JON HAMM almost quit acting before he landed his first Hollywood role in MEL GIBSON film WE WERE SOLDIERS - because he had vowed to quit by the age of 30 if he had yet to score a big part.
The Mad Men star worked as a full-time waiter for nearly five years in between small acting jobs and had a back-up plan to become a teacher.
And Hamm had promised himself he'd give up his acting dream just months before he landed his breakthrough role as Captain Matt Dillon in the 2002 war drama.
He tells W magazine, "I had given myself five years to be self-sufficient as an actor. I was already self-sufficient as a waiter. But I knew a lot of 40-year-old waiters and I didn't want to be one of those. I had taught (at) school and I knew that I could always go back to teaching.
"I gave myself to my 30th birthday, and my 30th birthday actually happened on the set of We Were Soldiers, which was my first big Hollywood movie - a Mel Gibson vehicle. I was making enough money to quit my waiting job."
