In a 2012 profile in Men's Health, Jon Hamm revealed that after his time at the University of Missouri, he packed up and moved from St. Louis to Los Angeles in 1995 with $150 he had saved. His car was then repossessed after the City of Angels hit him with over $1,600 in unpaid parking tickets. After finding work in the classic profession of struggling actors — waiting tables — Hamm found work as a set dresser on adult films.
"A friend of mine from college — a girl — couldn't take working on the creepazoid downtown toxic set anymore," he said. "It seemed like a wonderful way to spend 12 hours a day five days a week for $150 a day...nonunion, no benefits, just a sh***y job with a lot of boobs and sad people. Hollywood, baby!"
Luckily, he met his former partner, Jennifer Westfeldt, at a party and she asked him to audition for an unpaid part in her play. "Suffice to say, when Jen called with an actual acting opportunity, my days as a set dresser—all told, about a month—were over," he revealed. Hamm then spent six months living on a friend's couch while performing in the play and continuing to look for work. Westfeldt's play eventually turned into the 2001 independent romantic comedy Kissing Jessica Stein, that became, you guessed it, Hamm's second ever film role.
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