Richard’s “Canada AM” interview with “Delivery Man” co-star Cobie Smulders.
“It’s a blown up version of something that happens in real life,” she says. “You had a relationship when you were younger and all of a sudden a woman contacts the father and, ‘Oh, by the way, you have a seven year old.’ Obviously there is room for comedy there but everyone wants him to step up and be the hero and watch him do that journey.”
“We were so lucky to have [original director] Ken Scott. He did it so well the first time that he was able to do it a second time and have those same sentiments in it and spoken in English.”
In a recent tweet-a-thon to promote Delivery Man Cobie Smulders teased that people should go see the film because Chris Pratt gets naked.
“He doesn’t get naked,” she says a week later, admitting to the fib.
“That was very overwhelming. I had never done that before. There were 9000 tweets and I didn’t know what to do. It was crazy. I was trying to write and my phone was (shaking).”
The Canadian-born How I Met Your Mother actress stars opposite Vince Vaughn in a remake of Starbuck, a popular French-Canadian film about a man who finds personal redemption when he learns he is the father of 533 children.
“I went into watching Starbuck and then reading this script, like, ‘533 kids… from a sperm donor! What’s this going to be?’
“It’s still super funny, but I found myself affected by the way he connected with the children. The way they connected as human beings. Going out and doing a good deed and having it affect somebody in a positive way. I’ve always believed when you do good, you get good in return. That’s when I feel my best and there are many aspects of that in this film.”
The sweet, uplifting message of Delivery Man struck a chord with Smulders who says she “related to it on a parental level. I’m a mom myself and I think it touched upon so many themes of family and of being a parent.”
The story has also resonated with audiences.
The original film was 2011’s most successful homegrown film in Quebec. Smulders thinks the appeal of this very specific story has to do with its universality.
“It’s a blown up version of something that happens in real life,” she says. “You had a relationship when you were younger and all of a sudden a woman contacts the father and, ‘Oh, by the way, you have a seven year old.’ Obviously there is room for comedy there but everyone wants him to step up and be the hero and watch him do that journey.”
“We were so lucky to have [original director] Ken Scott. He did it so well the first time that he was able to do it a second time and have those same sentiments in it and spoken in English.”
Now there’s even talk of a Bollywood remake.
“We should have done a Bollywood song and dance at the end of our movie,” Smulders laughs.
The new comedy Starbuck has a story line which sounds ripped from the headlines.
Recently the New York Times reported on a sperm donor who has fathered 150 children with more on the way. The Times was slightly behind the times, however, according to director and writer Ken Scott. “We’ve known of these cases and have been telling people and everyone says, ‘Yeah, come on, this is not possible,’” he says.
“It is possible. It is actually happening and not in one case but in several throughout the world. People don’t believe me but they believe the New York Times. As if they have the truth, but not me!”
From the film Bon Cop, Bad Cop, star Patrick Huard plays David, an irresponsible Montrealer whose “donations,” under the pseudonym Starbuck, unwittingly made him the father of 533 children, 142 of whom have filed a class action lawsuit to learn their biological father’s real identity.
Through his “kids” he learns commitment and responsibility.
“It would have been impossible for me to do this part [before I had kids of my own],” Huard says.
“I really think I was preparing for this part for years and that’s why it feels so natural. Probably not even four years ago could I have done this role. I was ready and ripe for that part now. That’s why it is so magical for me.
“When I read the script that’s the feeling I had. I am the age of the character now, and I have that feeling — that I want to commit.
“When I was even 30 I wasn’t committed in every part of my life as I am now. When I read the script, I thought, not only do I want to do this, but I want to do it now.
“I am ready.”
He was ready to make the film but anxious to try something different. “I changed my natural rhythm,” says Huard. “I wasn’t even moving at the same pace I move in life.”
“The way the film is structured his character is in every scene,” says Scott. “So I needed a well crafted actor, talented, charismatic and funny. Patrick was the right guy.
“I think what’s interesting is that Patrick was a natural choice because he has all these qualities but he is playing a character very different from what he’s done before.
“That was very exciting, that feeling that we are doing something new.”
Richard’s “Canada AM” interview with “Delivery Man” co-star Cobie Smulders.
