“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” seems like a strong metaphor for the friendship between actors Jon Hamm and Paul Rudd, a bond Hamm spoke about in a recent interview with The Howard Stern Show. According to Hamm, Rudd was the first person he knew with a “Hollywood career” – and was a key asset in connecting Hamm with the contacts that helped his own acting work get noticed.

The duo first met in the Midwest before reconnecting in Los Angeles; Rudd made the big west coast move first. Hamm says that in their early years of friendship, Rudd had “long Michael Hutchence hair”, a Duran Duran jacket, and a rising acting career that Hamm admired.

“It was like he was everything you thought the college cool guy looked like in 1988,” Hamm recalled. “He had just done cluelessand he was going to do Romeo + Julietso like, he was on his way.

Even though Rudd was tapping on the windows of Hollywood’s upper echelons at the time, Hamm says he was never less than supportive when an extremely green Hamm moved to LA Hamm says that upon his arrival he was promised not to “blow up” Rudd’s place, but just asked him for “a phone number” to help Hamm get off the ground. Rudd immediately put him in touch with his former manager.

“I ended up getting an agent,” Hamm shares, “and ended up going through a million auditions and not getting any.”

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Although Stern jokes that he was in Rudd’s shoes, he might not be so supportive of a possible competition, Hamm says Rudd “has always been like that.”

“Throughout my career and my life, you know,” Hamm reflects. “We’ve been friends for 30 years now.” If the friendship seems a little one-sided from this angle, a later story from Hamm about picking up Rudd at one of his ’90s DJ sets adjusts the bias. A friend in need is a friend indeed, but it’s also a friend who’s supportive enough to watch you speak your truth on the decks.