Jon Hamm Stars in Hilarious New Minute Maid Zero Sugar Commercial — About 'Nothing': 'We Had Fun with It' (Exclusive)
The actor also opens up to PEOPLE about working on a new series from 'Yellowstone' creator Taylor Sheridan and being busier than ever
Of course, the world knows that he's a serious actor who has won awards for his dramatic roles, but Jon Hamm has always gravitated toward the funny.
So when he was approached by Minute Maid Zero Sugar to do an ad that was, well, technically about nothing, he says he was into the spoof.
"Yeah, we had fun with it," Hamm, 53, tells PEOPLE exclusively. "It seemed like it was a good opportunity to kind of poke fun at commercials in a sort of meta way. We had a really great director named Clay Weiner, who was a really, really funny guy. I'd seen his work before and I thought, 'Oh, this guy will be a good fit.' And I was right. So they were able to capture a really great take on this."
Hamm, who has also been in ads for H&R Block and Hellman's, says it's important that he gets to have creative input from the companies he works with.
"Obviously at the end of the day, we're selling drinks, but it's nice to be able to do that in a creative way and to to have fun with it. I think that's how it really resonates with the customer as well," he says.
The ad, which is promoting Minute Maid's new line of zero-sugar juice drinks, shows Hamm hoping to develop the commercial's character, but there's no script — and no direction. It's about nothing, because well, there's zero sugar, and it tastes so good that the product sells itself.
"They were able to capture a good take on this," Hamm explains.
He also notes that he has been busier than ever lately, recently going back to more dramatic roles, like playing the power-hungry horseback-riding sheriff Roy Tillman on the most recent season of Fargo.
"I was comfortable on the horse," he says with a laugh of shooting the series in Calgary. "I wouldn't say I'm an expert ride by any means, but I'm comfortable. I love horses. There's something about being on a horse that rally changes your perspective. Not only are you six feet taller than you usually are, but you're on a half-tin animal and so it's very humbling. You have to trust each other, because things can go south very quickly."
Next, Hamm will play a land surveyor in the upcoming Landman from Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan, which is based on the podcast "Boomtown" and centered on big oil in Texas.
"It about men who run around trying to secure land rights in the hopes of speculating and finding oil," he says. "And all the political things that come with that."
This summer, he's also moving the family to New York to begin shooting Your Friends and Neighbors.
Related: Jon Hamm Opens Up About His 'Exciting' Wedding to Anna Osceola: 'It Was a Perfect Day'
"It's good," he says of having a ton of work on his plate. "It's a challenge to schedule things, but at the end of the day, it's more exciting to be busy than it is to be sitting around waiting for the phone to ring."
He adds, "The fun part of being an actor is doing something different on everything you act in. If you wanted to do the same thing every day, there's plenty of jobs that allow you to do that. But we get to do different things. Our gig is a good one."
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Read the original article on People.