Don Draper of Mad Men was the epitome of exuding charm, so it makes total sense that Jon Hamm is a Charmer in real life! Jon recently waxed poetic with Vanity Fair about his favorite reality show on Bravo, Southern Charm. He lauded the show for being about men, as most reality shows “are about women.” Finally, a show that fails the Bechdel test! Because we totally don’t have enough of those! While Southern Charm has waned over the past few years due to the men’s ability to grow and evolve, that’s exactly why Jon loves it. He particularly warmed to buffoons Austen Kroll, Craig Conover, and Shep Rose, calling them “three glorious dumbass dummies” that he loved to watch “stumble through life” at the ripe ages of 38, 36, and 44.
Jon, who has won eight Emmys and has a prolific career, sees a lot of himself in these Charlestonians, who have only won beer pong tournaments and have questionable careers at best. Jon went on to say that he sometimes wanted to “hit them in head but also give them a hug.” It’s commendable that he would want to make that kind of overture towards these manchildren who have so little capacity for emotional availability that they wouldn’t known how to respond to it, so they’d just yell “no homo” while in Jon’s embrace.
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Jon has been vocal about his love of Southern Charm in the past, saying that Shep and Craig were on his Mount Rushmore of Bravo characters along with Kathy Hilton of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, which is probably the only time she’s been lumped into a group of men that do their grocery shopping at 7/11 and considers Barstool to be peak comedy. During Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper’s New Year’s Eve Live this past year, he was vocal about how devastated he was about Paige Desorbo and Craig breaking up.
Interestingly enough, Jon loathed all things reality television in the past. During a 2012 interview with Elle U.K., he said “Whether it’s Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian or whoever, stupidity is certainly celebrated…Being a f—ing idiot is a valuable commodity in this culture because you’re rewarded significantly…. It’s celebrated. It doesn’t make sense to me.” Perhaps Jon’s initial resentment towards reality television was a result of his own experience being on reality TV.
He was on the dating show The Big Date before he made it as an actor, and came off as kind of creepy when it went viral years later. Interestingly enough, Paris and Kim both have built empires and families of their own, while Austen, Craig, and Shep have all given up on their respective podcasts because they didn’t want to put in the work and are still dating 25-year-olds. Jon credited his Bravo addiction to his wife, Anna Osceola, which is such a played out excuse amongst guys who just can’t admit that reality television is art.
