TORONTO - "Mad Men" star Jon Hamm says becoming a producer gives him more control over his career and helps him land the types of roles he'd like to play.
The dapper celeb says it's a big reason he recently formed a production company with his longtime partner Jennifer Westfeldt.
"What you really get to do is tell your own story and you're not beholden to a mainstream audience or a (film) that's going to open to a $20 million weekend or that's going to get all four quadrants or whatever the marketing speak is," said Hamm, whose big screen forays include the recent smash "Bridesmaids" and last year's crime thriller "The Town."
"So you can tell a story with a little more of an oblique point of view or a little more difficult subject matter that maybe isn't as easy to digest or as palatable to as many people."
The first production for Points West Pictures is the romantic ensemble "Friends With Kids," starring Westfeldt as a 30-something singleton who decides to have a baby with her platonic best friend, played by "Parks and Recreation" star Adam Scott.
Hamm co-stars along with "Saturday Night Live" comics Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph, Megan Fox and funnyman Chris O'Dowd.
Hamm was promoting the film at the Toronto International Film Festival, where he was hoping to score a distribution deal for the indie dramedy.
He says he relishes the chance to tackle challenging material that might not be as commercially bent as most big-budget features.
"It's an amazing thing to have control over something like this," says Hamm.
"Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, these young talented kids go, 'Screw it, we're going to do it ourselves.' And they just do."
"We've got a couple projects that we have in various phases of development ... and we also know a lot of people so it's kind of fun to be able to say, 'Hey, what do you want to do? You want to make a movie? We know how to do this, you know how to do that and maybe we'll get together and we'll do this."'
Although this is Hamm's first stint as a producer, this is Westfeldt's third time in the role.
She also produced her two previous scripts -- 2001's "Kissing Jessica Stein," which tackled sexuality, and 2006's "Ira & Abby" an offbeat look at marriage.
Hamm joked that the next logical instalment in Westfeldt's series would be too morbid to tackle.
"I think after kids comes death so I don't know if we want to handle that one," he chuckled.
"We're going to work on this one while we're still here."
Hamm said he's eager to develop both film and television projects in the future, but admitted he was not in a position to embark on a buying spree at the Toronto film festival.
"We don't have money. We have a neat logo and a credit but we certainly don't have money," he sighed.
"But ideally that will come down the line."
He said the industry was rebounding from the recent financial downturn, giving him hope that his new venture could soon take off.
"There seems to be a lot of buyers and excited people," he said.
"The mood of the room seems to be that the industry is kind of coming out of where it was and there's a little more equity floating around and there's a few more places for movies to find homes."
The Toronto International Film Festival runs through Sept. 18.
