Jon Hamm revealed that he nearly bested another famous A-lister for the role of Nicholas Dunne in the hit film, “Gone Girl.”
The “Top Gun” actor said on “Watch What Happens Live” last week that he had to pass on the movie due to his prior obligations on “Mad Men.”
“I was down to the very end of that,” Hamm said of the role, which ultimately went to Ben Affleck. “It was meant to be me, but we had to film the continuing adventures of Mr. Draper.”
“Mad Men” ran for seven seasons and aired from 2007 to 2015. “Gone Girl” hit theaters in 2014.
Hamm added that “the main character in ‘Gone Girl’ is from St. Louis,” also where Hamm is from. The actor said that people involved with the film were originally “excited” about that aspect of his story.
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“And poor Ben, a Boston guy, had to wear a Cardinals hat,” Hamm added. “He was not very happy about it.”
David Fincher, who directed the film, has spoken about why Affleck was naturally suited for the role in the film.
“He’s wise as an individual, extremely bright, and he’s very attuned to the story and where one is in the narrative,” Fincher said in a 2014 interview with the Lincoln Center’s Film Comment publication.
“I enjoyed working with him immensely. The baggage he comes with is most useful to this movie,” the director said, adding that he “was interested in him primarily because I needed someone who understood the stakes of the kind of public scrutiny that Nick is subjected to and the absurdity of trying to resist public opinion.”
Fincher continued, “Ben knows that not conceptually, but by experience.”