Before ‘Mad Men,’ Jon Hamm Auditioned for Sandy Cohen in ‘The O.C.’

In an interview for Rolling Stone‘s new podcast series Too Long; Didn’t Watch, hosted by Alan Sepinwall, Jon Hamm revealed that if he hadn’t been cast to play his iconic role of Don Draper in Mad Men, he may very well have auditioned to play Upper West Side dad Rufus Humphrey in Gossip Girl.

After all, it wouldn’t have been his first attempt at playing a father in a teen drama, Hamm said: Back in the early 2000s, he actually tried to land the role of Sandy Cohen in The O.C.

“I was probably 31 or 32,” Hamm recalled, laughing. “I think it was me and Harry Hamlin [auditioning].” The role eventually ended up going to Peter Gallagher, who was 16 years older than Hamm and looked more appropriate for the part. “I remember walking in and going, ‘Is that Peter Gallagher? Why am I here?‘ I love Peter Gallagher, but I was just like, ‘Dang!’”

Hamm said his “in-between” age made auditioning for television roles difficult early on in his career, not just for The O.C. “I never looked young enough to be in high school, even when I first got out [to L.A.] and I was 25, so I missed out on all of the Dawson’s Creek and all the early WB shows. So then they were like, ‘Come play one of the dads,’ but I wasn’t old enough to be that, either. I had to wait around a long time.”

You can hear Hamm speak about his audition for The O.C. on the first episode of Too Long; Didn’t Watch, starting at 17:42.