Jon Hamm Q&A

25 November 2012

Jon Hamm joins forces with his partner Jennifer Westfeldt for Friends With Kids which sees Westfeldt write and direct the movie.

Hamm is joined on the cast list by Maya Rudolph, Chris O'Dowd, Kristen Wiig and Adam Scott.

- Friends With Kids might loosely be described as a romantic comedy, but that doesn’t really do justice to some of the themes and issues that it deals with. What for you is at the core of the film?

Well yes, I think what you’ve said is correct. I think it is very loosely described as a romantic comedy.

It’s interesting because we’ve come to a place with cinema in general where romantic comedies have landed in this weird place where they’re just sort of manufactured and they feel like processed food - they don’t really deliver any real emotion.

They’re very formulaic in other words and back in the day you would have romantic comedies that were sad in places and real and thought-provoking - whether it’s Annie Hall or fill in the blank...

There were films that at least tried to arrive at some kind of point and that’s what we tried to do with this film. We watched our friends go through these watershed moments in their lives - having children, having 2nd children - and watched them shift and change.

Especially being outside of that, not having children and not being married, we sort of felt uniquely qualified to comment on it in a funny way, but also for it to have real emotion. And that’s what we tried to do.

- To what extent might the film be seen as a quiet plea for a broader understanding of what family means in the 21st century? For instance, there’s the line that Maya Rudolph says: "Cole’s friend at school has two mummies".

I think that’s the world we live in and I think it’s an apt observation. I think there are many definitions of family.

You know, if you look around, whether it’s a married couple or a divorced couple or a re-married couple or Brad and Angelina with a brood of children or a gay couple or whatever it is, family is by definition a place where love exists between multiple people.

I don’t think there’s one definition of that and I think that’s what we’re exploring here. The main couple, Julie and Jason realise, kind of grudgingly realise, they’ve created a family and love exists there - and they’re meant for each other. Spoiler alert!

- At one point, Ben’s disenchantment with them does grow doesn’t it and on their skiing holiday he kind of lets it rip in a way. What’s his take on things then?

Ben is asking the question that I think a lot of people - or at least I think the audience - wants to know. 'What are you doing? You brought a child into this world. You have a responsibility to bring that child up and what are you going to do? You didn’t think this through is what he says and I think that’s true.

They didn’t. They thought it was going to be one thing and it turned out to be something else. I think they realise that by the end of the film what Ben says is the truth - and that’s a hard truth for them to swallow.

- Your character Ben has quite an arc doesn’t he? What are his circumstances when we first meet him and how does he subsequently handle married life?

We meet Ben and his wife Missy, played remarkably well by Kristin Wiig, as a very loving, sexy couple. But then we realise that when they have children that shifts in a not-so-positive way and I think that’s a real thing for many couples.

Sometimes having children is a stress from which the relationship cannot recover. It doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t have had children, doesn’t mean that the child is not loved - but it is a stress on a relationship that can sometimes have negative repercussions.

- You mentioned the brilliant Kristen Wiig, with whom you also appeared in Bridesmaids. The dynamics are very different here, aren’t they? What are the stand-out qualities in her as an actress?

Kristen Wiig is remarkable. She is a comic force but also possesses an incredible depth. A profound sense of humanity that I think most comedy comes from.

I think most comics that are real and who are - it’s such an over-used word but - who are geniuses, come from a place of real profound gravitas.

I think Kristen has that in spades. She is - and I think the world will soon find out - going to go on to bigger and better things. I was very proud to have been in her orbit more than once. She is a wonderful person and a wonderful person to work with.

- You have producing credits on the new season of Mad Men and on this film as well. What responsibilities did that place on your shoulders and what additional aspects of filmmaking do you have a new appreciation for?

Yes, on this project far more than with my producing credit on Mad Men - that is a different thing entirely. On this, it was a significant thing, it was about bringing this project to the fore and getting this film made.

Honestly, a lot of phone calls, a lot of conversations with agents, lawyers, financiers...the nuts and bolts of actually constructing this film and then bringing it to life.

It’s a non-stop job and the more you know about it the more respect you have for the people who actually do it day in and day out, as it’s a very difficult, often thankless job.