Jon Hamm takes his sex symbol status with a "wink and a pinch of salt".

The actor is best known for playing suave advertising executive Don Draper in the US TV show Mad Men. Jon often appears in the list of Hollywood's hottest guys, but he laughs off the focus on his handsome looks.

"There's a lot of talk about, Oooh, you're so sexy!' If people put that mantle on you, fine, but you take it with a wink and a pinch of salt," he told Esquire magazine. "At 41 I'm like, give me a break, man, I'm no Ryan Gosling. And that's fine. I don't aspire to be that. That's not my jam."

In Mad Men, Don is constantly trying to escape from his painful past. The character desperately wants to reinvent himself and Jon empathises with his internal struggle.

"There is no Don Draper. Don Draper was blown up in a ditch in Korea. That whole Be Don Draper' thing, I feel it's sad. This is a fundamentally f**ked up human being," he explained.

"If the audience is picking up on some kind of lost' vibe I'm giving out, then great. I hope that lends a deeper resonance. It's not anything I'm doing consciously.

"All we can do as actors is bring our own personal experience to the role. My mother died when I was ten, so I did have far more experience of being raised outside my family than I had from my own home, probably. But who cares?'"

Jon also revealed how he likes to unwind.

The actor insists he enjoys more leisurely pursuits and isn't interested in hitting the headlines for acting outrageously.

"Obviously you can't go tear it up and act like an idiot, but at a certain age you should probably stop doing that anyway. I'm not that interesting to follow around. I don't fall down and you can't see up my skirt," he said dryly, before talking about his love of golfing. "'It's an excuse to get out of the house and talk sh*t and drink beer."