When the How I Met Your Father Season 2 trailer came out, one thing immediately jumped out at us: the fact that John Corbett is playing Sophie’s (Hilary Duff) love interest! (The others are surprised when he joins them and he’s the “old guy” they’ve been “razzing” her about dating.)
Not only did Corbett star in Sex and the City alongside Kim Cattrall (who plays Future Sophie) — he wasn’t Samantha’s love interest but Carrie’s (Sarah Jessica Parker) and he’ll be back as Aidan in And Just Like That… — but he and Duff previously worked together as well. Corbett played Duff’s character’s music teacher in the 2004 film Raise Your Voice (pictured above). For the HIMYF team, that didn’t come up until they were into the process of casting his role.
“Honestly, we started from a place of who would be the most fun for the role and you know, we were, as we always do, batting around ideas with the writers. And then the idea of Corbett came up, and we all just thought that was so exciting,” executive producer and writer Elizabeth Berger tells TV Insider.
“And then as we sort of got further along in the process, we were like, ‘Oh, right, cool, he did this movie with Hillary a million years ago.’ And then we thought, ‘Is that weird?’ And then we thought, ‘No, it’s awesome. Hillary’s a grown woman now and everyone can handle it,’” she continued.
As for Corbett’s history with Future Sophie, “the Kim connection is also just really fun that they’ve worked together before and that they like each other and that just made it all the more special,” Berger says. “But it was really just about who’s the best for this role and we all just felt he clearly was.”
We’ll just have to wait and see if it’s “weird” or “awesome” (or both) onscreen.
How I Met Your Father, Season 2 Premiere, Tuesday, January 24, Hulu
