[Hamm] was working as the set dresser on a soft porn film (porn films need set dressers? “You gotta move cameras around, and ashtrays; and continuity is apparently an issue”) when Jennifer Westfeldt, who was at that point a distant acquaintance of Hamm’s, invited him to be in a play she was working on in New York. “I came in after another 12-hour day [on the porn film] to this message on my answer phone, and I was so exhausted and depressed and bone tired that I called her back immediately: ‘Yes! I don’t care what it is!’ I borrowed money for a ticket and lived in New York for six weeks on about $300, stayed on a friend’s coach, roller-bladed everywhere…” The play, Lipschtick, was the basis for Kissing Jessica Stein; and Hamm’s six-week stint on it kick-started his and Westfeldt’s relationship.

[Guardian]