The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 8: It's a Shame About Your Face

Episode Date: March 15, 2016

The most recognizable face that no one wanted to hire.

This is the way I heard it. Jonathan was staring at the naked strangers gyrating on the bed in front of him. Not at them, per se, but rather through them. His mind had wandered far from the job at hand and shut out most everything around him, including the director. The ashtray, Jonathan, the ashtray. Jonathan snapped back to the present. The ashtray was in the wrong spot. At the beginning of the scene, it was on the bureau.

Now it had somehow found its way over to the bedside table. Jonathan had no idea how this happened, but as the official set dresser for this particular soft-core porno, it was his job to make sure everything stayed in its right place. An ironic duty when you consider the sets were the only thing currently dressed. Jonathan moved the ashtray back to its proper spot. The director yelled action. The naked people commenced to gyrating, and Jonathan got back to wondering if he'd ever find legitimate work in Hollywood. Things had started off, promisingly enough. The 24-year-old kid from St. Louis had arrived in Hollywood after teaching drama for two years at his former high school.

He was quickly signed by William Morris, the most prestigious talent agency in the world, and sent out on dozens of meetings and auditions. His agents were enthused. But that was three years ago. Now, his agents had come to the conclusion that Jonathan didn't look right. it's not that he wasn't handsome. He just didn't look like a typical 24-year-old in 1995. He looked more like a 35-year-old from 1955,

like somebody's dad on Leave It to Beaver. Over and over, he heard the same thing in a slightly different way. Too seasoned, too mature, too knowing. In short, Jonathan looked too old for his age, and after three years of steady rejection, William Morris dropped him. Now, with another long day of rearranging ashtrays and stepping around naked strangers behind him, Jonathan was on the bus, headed back to the house he shared with three other actors,

with recurring roles in various restaurants, and considering his future. Jonathan was no quitter, but he was a realist, so he made himself a deal. If he wasn't a working actor by his 30th birthday, he'd pack it in and go back home. Well, that very night, things turned around. On his answering machine, a friend from New York was wondering if he'd be interested in doing a play. It was 3 a.m. on the East Coast, but Jonathan called back and screamed into the phone. Yes, I'll do it. He didn't even know what the play was, nor did he care.

He borrowed money for the flight, spent the next six weeks couch surfing in Manhattan, but he didn't mind. He was finally acting, and he loved it. Back in L.A., he got a new agent and got back on the audition cycle. Still, more knows than yeses, but enough yeses to keep him in the game. A supporting role here, a bit role there. It started to add up, and by the time Jonathan turned 30, he was earning enough money in front of the camera to say goodbye to dressing sets.

It would take another six years, though, for Jonathan's age to finally catch up to his looks. Fortunately, that happened around the same time a famous producer from the Sopranos had convinced a small cable network to green light a very expensive period piece that required a lead actor with a very specific look, a seasoned look, a mature look, a knowing look. His audition was videotaped in L.A. The video was sent to the producer in New York. The producer showed the tape to the network, and soon, Jonathan was once again surrounded by ashtrays and half-naked women. But this time, it was different. This time the camera was pointed at him, and most of the lines were his. After season one, Jonathan was nominated for best actor

in a dramatic series. His portrayal was so convincing he's now credited with bringing back shiny suits, thin lapels, and skinny ties. He received seven more nominations for his work on the series that would launch his career, a series that captured the 50s and 60s with unparalleled verisimilitude by relying, coincidentally, as much on set dressing as it did world-class writing and acting.

Jonathan finally won his Emmy for the performance he gave in the very last episode of the very last season of Mad Men. And today, critics and fans agree, no actor was better suited to bring Don. Draper to life than the patient and persistent Thespian whose age finally caught up to his face.

John Hamm. Anyway, that's the way I heard it.