Cobie Smulders and Chris Pratt Actor Interview
Have you seen Delivery Man yet?! I’ve seen it 3 times and *LOVE* it! It’s a perfect date night movie or something to watch with your friends. Make sure you check it out!
I had the opportunity to sit down with 24 other bloggers and two of the movie’s stars Cobie Smulders (Emma) and Chris Pratt (Brett).
Our questions are in GREEN. Chris’ answers are in BLUE (CP) and Cobie’s in PURPLE (CS). Chris was running a little late in the LA traffic so we started with Cobie and Chris joined in.
Are you excited?
CS: There’s so much going on. I’m excited to be here right now. Excited to meet all of you, yes. Where is everybody from? Who wants to know about Delivery Man, guys? You’re gonna see it tonight.
How did you first become involved?
CS: Well, I’m sure all of you know this but I’ll repeat it anyway. It’s based on the original film is a French Canadian film by the name of Starbuck and I saw that a couple of months before I even read the script or anything and I really loved the film. I was really moved by the story. I really loved the characters. I really loved that it was Canadian because I’m Canadian as well and then I heard it was being redone and was kind of surprised ‘cause I thought it was such a great film. Obviously, it’s nice for it to come to America and I was also excited that Kevin Scott who wrote and directed the original was gonna do our version as well and I just thought he had such a strong vision and he had such great storytelling ability that I was really — I just knew it was gonna be a good movie. And then I heard Vince was attached and so I started auditioning. I just went in and auditioned and met with all the guys and convinced them to give me the role.
What was your favorite place to film?
CS: In New York. Well, I loved shooting in Brooklyn. We shot in Carol Gardens, we shot in Parks Slope and we shot a lot of our exteriors there. I think my character’s apartment was there and a lot of the outdoor scenes that we shot were in Brooklyn as well and I’ve always wanted to shoot a movie in Brooklyn. I was really excited that we were able to because nowadays it’s usually like, you know, Detroit for Brooklyn and so just to keep the cost down or whatever. I think at one time we were looking at New Orleans but I feel that in this film, the city of New York is such a strong character in our movie and it just adds so much to it, visually and it also just made it so much fun to shoot in. I mean you’re in Brooklyn and instead of going to get your coffee at craft service you go to like the local coffee shop and have a cup of coffee. It just made everything just much more fun.
How did being a mom affect your role?
CS: Well very much. I mean this movie is really all about parenting. It’s all about what it takes to be a parent so I automatically connected with that at the same time .. (Chris walks into the room) Here he is. Look how handsome he is.
CP: Hi.
CS: I was just answering how being a mom helped with this film. And I was pregnant in this film, not in life but I had the fake belly on and I remember just crazy emotions that come into play when you’re pregnant and I think that one of the things that I know I crave and I think that pregnant women do crave is stability. You know, you’re in this situation where especially if it’s your first child a lot of things are unknown and in terms of this movie, the character of Emma, she has a very unreliable partner so she’s just sort of trying to figure all that out.
CP: Well for me, my son had just been born when I was doing this movie. I think he was maybe two months old. So for me I wasn’t necessarily able to relate to my character’s journey as a father in this movie ‘cause he’s like so overwhelmed with the idea of being a father. I was still finding every little tiny thing endlessly fascinating about my own son. But I did miss him a lot and so like they were moments in the performance where I needed to just stare off into space and think about something that bummed me out. The fact that I was away from him was something that I could go to if I needed to so that was, that was my way out.
You had to put on a belly?
CS: That was fake. That was not me. That was a fake belly.
How did you gain weight?
CP: Well, I just applied all of the principles of losing weight and just reversed them. You know, I had just come off from a movie where I had gotten in good shape. I did this movie, Zero Dark Thirty and I got in good shape for that. In a way like how a lot of people lose weight I just crash dieted and worked out and starved myself until I was skinny. So by the time I was done with that movie my body was really ready to gain weight, rapidly. My wife was in the last third of her pregnancy and so a good 20 pounds of that was probably just sympathy weight and gaining weight alongside her as we indulged in things that we don’t normally eat.
And then I had a meeting with the director and I saw the original movie. The actor who played my role in the original, really brilliant actor, and part of the charm was that he was a bit of a bigger guy and I was like this is really great. It’s a role where I can gain a lot of weight and I’ve always wanted to do that. I’ve done it before once and I really wanted to do it again and see if I could really push it this time and so I did it. Everything you think, you know, minus any guilt. It was really great.
Did you lose it all?
CP: Yeah, I lost it. I wish it could have been immediate but it took a long time. It took about seven months or eight months to lose it.
How long did it take to gain it?
CP: It took about the same time. I think I was rapped on Zero Dark Thirty in June and so by November I had gained about 70 pounds.
CS: Well done. Well done.
What was it like working with Vince?
CS: I loved working with Vince. He is so — I think he’s everything that you would kind of expect him to be. Super funny, super quick. Going into this movie I was very intimidated because, you know, he’s sort of known for his amazing improv and I was very rusty and so when I came to this film and met him and he was so supportive and he’s also very considerate and very charming. Like he really goes out of his way to put everyone at ease on set and set the tone for everybody so it was pretty great.
CP: I feel the same thing. I mean he’s beloved by people, his fans and people because he just seems real. You know, he seems like a regular guy and I think that he’s everything you would really hope that he would be if you’re a fan of his. He’s not like some Hollywood A hole. He’s, you know, no nonsense when it comes down to doing work. He does work and makes sure everyone around him does good work and that’s important as the captain of the ship. But at the same time, charming, caring and polite. He’s polite to everyone from the people who are his wait staff, restaurants ,to fans and strangers on the street who approach him, who like him. He always gives a little bit of himself to people so he’s really everything you’d hope he would be.
How many times did you laugh?
CP: I don’t know this — I mean I think that question is probably indicative of what you’d come to expect from a Vince Vaughn movie especially in a sort of outlandish premise like this. Vut once you’ll see this movie, you’ll see that this isn’t a movie that’s a laugh a minute comedy. I mean there are funny laughs in the movie but essentially everything is teetered to like a very strong, dramatic through line that each of the scenes we’re in. So we weren’t just falling and laughing a lot.
I mean the funny scenes that are supposed to be funny are funny. There were some moments that were particularly funny, for me in particular working with these young kids that I was working with. They were just amazing kids. But for the most part it’s actually pretty dramatic in terms of the turns that the characters taken and the way the scenes are shaped so it wasn’t, it wasn’t like being on the set of Old School or Wedding Crashers or one of his other more outlandish comedies.
What’s your favorite scene?
CS: I had this great seen with Vince at the end of the film, this very long scene where he goes into a speech proposing and then things start unraveling. And that was a really great scene to shoot because it was just this monologue, this never ending monologue and Vince just did a great job with it and for me it was very fun to play off of not only just as an actor but the circumstances being I just delivered a baby and so there’s a lot going on. it was a fun thing to play.
Were those improvisations?
CS: No, scripted. The movie was very scripted to sort of go back to what Chris said. I think that what happens is when you’re doing more improv in a movie or on a set in general like things, you just throw things out and things switch up. I mean this because Ken had such a strong vision for this film and, and maybe even stronger because this is the second time he did it. He really was specific about the characters and how he wanted them to relate to each other.
How would you respond if you found out you had that many children?
CS: I’d be so stoked. Wouldn’t you be so stoked?
CP: It’d be like how did that happen?
CS: Like oh, my gosh. I don’t remember birthing any of them.
CP: It would be different for you than it would be for me.
CS: It would be very different.
CP: I’d have to go to my wife and be like I told you there was a past. Didn’t get quite into how deep.
What did you like most about the story?
CS: For me, I was really moved the way that Vince’s character, David, chose to connect for the first time with his children that were his biologically. I really loved the way that Ken wrote these scenes and also the way that it all sort of played out.
CP: Yeah, I think for me a movie like this, it goes back to this execution of this idea ‘cause it could be a pretty broad idea, you know. There’s a version of this movie where these kids, you know, no one of them is a crazy kid and he’s part wolf. It could like go really broad. But instead it went to real places and really the movie about halfway through when he starts his journey on finding out and some of them are crazy like a professional NBA player like wow, that’s amazing or an actor who need a role and he helps him get the role and that’s great.
But then all of a sudden you’ve got a kid who has needed assistance his entire life and lives in an assistant living home and that’s like then all of a sudden you’re, you’re moved and there’s a girl who is, you know, chemical dependency issues and you’re starting to dealing with these themes and these realities that make it a real examination of humanity versus just like, you know, see how silly you could play out the outlandish part of this.
Then we took a picture with both of them and headed to the Red Carpet premier!
Make sure to keep up with all things Delivery Man! It’s in Theaters NOW!
I loved this movie and am so excited to read your interview with them. Thanks for sharing. It looks like you had a lot of fun.
what a fun interview thanks for sharing
YOU got to meet him.. I am so jealous he is so good!
I love christ pratt! Can’t wait to see the movie!