When Jon Hamm brought the chain-smoking, booze guzzling philanderer known as Don Draper to life on AMC’s Mad Men in 2007, he instantly became synonymous with dramatic television. But one thing Hamm isn’t synonymous with is his cartoon voice work. Sure, in the past he’s popped up on Archer and Metalocalypse—he also played a talking toilet on an episode of Bob’s Burgers—but it’s safe to assume that “animation” isn’t the first word that comes to mind when you hear Hamm’s name. That may change this Friday when his character Herb Overkill is unveiled in Minions. Jon sat down to talk about Herb, his childhood cartoon dreams, and who taught him all the words to Lorenzo Da Ponte’s The Marriage of Figaro.

Did you have input into what Herb Overkill was going to be like?

Total. You have total freedom. You’re not constrained by what you look like, or what your hair looks like that day, or what haircut you’re stuck with from whatever thing you just finished. You have total freedom. And part of it, for me, was getting the artist’s rendering of the character; I was like, “Oh, wow. That guy looks so cool. I wonder what he sounds like.”

And then [you start] messing around with voices in your head, like a crazy person. Or like a child, basically, like a kid. I would flashback to being a little kid and watching cartoons, thinking, “I wonder if I could do that.” Talking to myself... you know, things I do normally in my day-to-day life. Talk to my dog, talk to myself, talk to myself on elevators, and people are like, “Are you gonna be okay?” It’s my process!

But no, it’s really fun, and it’s completely creative. And when you’re working with people who are also incredibly collaborative and they’re like, “Go!” you get to go.

What cartoons did you watch as a kid?

All of them. Growing up in the '70s with Saturday morning cartoons, you were like, “I wish every day could be all cartoons. If only there would be a time in my life where there would be a network devoted to cartoons. That will never happen in my lifetime, but if there was a way to only watch cartoons.... Like if only there could be a device you could open up, type something in, and then only cartoons would come up... but that [will] never happen.” [laughs] It’s hard to describe to people how terrible it was when you could only watch cartoons at a certain time in your life.

But no, I would watch all of them: Warner Bros. cartoons, Bugs Bunny, and Tex Avery’s stuff. Looking back on it now, they were incredibly subversive for their time. [As a child] you think they’re just making jokes, but when you watch them as an adult you think, no, they were talking about some pretty deep stuff.

For example, I wouldn’t know anything about opera music if it weren’t for Bugs Bunny. That was my entire introduction to opera music. I wouldn’t know about classical music if it weren’t for Fantasia. They didn’t have to do that stuff; they chose to base this ridiculous, funny, intriguing, creative story on this beautiful classical music.

So it’s that combination of the high and the low that I thought was very cool. I had no concept of it as a kid; you just think it’s funny. It’s hilarious that the little brooms are carrying buckets of water. That’s funny. And that Bugs Bunny is a lady Viking. That’s funny. But then you realize, Oh, that’s a famous opera. Why do I know all the words to The Marriage of Figaro? It’s because of Bugs Bunny.

Have you had an opportunity to see the film yet?

I’ve seen a lot of the stuff that I’m in, but I haven’t seen the whole thing. And I’m very much looking forward to seeing it with an audience, especially an audience of a bunch of little kids. I think it’s going to be really exciting to see what the reaction is, because I happen to find a lot of it very funny.

And, you know, butts and farts are funny. [laughs] Sorry, they are. And when you’re a little kid they’re super funny. So I’m really looking forward to seeing how that plays in a big auditorium full of people.

How does Herb Overkill compare to Don Draper?

Herb definitely has his own style [but] I don’t think it’s very similar to Don’s. If there’s an analogy to be made, I think it’s probably a little bit closer to Austin Powers, at least from a sartorial sense, but I didn’t want to veer too far into Austin Powers territory. But Herb’s very comfortable in his world. He loves his wife [Scarlett Overkill, voiced by Sandra Bullock], and she loves him right back. I think that’s the really lovely part of their relationship.

Were you a fan of the franchise before working on Minions?

Yes. In fact, when I signed onto the project [Despicable Me 2] hadn’t come out yet, so I had only seen the first one. When I met with all the powers that be to determine whether or not I would be chosen they showed me some of the second one, and I was like, “This is so fun. Please pick me, please pick me, please pick me.”

It’s just so creative, so unique and different. It’s not based on a toy. It’s not based on something that has already existed. It’s completely sprung out of this incredible, weird genius’ mind... these little agents of chaos that are polyglots with terrible hair and cute butts. They wear overalls but don’t have shoulders. How does that work? I think it’s great. It’s the best part of Hollywood’s creativity coming out.

If you had Minions, how would you put them to work for you?

Knowing what I know about how effective they are at doing their jobs, I probably wouldn’t assign them any tasks that really needed to be done well. They tend to mess up everything they get involved with.

Like I’d say, “Go mow the lawn,” and the lawn would be lit on fire somehow. I would just wanna hang out with them. I would just wanna play. And that’s what happens to Herb. He’s supposed to torture them, but he really just wants to play. That’s what I would probably do if I had Minions: just hang out and play.

You and Sandra Bullock recorded your audio separately, but were you able to talk with her at all about your characters?

Really not at all. Because of schedules... it turns out, Sandra Bullock’s doing really well. Did you know that? I’m so happy for her. She’s so busy. [laughs] You know, it’s schedules. These movies don’t happen overnight; they take a long, long, long time to get done. When they have enough stuff for you to do, they call you in.

So unfortunately we never really got a chance to do it. But as the process goes on you start hearing everybody else’s stuff in your headphones and you think, oh, that’s what she’s doing. Okay, maybe I’ll tweak it a little or do it a little differently. But no, we both came up with our characters independently, and really trusted the director and the writer to make sure there was a consistency throughout.

It was great, and now I’m looking forward to seeing how it all cuts together.