Actor Jon Hamm confirmed long-standing rumors that he was originally meant to play Ben Affleck's role in "Gone Girl."
Hamm revealed during an appearance on "Watch What Happens Live" that he was slated to portray Nick Dunne, a man held under suspicion for his wife's disappearance, in David Fincher's 2014 psychological thriller.
"Yeah, I was down to the very end of that," Hamm, 52, said, according to the Independent.
However, he was bound by his commitment to the TV series "Mad Men," in which he played the lead character, Don Draper. The show lasted for seven seasons, from 2007 to 2015.
"It was meant to be me, but we had to film the continuing adventures of Mr. Draper," Hamm said.
In the end, the role went to Affleck.
"Performance-wise it wasn't something that I've had to do, I don't think ever, as an actor," Affleck told NPR's Arun Rath during a 2014 interview about the film. "I haven't done many movies where there was a sort of thriller component like this."
Affleck said it was freeing to play such a murky character.
"The really liberating thing was ... usually when you play a protagonist and you're a lead in the movie, there are sort of some unspoken rules. You know, you have to be a good person, you have to be a leader, you have to be smarter than everyone in the room, you have to kind of ... give people steely glares and that kind of thing," Affleck said.
"And in this case, we weren't encumbered by that at all. The whole idea of likability was sort of thrown out of the window. And I thought that was really exciting and liberating as an actor because you didn't know where this guy was gonna go."