Jon Hamm Discusses 8 Straight Nominations, Dodges Personal Life Questions After Winning Outstanding Lead Actor Emmy [VIDEO]

It took eight tries, but Jon Hamm finally won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for playing Don Draper on "Mad Men" at the 2015 Primetime Emmy Awards Sunday. Hamm had been nominated for the role seven times previously -- Sunday was his 16th Emmy nomination in total -- but had never taken home the trophy. After the hype surrounding the final season of "Mad Men" this year on AMC, many had expected 2015 to be Hamm's year. However, the 44-year old actor said that he was still surprised and unprepared to hear his name called.

"It was a very odd experience, because after I made my hilarious joke of crawling on the stage I turned around and realized people were clapping for me and I was mortified," Hamm told reporters in the press room after the win. "It has been so nice, all of it, over the many, many years that we have been here and this feels like the culmination of that good feeling."

Hamm also said that he never got frustrated over the years with being nominated, but never winning. He just felt lucky to be in the room.

"There is no animosity or anything like that. I have nothing really to compare it too," said Hamm. "My experience is every year you're in or you're out, winning for the show or not, I'm just so glad to be here. The people I'm sitting next to, the people I'm on a list with -- you have to be kidding me! These are people I would watch even if I wasn't an actor. I mean, Tina Fey gave me award tonight. She also gave me a job and gave me another job. These are people's work I tremendously respect. I'm happy to be around."

Watch Jon Hamm win Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series at the 2015 Primetime Emmy Awards below:

When asked how it felt to win the Emmy after a tumultuous year -- In March reports surfaced that Hamm had checked into rehab for alcohol abuse and earlier this month Hamm and longtime girlfriend Jennifer Westfeldt announced that they were seperating -- Hamm dodged the subtle pry into his personal life, simply responding "great."

Hamm also reflected on what it took to play Don Draper for eight years.

"It's a wonderful, wondeful job. When you look at the people I got to work with day in and day out, it was a dream job in many ways, but it doesn't come without a cost," said Hamm. "There is a lot of mental and emotional baggage that gets torn through and really weighs on you after ahwile. And I have always said this, It's not like I'm a lead miner. I'm not acting like it's the hardest job in the world, because it is not in many ways, but that doesn't discount the fact that not just anyone can do this. I have put a lot of hard work into this and a lot of my own time, effort, sweat, blood, tears and all that good stuff and it's nice for it to be recognized as much as it has been and as much as it was tonight."

Most recently, Hamm appeared in the Netflix "Wet Hot American Summer" reboot "First Day of Camp." All eight episodes are currently available for streaming on Netflix.