“We’re always dependent”: When Jon Hamm made his feelings clear about his profession

In 2023, following the release of Sharon Stone’s memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice, Jon Hamm engaged in a conversation with Stone, where the two actors talked about everything ranging from acting to personal lives. The interview was published by Interview Magazine on November 28, 2023.

Conversing about the art of acting and how interdependent the job is, Hamm said:

"That’s the thing about us as actors, we’re always dependent."

According to Hamm, acting is not something that can be practiced or executed alone. He believes that actors are always dependent on each other for the execution of a role.

Jon Hamm and Sharon Stone engaged in an elaborate conversation at Stone's home art studio, where the duo had a wide-ranging conversation about the industry, and personal struggles, as well as working with visionaries like Martin Scorsese and Robin Williams.

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What does Jon Hamm have to say about his profession as an actor?

In the 2023 interview with Sharon Stone, Jon Hamm stated that actors are "dependent" on each other. He further said that one cannot "sit in a room and practice acting."

To this, Stone responded:

"Also, people have all these ideas about who we are because of how we look and how we come across, especially people like you and me. You and I have very strong characters and really strong appearances, so people like to have very strong opinions about us."

Hamm agreed saying that "there’s an assumption of entitlement" and he pointed out Stone's circumstances, saying that he did not believe she was given anything extra special and that she had to work hard to reach where she was.

Talking about personal tragedies, Jon Hamm opened up about losing his parents and what it felt like.

"Your heart becomes a fist, your heart becomes calcified, you get bandages around it, knots tied around it. As a kid, you think, “What did I do wrong to have this horrible thing visited upon me?” And it becomes something that you are responsible for even though it doesn’t make sense rationally." When I was nine, I was basically thrown into my mother’s hospital room and the directive was, “Go say goodbye to your mother,” he shared.

He continued:

"You’re like, “What does that mean?” And my mom, by that point, was a skeleton. And it was terrifying. But my mom just said, “Get up here on the bed.” She didn’t look like my mom, but [she] smelled like my mom. I knew it was my mom. I climbed on the bed. And that was the last time I saw her."

Jon Hamm lost his mother when he was just nine and his father at the age of twenty. In the interview, Stone also opened up about her childhood, growing up with limited means, and her personal struggles and tragedies.

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Jon Hamm and Sharon Stone share birthdays and more

Jon Hamm and Sharon Stone share birthdays and an "odd connection." While talking about their lives and experiences during the interview, Stone looked back on all the times the two actors have met and interacted over the years and how they always shared a special connection over numerous things.

Hamm agreed with her, saying:

"You finally put it into words. I don’t know when it was. It was at Guy’s house, I think, and you said, “How are we connected?” I said, “You know we have the same birthday, right?”"

Stone also shared how she always felt that she had to "figure out" Hamm and acknowledged their unique connection.

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Read more about Jon Hamm's latest role here.