Actors Ellie Kemper and Jon Hamm go way back ― all the way back to high school, in fact.
The “Office” star spoke to Andy Cohen about her crazy connection to the “Mad Men” star, whom she said she first met when she was in the ninth grade.
“He was my drama teacher,” Kemper said of Hamm during an appearance on SiriusXM’s “Andy Cohen Live” on Wednesday.
“To give people some background, he went to my high school, went to college, came back and taught drama for a year at our high school,” Kemper said, adding that Hamm was “the youngest teacher by far.”
“He’s not bad-looking, and he’s teaching drama,” Kemper said before Cohen interjected to insist that Hamm is “great-looking” and they eventually both agreed that he is, in fact, “dreamy.”
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The two actors reconnected years later when the “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” star invited her now-famous drama teacher to one of her performances before she made it big.
“As you know, Jon Hamm is a generous, selfless kind of guy, and I reached out to him when I was doing my one-person show,” Kemper recalled.
“A little comedy show. I had my little suitcase of props. I was doing this one-person show in Los Angeles, and at that time, he was already famous on “Mad Men,” she said, explaining that she emailed him from their old high school directory.
“I said, ‘Hey, I’m doing this show. I know you’re really busy, but it’d be great if you could come,’” she said. “And you know, he came, and that’s when I reconnected with him.”
Cohen called the gesture “amazing,” while Kemper praised Hamm as such “a class act.”
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Hamm has also spoken about his famous student on many occasions and told the “Today Show” back in 2015 that Kemper was “the best.”
“She and her sister [Carrie Kemper] were incredibly diligent students and very, very talented,” he said at the time. “The proof is in the pudding. They’re both working in the industry.”
The teacher and student later went on to work together. The two starred in the 2011 comedy hit “Bridesmaids” and Kemper’s post-“Office” show, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.”
Listen to Kemper’s interview below.
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