Mad Men returns this April to wrap up the story of Don Draper, and Jon Hamm says it’s “trippy” to confront the end of an incredibly rich personal and professional era.

Though he’s not a collector, Hamm – who graces the cover of the new issue of emmy magazine (out Feb. 17) – saved a picture of the script’s final page that reads “End of Series.”

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After seven seasons playing the complex and troubled Draper, Hamm, 43, tells the magazine that he cried after the word “cut” signaled his final take last July 3. Like the typically stoic Don, though, he adds, “Everyone did.”

Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, who directed the series finale, says the last night of filming “was emotional and completely surreal because it was something we’d been anticipating – the mood of finishing the show had been hanging over all of us for months as the final scripts were coming in – and then, here we were at the moment.”

As for what happened next, Weiner says, “After Jon’s last shot, there were probably 350 people on stage,” he says. “We had champagne, and he and I both [spoke]. Yearbooks had been made for all of the cast and crew, so people were signing the yearbooks and hugging and taking pictures.”

But pictures weren’t all Hamm’s costar Elisabeth Moss (a.k.a. Peggy Olson) took: “I pillaged!” she says. “I got a ring I’ve worn in every episode and the red thermos Peggy carries every time she leaves a job.”

Hamm confirms that “Lizzie [Moss] and I were a little more sanguine about [ending the series] than others, I think. We were like, ‘We’re not dead!’ ”