Cobie Smulders

Interview dated before March 24,2008 obviously
Source :
Kat Angus
canada.com

Before you ask: no, Britney Spears did not act crazy on the set of How I Met Your Mother."She was a true professional," says Cobie Smulders, the Canadian actress who plays Robin on the critically-acclaimed CBS sitcom. "She was on time, she knew all of her lines and just wanted to do a good job."Spears's appearance on the show, airing March 24, has attracted a lot of media attention, but Smulders has nothing but sympathy for the singer's hectic life."I think [Britney] is a really nice person who is just stuck in this frickin' crazy ball of media attention and it’s just crazy," says Smulders. "I would never be able to handle that amount of publicity and that amount of press surrounding me at all times."So was Smulders disappointed that she didn't share any screentime with infamous pop star?She pauses at length as she considers her answer."Sure?" she finally responds uncertainly.Another frequent question Smulders receives is who the show's titular mother is going to be."I constantly get questions like, 'You're the mother, right? Are you? Are you not?'" she says. "Nobody tells me anything!"As one of the first television shows to return with fresh episodes after the writers strike, the production schedule on How I Met Your Mother has gone into overdrive, with new episodes airing only a couple of weeks after being filmed."The writers are under a lot of pressure because they're like, 'All right, strike's over, we have a week to come up with nine episodes,'" Smulders explains. "Then we shoot on five sets and then overnight, they're torn down and four new ones are built the next day. It's crazy. These people work like magical elves."Born and raised in Vancouver, 25-year-old Smulders began acting in her late teens, doing guest spots on shows like Smallville and The L Word before finally landing her role on How I Met Your Mother in 2005. In the pilot, main character Ted (Josh Radnor) meets and falls for the beautiful, intelligent Robin, but the audience doesn't find out until the end of the episode that she is not the woman he eventually marries. Now into its third season, How I Met Your Mother has chronicled the progress and eventual breakdown of Robin and Ted's relationship but has yet to actually introduce Ted's future wife."I think Robin and Ted's relationship is such a mirror of things that happen in so many people's lives, including my own," says Smulders. "Where you're like, 'Hey, we're attracted to each other. We know it's not going to work, but let's try it anyway! What a great idea!' And it doesn't work out but you gave it a shot because you have to, sometimes. I think we have such a great writing staff and they're so good about using their own life experiences and turning to things that happen every day and using it."The show's writers even decided to stay true to life by making Smulders' character Canadian."They told me, 'It's going to be so great. We're just going to make so many political statements about America, like about health care and President Bush,'" Smulders remembers. "And now it's like, 'Eh? Oh, look at you, speaking Canadian, ya' hoser!'"Of course, without Robin's Canadian background, How I Met Your Mother never would have come up with one of the funniest episodes of any television show from the past several years. In the second-season episode "Slap Bet," Robin reveals that she was an Alanis-type teen pop star in Canada named Robin Sparkles, reluctantly showing her friends a cheesy, '80s-themed music video for her hit song, "Let's Go to the Mall!" The process of creating the song and filming the music video was both an exciting and exhausting experience for Smulders."I went into a studio and recorded the song, then I worked with a choreographer for a few days and then we shot the video. It was like an aerobics routine - a three-minute aerobics routine," she says. "And there was so much press on the set of the video, too, so at the end of every take, I'd be swarmed by reporters and cameras and I'd be like, 'Okay, guys... one second... Just... give me... one second... to catch my... breath!' I was in such bad shape."But that wasn't the last of Robin Sparkles: Smulders reveals they will soon be shooting a second music video that will be just as tacky as the first."There's not really going to be any dancing this time. It's going to be more of a ballad," she says, giggling. "I listened to the song for the first time yesterday. It's about teenage angst and what I visualize is a lot of slow motion, black and white shots and fake crying."But even with hilarious music videos and all the press surrounding Spears's guest spot, whether or not How I Met Your Mother will return for a fourth season is still up in the air, a subject that clearly worries Smulders a little."[CBS] is being really weird with us. They've always been really weird with us," she says. "I really like my job. I like going to work every day. We have, at times, better numbers than 30 Rock and better numbers than My Name Is Earl and it just doesn't seem like it. We're in this place where we're a little bit stuck. I think we're stuck right in the middle of being a huge hit and being on the cutting block."As for when the show will reveal the mother's identity, Smulders has her own theories about how the mysterious character will be introduced."I've always seen the mother as someone we meet and then that's the end of the show, so if [CBS] is like 'Guys, you don't have a fourth season,' that's when writers would be like, 'OK! Time to bring the mother in!'" she speculates, though she's quick to add, "But I really don't know what's going to happen at the end of the show! I really, seriously know nothing."How I Met Your Mother airs Mondays at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT, 7:30 p.m. MT on CBS

Labels: Interviews