How I Met Your Mother star Josh Radnor is Playboy’s April issue 20Q. Radnor has also recently made his writing-directing debut with his film, Happythankyoumoreplease, currently making the rounds on the Film Festival Circuit.
In the 20Q, Radnor talks about dealing with fame, the staying power of How I Met Your Mother, on how his fans ever confuse his TV character with his real-life personality, and how he differs in real life from his TV character.
On the female attention he receives because of his television fame: “There’s something really ugly about women who want to be with you just because they saw you in a movie or on a show. I was out one night and this girl left her friends at their table to come over and ask me if I was on How I Met Your Mother. I said I was, and she rejoined her friends, who just kept staring, so I went over and shook some hands. Later a guy handed me a note from this girl that read, ‘Josh, do you want to sleep with me tonight?’ It had a box where I could check yes or no. I turned bright red and said, ‘Uh, I have a girlfriend’—which I didn’t at the time.”
On the staying power of How I Met Your Mother despite the show’s roller-coaster ratings: “A lot of articles have been written about why we watch these ‘friend families’ on TV. The people on them become your extended family on some level, which I guess is a little creepy. ” [laughs]
On whether his fans ever confuse his TV character with his real-life personality: “Demographically, Ted Mosby is not all that different from me. Just by happenstance one of the show’s creators is from Shaker Heights, Ohio. I grew up in Columbus and wear a lot of Ohio State T-shirts. When people see me around, some of them probably get that sense like ‘I know him’ or ‘I went to high school with that guy.’ I get this strange vertigo when I meet people who watch the show. I don’t know them, yet they feel familiar with me.”
On how he differs from his TV character: “That character is not me. The more distance I’ve gotten over the past five or six years, the more I feel I’ve grown and changed, the easier it’s been to play this character because it doesn’t feel like me at all. I don’t watch the show much anymore. I have a TV, but I don’t know how to turn it on.”
The April issue of Playboy hits newsstands Friday, March 18, and available online at playboydigital.com.
Read Josh Radnor's full interview in Playboy after the jump.
[Playboy]
(Photo: Playboy)
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