Revisiting Mad Men: Jon Hamm and John Slattery on Fake Cigarettes and Don Draper’s Inevitable Ending

It’s been ten years since the critically acclaimed drama series Mad Men ended, and to celebrate, the ATX TV Festival hosted a special retrospective panel with Jon Hamm and John Slattery on May 31st, 2025.

The panel, which was moderated by Noah Hawley, allowed Hamm and Slattery to reflect on their time filming the iconic series. They also shared behind-the-scenes stories and discussed the series finale. Here are a few things we learned during the panel:

John Slattery auditioned for the part of Don Draper. 

Slattery said that he was initially asked to come in and read for the part of Don Draper. “I read the script, [and] I said, ‘Are you sure that that’s the part you want me to read?'” 

“So I did my homework and went in and read,” Slattery continued. “Then they made me do it again with Matt Weiner, and Alan Taylor, who directed the pilot. And it was very, kind of, solemn. They were very serious. Then he said, ‘Okay, here’s the thing. We already have that guy.'”

They told him the part they wanted him for, the part of Roger Sterling, was so small in the pilot that they didn’t think he’d come to read. 

“I’m glad they told you I had the part because they didn’t tell me I had the part until like nine auditions later,” Hamm recalled.

Slattery’s wife played his wife on the show, which made for an emotional moment.

Slattery recalled filming a Mad Men scene where Roger has a heart attack, and the fact that his real-life wife was there made it that much more emotional.

“She had to come in to find me having had a heart attack, and that was very emotional. And Matt Weiner said, ‘Well, I hope you don’t…’ Basically, he told me, ‘Don’t f–k this up.’ But then, when my wife walked in the room, it made it a lot easier.”

The cigarettes were fake, but they still weren’t great.

“I think somebody did a count, and in the pilot alone, I smoked 75 cigarettes,” Hamm said. “They are fake. That just means that there’s no nicotine in them. It doesn’t mean you’re not burning something and inhaling it.”

“It was rose petals and marshmallow root,” Slattery interjected. He added that they’d also drink fake vodka (as in, water) with pearl onions in it.

“They’d plop another pearl onion in your glass of water, then you’d smoke 26 more fake cigarettes,” Slattery said. “It was 9:30 in the morning. It was disgusting.”

Hamm was separated from the rest of the cast for most of the final season.

Hamm said that the thing that “most bummed him out” was realizing early in the final season of Mad Men that he was about to be separated from the rest of the main cast.

“I realized at some point that, like, ‘Oh, Don’s gonna be gone from the main cast for like five episodes, and so I’m basically going to not be working with this friend group that I’ve established over the last ten years. I’m going to be kind of on my own and working with day players and guest stars — amazing actors, all, but like, people who I don’t know, for this incredibly emotional time that we’re ending the show,'” Hamm said.

“And I really had a hard time with that. And now, of course, in retrospect, [that’s] perfect,” he added, noting that it was the perfect way to feel the character’s loneliness in that journey.

Don Draper’s journey was always going to end with him dreaming up the Coca-Cola commercial.

“Matt [Weiner] had the end scene during Season 1. He knew he wanted Don to end up somewhere on the West Coast, and dreaming up that Coca-Cola commercial. Now, he didn’t know how many episodes he’d have between here and there; he didn’t know how many seasons; he didn’t know any of that. But he knew that he wanted this guy to kind of end up there. The rest of it was very murky,” Hamm said.

“He shared that with me, so I knew that’s where we were going, and I trusted the whole run,” he continued. “And I think John would agree with this, I trusted him as the caretaker of all of these characters, to not bang on any key that comes out with a false note. I just knew that he wouldn’t.”

In responding to a fan question about the Mad Men series finale, Hamm said he felt it was, ultimately, a positive ending.

“I think, really, what Don’s journey of shedding all of this stuff, and moving as far as he can away from what was his home — which was on the opposite end of the country — literally went until there was no more land, there was no place left to run, he had reached the end of land — as far away as he could from his life — and realized that his life was creating advertising. That was his revelation. That this is what he is and what he does.”

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