Tina Fey covered all her bases before casting Jon Hamm as Dr. Drew Baird in “30 Rock.”
Fey and Hamm recently sat down for a one-on-one for Interview Magazine, and during their conversation, Fey revealed that she called “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels to ask if she should cast the “Mad Men” star in her Emmy-winning industry sitcom.
“I didn’t meet you before you hosted [‘Saturday Night Live’],” Fey recalled. “I remember calling or emailing Lorne and saying, ‘Let me know if he’s funny because we have a part coming up on ’30 Rock’ that would be great for him.’ And also to make sure you weren’t a dick.”
Hamm replied, “I mean, that’s a real thing. It’s not fun to work with people that aren’t fun.”
Fey added that working with difficult talent is something she “won’t do anymore,” since “life is too short and the hours are too long.”
Hamm then recalled the moment he found out about the “30 Rock” role. Coincidentally, he was in his dressing room at “SNL” when he got the call.
“That was such a fun moment for me too, because I remember coming back down to the host dressing room at ‘SNL,’ and the phone rang,” Hamm said. “I’m in 30 Rock and it’s like, whose phones are these? Does somebody have this number? Who’s calling my dressing room? So I picked up and I think it was Robert Carlock on the other end who said, ‘Hey, would you like to do this? We have a part for you. It’s a totally normal doctor that won’t go weird at all, I promise.’”
In Season 3 of “30 Rock,” Hamm played the recurring guest role of Drew Baird, a blossoming love interest of Fey’s Liz Lemon. However, by the end of Hamm’s time on the show, things did not end well for his character.
“And by the end of this arc, you have hooks for hands,” Fey said. “And it turned out you were an incompetent doctor. We ruined you.”
