10 years since we wrapped the show and 20 years this year since we started the show, so it’s fading in the rearview, but it’s still very prevalent in my life," he said of the series, which aired on AMC from 2007 to 2015.

Hamm recently shared that he thought he'd "never" get cast in Mad Men after losing out on a West Wing role that ultimately went to Rob Lowe. "I’d had an experience with another really good script that I read and I was like, 'I would do anything to get this part,' " he told The Hollywood Reporter in June 2024.

"And I was great in the audition, but I saw the casting director’s face, and I knew this part’s already cast. Then it was like, 'Oh, it’s Rob Lowe. OK, I get it,' " Hamm recalled to the outlet. "So I thought the same thing would happen on Mad Men. I’ll give a great audition, and they’ll give it to a movie star."

Related: Jon Hamm Wants to Lead a Romantic Comedy with Morning Show Costar Jennifer Aniston: It Would Be 'Funny and Fun'

As he keeps an open mind to new career opportunities, Hamm last year revealed his interest in taking a crack at a rom-com leading man role — with his The Morning Show costar Jennifer Aniston by his side.

“I have no idea what it would look like,” Hamm told IndieWire of the potential project. “I think it would just have to be funny and fun and it would let us do what we both do very well, which is be charming and funny and compelling. I certainly wouldn’t say no to that.”

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