Ten years after “Mad Males” wrapped, stars Jon Hamm and John Slattery nonetheless have fond recollections of the landmark AMC drama. Effectively, maybe apart from the smoking. And the onion water.

Reuniting Saturday at Austin’s ATX TV Competition. Hamm and Slattery spoke to moderator Noah Hawley (who labored with Hamm on the newest season of “Fargo”) in regards to the legacy of the present, the way it nonetheless resonates with each them and their followers — and sure, all these cigarettes.

That couldn’t have been good for you, Hawley mentioned. Replied Hamm: “Oh, it was not. Yeah, I believe any individual did a rely, and within the pilot alone, I spoke 75 cigarettes… They’re pretend cigarettes, however that simply implies that there’s no nicotine in them. It doesn’t imply you’re not burning one thing.”

As a result of “Mad Males” was shot in Los Angeles however occurred in New York, a lot of the filming was executed indoors. “We didn’t go exterior, which was superior and never superior,” Hamm mentioned. “The entire thing, the entire stage is stuffed with pretend cigarette smoke.”

Slattery famous that the pretend cigarettes meant that they have been smoking rose petals and marshmallow. Whereas which will sound good, it wasn’t. Then, add to that what was used to duplicate a vodka martini: A glass of water with onion in it.

“Oh, the breath was pretty,” quipped Hamm.

Slattery identified that the “vodka” was pretend, however the onion was very actual. “Pop one other pearl onion in your glass of water, after which smoke 26 extra pretend cigarettes and it’s 9:30 within the morning!” he mentioned.

Not less than it was barely higher than smoking actual cigarettes — one thing that Hamm mentioned “a few of the youthful actors” tried to do whereas capturing the “Mad Males” pilot.

“They have been like, ‘We’re gonna smoke actual cigarettes. We actually wish to, really feel it and do it,’ “ Hamm recalled. “And I used to be like, ‘let me understand how that goes.’ And inside three days, they have been yellow and sallow. It is a horrible concept.”

Hawley identified that it’s much like one other trick that actors quickly be taught: Take very small bites when consuming meals on digicam, because you’ll be doing it again and again.

“And transfer [the food] across the plate,” Hamm added. “We will’t all be Brad Pitt. Would that we may!”

Cigarettes, after all, have been an vital a part of setting the scene for what it was prefer to be an promoting exec on Madison Avenue within the early Sixties.

“I bear in mind sooner or later, having a dialog with the executives at AMC,” Hamm mentioned. “They mentioned, ‘Have they got to smoke?’ That was like, Are you fucking kidding me? Sure, they actually need to. They’re hooked on cigarettes. It’s form of why they’re offered. They’re tremendous well-liked!”

Through the panel, Hamm reminisced about how a lot “Mad Males” modified his life. “I began that once I was 35 years previous. Went proper by means of to the age of 45,” he mentioned. “So it’s form of a transitional second in life and time. Our actual lives occur, relationships began and ended, and other people had infants, received married and received divorced, and all this shit occurred in the true world. It nearly appeared displaced from that in lots, in a bizarre means, as a result of a lot of engaged on the present was stepping right into a time capsule for actual.

“Should you guys may leap again in time and go to the set, it actually was image good,” he added. “While you’re in gear and smoking cigarette and looking the pretend window, the pretend hanging a part of Midtown, it was plausible. Clearly it’s an amazing honor, and it’s a beautiful factor to have labored on and contribute to one thing that has lasted this lengthy. I’m glad I’m nonetheless alive, mainly due to the quantity of cigarettes I smoked. However the quantity of labor we put into it feels commensurate with the quantity of affection we’re getting again, which is a pleasant feeling as nicely. In order that’s fairly superior. I imply, to be sitting right here at this unbelievable pageant speaking about one thing you probably did a decade in the past, and have this many individuals present up simply to listen to it’s great.”

Slattery had an identical reflection on his “Mad Males” expertise. “It felt like a parallel life,” he mentioned. “There have been about six months a 12 months we might do that, after which we might go away. For a few years there we have been fairly positive we have been going to do it once more. And to be within the arms of these writers and people designers and people different actors, you had this extremely intimate relationship with these those who was not your actual life. However was simply as actual and simply as demanding and sophisticated. Yeah, it was all pretend, and we went house on the finish of the day, however it was such a present. I believe, to just about an individual, we clocked that immediately.”