Jon Hamm Talks ‘Confess, Fletch’ and a ‘Mad Men’ Movie

• Jon Hamm told Insider he made the decision early on to avoid imitating Chevy Chase as Fletch.
• “It would have really felt like stealing,” Hamm said if he played the character similar to how Chase did.
• Hamm also addressed if he’d ever do a “Mad Men” movie.

Jon Hamm has entertained us with his dramatic and comedic talents for years, but in his latest offering, he uses his skills in an attempt to make us forget another star actor.

In “Confess, Fletch,” Hamm plays investigative journalist-turned-crime-solver Irwin M. “Fletch” Fletcher, who was beloved in the 1980s when Chevy Chase brought author Gregory Mcdonald’s character to the big screen.

In 1985’s “Fletch” and the 1989 sequel “Fletch Lives,” Chase played Fletch as a wise-cracking know-it-all who walked around poking his nose where it didn’t belong, saying he’s everyone from G. Gordon Liddy to Don Corleone as he got to the bottom of schemes with his wit and charm.

 

Universal

Ever since then, stars like Zach Braff and Jason Sudeikis have been intrigued to reboot the character, but for decades it’s never come to fruition. Finally, “Superbad” director Greg Mottola and Hamm pulled it off.

“Confess, Fletch,” which opens in theaters and On Demand simultaneously on Friday, follows Fletch (Hamm) as he travels around Boston and Rome trying to clear his name as a murder suspect while investigating who is behind the theft of valuable paintings.

Since Hamm hung up his fedora playing Don Draper in the hit series “Mad Men,” which earned him an Emmy, he’s evolved into a dependable character actor showing up in “Baby Driver,” “Richard Jewell,” and most recently “Top Gun: Maverick.”

It’s made him the perfect Fletch for the modern era, as he can easily pull off charm and self-deprecation, and has perfect comic timing. Because of those talents, Hamm admitted to Insider he thought less about Chase’s interpretation while playing the character, feeling it would just be “stealing” if he didn’t do anything but stay true to what Mcdonald crafted in his books.

Insider chatted with Hamm over Zoom about giving audiences a new Fletch, what it was like watching “Top Gun: Maverick” rule the summer box office, and why he’s relieved he doesn’t have to figure out if there will ever be a “Mad Men” movie.

 

Miramax

Completing any movie is a small miracle, but I would imagine getting Fletch back on the screen has to feel pretty sweet, right?

Very much so. It’s exciting to have gone on this journey and actually have people get a chance to see it. It’s very different. It’s a reboot, rebranding, reimagining, a reintroduction to this character to a whole new generation and that’s a fun challenge.

It’s exciting as an actor to kind of put your stamp on something so specific.

In the past, you have compared playing the Fletch character to doing a cover song. Were there moments when you had to catch yourself and say, “This is too much like Chevy,” and pivot?

Not particularly, because we knew from the script on, we weren’t going to make that version of this movie. That version exists already.

But I would imagine Chevy Chase’s performance is embedded in your head, like many of us, so there were never moments when you felt you were leaning too much into how he played the character?

I came to the character much more organically. I was able to have an operation sense of who this guy was that was pretty divorced from all the things that Chevy did. We made a conscious decision to not do an imitation.

All of that stuff was deeply part of Chevy’s comic sensibility. To take any of it would have really felt like stealing. We wanted to pay our respects to the history of the franchise, obviously, but to really reexamine the original character that Gregory Mcdonald wrote in the books, which is radically different from what Chevy did.

I was thinking this recently, here you are doing press for your new movie, but just recently over Labor Day weekend, “Top Gun: Maverick,” was  No. 1 again in theaters as well as home entertainment. We are getting a lot of Jon Hamm!

Yeah, I’m not mad at that. It beats sitting around waiting for the phone to ring.

But all you do is press now. You just tour the world promoting.

[Laughs.] I get to see the inside of some really beautiful hotel rooms.

But obviously the success and the outside footprint of “Top Gun: Maverick” has been unique and worthwhile and worthy and we were very happy that the powers that be made the decision to keep that movie and hold it back until the pandemic ended.

But we’re living in some very interesting times in the respect of how things are consumed. You said No. 1 in theaters and home entertainment, and that’s the new normal. “Confess, Fletch” is coming out day-and-date and that’s okay. I’m excited for people to see it however they want to see it.

 

Paramount

It’s fascinating to compare those two movies’ release plans. If it’s not a sure thing, like “Top Gun: Maverick,” it’s almost, good luck finding an audience. And in the case of “Confess, Fletch,” you blink and it will suddenly be on Showtime. What are your feelings about how people will see your work in the post-COVID era? 

I leave that up to people who have more control over that to think about how that works.

But if it were your choice I would imagine you’d want people to see “Confess, Fletch” in theaters, right?

Sure. But I just want people to see it. I’m very proud of it and I would like it to be seen. I share that view with guys like Steven Soderbergh who are very happy however people consume the thing they worked very hard on. They worked hard to keep the budgets down so they can make money off of it however it comes across.

But I’m just excited to get to work on things that somehow artistically inspire me, and this is certainly one of those. Hopefully with success, whatever that looks like, we’ll get to make a couple more.

 

AMC Television

I love your filmography, you have done so many different characters and worked in so many different genres, but as the years go on in your career does the pull of the franchise machine become more attractive in regards to having stability in this industry? Or were all those years doing “Mad Men” enough that you don’t think like that?

Being the lead of a long-running show is its own particular set of exercises and muscles that is unlike being in a franchise. I have a lot of friends that are in movie franchises and it’s a significantly different schedule, a different demand on your time and on your family life, and all the other things that the truly grueling one-hour television schedule can be.

But, that said, some of the best work right now is in TV, or whatever TV is classified now, so as an actor I think you go where the work is. That has always been the case.

I’ve been reading some autobiographies of late, I’m reading Anjelica Huston’s right now, she goes where the work is. You have to figure it out and approach life that way.

Hypothetically, if the script was amazing and they back up the dump truck full of money to your front lawn, would you ever consider dusting off the Don Draper character and doing a “Mad Men” movie?

I mean, there’s a lot of moving parts that have to come into alignment even before the money and the script could be given to me. I will never say never, but that’s an awful lot of moving parts that have to synch up. That’s a very complicated Tetris puzzle that I am glad I do not have to align.

“Confess, Fletch” hits theaters and On Demand simultaneously on Friday. It will be available on Showtime beginning October 28.