A Marvel Actor Nearly Played Mad Men's Don Draper

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Who is Don Draper? It's the question "Mad Men" set out to answer when it started its seven-season run in 2007, but it nearly had a different answer. According to series star Jon Hamm, he wasn't one of the first picks for the part of the enigmatic, philandering businessman at the center of the AMC drama. That, he told Marc Maron in a 2011 episode of "WTF," was action star Thomas Jane.

"Nobody knew who I was. The casting directors didn't know who I was. I wasn't on anybody's list," Hamm said, admitting that he "couldn't have had less heat" in Hollywood at the time. He continued, "I think they went to Thomas Jane for it and they were told that Thomas Jane doesn't do television." Jane was certainly more of a known quantity than Hamm at the time, having by that point appeared in acclaimed films like "Boogie Nights" as well as action hits like "Face/Off" and "Deep Blue Sea." He also became a pre-MCU Marvel star when he played the violent vigilante antihero Frank Castle in 2004's "The Punisher," who was later embodied on the "Daredevil" TV series by Jon Bernthal.

Though Jane has never publicly commented on Hamm's recollections, former AMC exec Christina Wayne told Alan Sepinwall for his book "The Revolution Was Televised" that Hamm "just didn't do it" on the audition tape she saw. "I watched it, and to be honest, you couldn't see it on the tape," she said, noting that Hamm seemed nervous and had "floppy hair" that didn't look very Don Draper. Wayne even requested a second audition tape, and when that didn't satisfy her, she met Hamm in person. "The minute I saw him in person, I got it," she said.

For his part, series creator Matthew Weiner wanted an unknown who could embody the Don Draper/Dick Whitman character in all his faults and contradictions, yet still keep audiences on his side early in the series. He told Alan Sepinwall that he specifically thought of Jon Hamm after asking himself, "When this man goes home to his wife at the end of the pilot, are you going to hate him?" The answer was "no" — Hamm's version of Draper could commit a multitude of TV protagonist sins and still come across well to potential viewers.

Hamm got the part, became one of the most celebrated TV actors of the era, and eventually won an Emmy for his multifaceted performance in "Mad Men." Jane, meanwhile, starred in a string of action films as well as the 2007 adaptation of Stephen King's "The Mist." He also didn't stay away from TV, something Hamm joked about during his "WTF" interview by name-dropping the actor's one-time HBO vehicle "Hung." In addition to playing sex worker Ray Drecker in that show, Jane has also starred in the Australia-set crime series "Troppo" and played a pivotal part in a multi-season adaptation of "The Expanse," based on the sci-fi novels of the same name. 

Hamm, meanwhile, can be seen in Season 4 of the Apple TV favorite "The Morning Show," the latest iteration of FX's "Fargo," and Season 1 of Taylor Sheridan's "Landman," as well as the upcoming Pixar feature "Hoppers."