Jon Hamm: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

3. FBI S.A. Adam Frawley - The Town

Most of Hamm's non-Mad Men roles have been more on the humorous side, owing to the fact that he doesn't taking the acting profession particularly seriously, and because all his bezzie mates appear to be comedians. Which means that the times he actually does a serious part, you stand up and take notice. Especially when that role is in Ben Affleck's The Town, the Boston actor's directorial follow up to surprise hit Gone Baby Gone. This heist drama tends to get forgotten, sandwiched between that first film and the recent Oscar-winning Argo, which it really shouldn't. Because it's great! And Hamm's great in it although, again, he's almost lost in an impressive ensemble cast that also includes Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Hall and Affleck himself.

Affleck and Renner get to have the most fun as the bank robbers who get into a spot of bother when one of them falls for a teller they took hostage, which would mean she could potentially identify them for the crime they're still lying low after. Hamm, meanwhile, plays the FBI agent who's responsible for tracking them down. He ends up being one of those "by any means necessary" types, illegally tapping phones and the like, meaning it's another one of those morally compromised roles for an actor who's made his name on such a character. Probably the stand-out scene of The Town for Hamm, however, is when he interrogates the robbers, albeit unsuccessfully - if we had that guy yelling at us in a five-by-five room, we'd spill our guts in an instant. Then ask for his number.