Tina Fey Made Sure Jon Hamm Wasn't a 'D---' Before Casting Him on “30 Rock”

• Tina Fey recalled asking Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels about Jon Hamm before offering him a part on 30 Rock

• The actress said she wanted to "make sure" the Mad Men alum wasn't "a d---" before working together

• "Life’s too short and the hours are too long,” Fey added of working with people who "aren’t fun"

Tina Fey called in the big guns to vouch for Jon Hamm back in the day.

The actors worked together for the first time when Hamm joined 30 Rock for a three-episode arc in 2009 and dated Fey's character Liz Lemon, but before he secured that role, Fey, 54, asked Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels about him.

"I didn’t meet you before you hosted [SNL in 2008], and I remember calling or emailing Lorne and saying, 'Let me know if he’s funny because we have a part coming up on 30 Rock that would be great for him,'" Fey recalled to Hamm in an Interview magazine profile.

Related: Jon Hamm Told a Very Pregnant Amy Poehler to 'Pull It Together' for His SNL Debut Minutes After Learning Her OB/GYN Died

She also wanted to "make sure" Hamm wasn't "a d---" before she cast him. "I mean, that’s a real thing. It’s not fun to work with people that aren’t fun," Hamm replied, on board with Fey's logic.

"That’s one where you’re just like, 'I won’t do that anymore,'" Fey said. "Life’s too short and the hours are too long."

Hamm, 54, then recalled when he was asked to play Drew Baird on the comedy series — and the irony that the call came while he was hosting Saturday Night Live.

"That was such a fun moment for me too, because I remember coming back down to the host dressing room at SNL, and the phone rang. I’m in 30 Rock and it’s like, 'Whose phones are these? Does somebody have this number? Who’s calling my dressing room?'" he recalled.

"So I picked up and I think it was Robert Carlock on the other end who said, 'Hey, would you like to do this? We have a part for you. It’s a totally normal doctor that won’t go weird at all, I promise.'"

Related: A 30 Rock Reunion! Tina Fey and Tracy Morgan Set to Team Up for New Comedy Series on NBC

Hamm recently said he'll be "forever grateful" to Michaels for taking a chance on him all those years ago, as it was his SNL hosting gig — and his guest arc on 30 Rock — that opened the door to comedy for him.

He recalled being 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" amid the success of Mad Men, while he was really hoping to expand out of the dramatic roles.

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"I really credit none other than Lorne Michaels for offering me a [chance to] guest host Saturday Night Live to really get the sense of, well, I do have a funny side to me," he told reporters at the 2025 Hasty Pudding Man of the Year Awards at Harvard.

"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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