Jon Hamm has never been one to shy away from reinvention. More than a decade after Mad Men cemented his place as one of television’s most magnetic leading men, the 55-year-old actor is enjoying life that feels not only expansive, but deeply fulfilling, and, perhaps surprisingly, he credits that sense of contentment to getting older.
After Mad Men wrapped in 2015, Jon seamlessly transitioned into a string of standout roles, from Fargo’s chilling sheriff to the charismatic tech billionaire opposite Jennifer Aniston in
The Morning Show, and even a brilliantly self-aware turn as “Jon Hamm” in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Now, he’s back on our screens in Your Friends & Neighbors, with season two premiering April 3 on Apple TV, where he plays disgraced hedge fund manager Andrew “Coop” Cooper, a man quietly unravelling behind the glossy façade of suburban wealth.
Yet while his on-screen characters often wrestle with dissatisfaction beneath success, Jon himself seems to have reached a far more peaceful place. “If you’ve made it this far, you’re doing something right,” he tells AARP’s Movies for Grownups, in a refreshingly candid reflection on life in his mid-50s.
For Jon, aging isn’t something to resist, it’s something to celebrate. “I’m very lucky. I get to do what I’ve always wanted to do at, I think, the highest level. I still appreciate it every day. I still love going to work,” he says. “So for me, aging is fun, honestly. I’ve enjoyed it. I’ve earned it.”
© Getty ImagesIt’s a perspective that feels increasingly rare in an industry often obsessed with youth, but Jon’s career trajectory tells its own story. Far from slowing down, he is working with some of the most influential names in film and television today.
“It feels fine,” he says of aging in Hollywood. “I get to work with some of the greatest people in my business these days, and I’m very fortunate, whether it’s Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, or Noah Hawley, Amanda Peet, Tom Cruise, Billy Bob Thornton… the list goes on and on.”
That sense of gratitude runs through much of Jon’s outlook, shaped in part by the challenges he faced early in life. Having lost both his parents before the age of 20, he credits the guidance of others around him with helping him navigate those formative years.
© Instagram/Paramount+“I’ve had tremendous advice over the course of my life,” he shares. “Sometimes bad things happen, but if you let those things define you, then you’re going to end up wallowing in those things. Life is about growing and experiencing new things. Life is about the future, not about the past.”
Jon recently revealed that he is ready to take the next step in his life and become a father for the first time as he expressed his desire to have children with his wife Anna, 37.
Before he met Anna, Jon admitted last year that he “didn’t look at marriage as a thing” following his parents’ divorce, but since he became a husband, he “hopes [their marriage] turns into kids”.
“I will be the old dad, but so it goes,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “It could be a good thing. We’ll see.”
Speaking of how “terrified” he was to propose to Anna, Jon explained: “Obviously, my parents were not married long, so I don’t have a model to look at and go, ‘Oh, this is how one finds happiness.’
“I just knew at a certain point I wanted to be with this person. But when I proposed, I was terrified. I was like, ‘What am I doing?'”
He added: “I just remember feeling, ‘This is really scary.’ Then going, ‘Well, it probably means it’s worthwhile.'”
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