Can you imagine waking to the sight of your own skin betraying you as unpredictable patches begin to emerge, signifying a health condition? It’s vitiligo, a pigmentation issue that two icons in the entertainment industry, Jon Hamm and Michael Jackson, have both faced. During a recent chat with THR, Hamm narrated the frightening situation he faced during the filming of AMC’s TV series, Mad Men.
According to the actor, who plays Don Draper in Matthew Weiner’s period drama, vitiligo affects the Black community at a higher rate due to melanin contrast. Meanwhile, Jackson’s candid discussions about his vitiligo, including his famously raw interview with Oprah Winfrey in 1993, highlight the complexities of the health condition.
Exploring the Health Issue Jon Hamm Faced During Mad Men
Living with a chronic condition can be challenging enough, but managing it in the spotlight can be exceedingly difficult. Still, a lot of celebrities choose to share their medical experiences in order to promote awareness of conditions like vitiligo.
During the filming of Mad Men, Jon Hamm, 53, woke up one day to find patches of depigmentation on his chin, hands, and shins. Stress can be a trigger for vitiligo, but it is not the cause of the condition, according to the actor. He recently confessed to THR:
It’s waxed and waned. It’s a pigmentation thing. Michael Jackson had it. It affects the Black community significantly more because you have melanin in your skin and it goes away. But I remember waking up one day while shooting the pilot, and it looked like someone had dropped bleach on my chin.
He sought medical advice and was told that it was likely vitiligo, a condition that affects the “Black community” more significantly due to melanin in the skin. Hamm recalled:
I went to see a couple of doctors, and they were like, ‘You can try this cream. We don’t really have a solution. But you’re white, it’s probably fine’.
However, the issue persisted because, as an actor, his appearance was extremely significant to him, and compromising it, as is often the case with vitiligo patients, could have jeopardized his career.
Michael Jackson’s Personal Struggle with Vitiligo
According to the University of Massachusetts’ 2016 report, Michael Jackson is the most popular online search for this skin condition, vitiligo. When the late music legend initially experienced vitiligo symptoms in the 1980s, reports state that he was in his mid-twenties.
However, because of the stigma attached to vitiligo at the time, he refrained from officially disclosing it to the public until a 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Jackson, who died in 2009, stated the following at the time:
I have a skin disorder the pigmentation of my skin. It is something I cannot help. When people make up stories that I don’t want to be who I am, it hurts me. It’s a problem for me. I can’t control it. But what about all the millions of people who sit in the sun to become darker, to become other than what they are?
He went on to say that it runs in his family, and he “can’t control it”, which “makes me very sad”, while denying that he bleached his skin:
I try to control it, and using makeup evens it out because I have blotches on my skin and I have to even it out. But you know what’s funny? Why is that so important?
In an interview with Mike Tyson on the Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson podcast, King of Pop’s son, Prince Jackson, also discussed his father’s battle with vitiligo, stating:
He had a lot of insecurity around, kind of looking blotchy in his appearance. So he wanted to see if he could smooth out his appearance, to help with his security on his physical appearance.
Well, we can’t deny that both Jon Hamm & Michael Jackson have shown grace and strength in dealing with vitiligo and the speculation surrounding their appearance. Notwithstanding the hardship they encountered, both have prospered in their respective careers and made a significant contribution to the entertainment sector.
Mad Men is available to buy on Apple TV.
