Cobie Smulders’ Shocking Confession: The Unlikely Way She Helped Josh Radnor Prepare for Intimate Scenes on How I Met Your Mother
In a recent episode of the popular podcast How We Made Your Mother, Cobie Smulders, who played Robin Scherbatsky on the hit sitcom How I Met Your Mother, revealed a surprising technique she used to help her co-star Josh Radnor prepare for intimate scenes on set. According to Smulders, she would whisper "extremely inappropriate" things to Radnor before filming scenes in bed together.
The confession was made on the podcast, which is hosted by Radnor and How I Met Your Mother co-creator Craig Thomas. Smulders explained that she used a technique called "the moment before," which is typically used in auditions to help actors get into character. However, Smulders took this technique to a whole new level by using it to set the mood for Radnor before filming intimate scenes.
As reported by Yahoo Entertainment, Smulders said: "Josh and I had quite a few intimate scenes, and so I would try to, as much as humanly possible, before we would roll, whisper something to Josh that was just extremely inappropriate." Radnor agreed with Smulders’ assessment, adding that there were a lot of post-coital scenes on the show, which made Smulders’ technique even more necessary.
Smulders laughed at how she was just being a "giving actor" to her scene partner by laying out what their characters had just done in bed before the scene began. "I feel like I’m an amazing scene partner and I’m just thinking about the other person and making sure that they’re comfortable, making sure that there’s a connection there," she said. Radnor joked that Smulders would often leave him speechless with her comments, which would be timed perfectly to coincide with the director’s call of "action."
When Thomas asked Smulders to provide an example of what she would whisper to Radnor, she refused to share any details. Instead, she teased that listeners should "just think of the worst possible thing and that’s really what I [said]." Radnor praised Smulders for her creativity, saying that she had a real talent for spinning "the dirtiest webs of narrative."
Entertainment Weekly reports that Thomas and the other producers of the show were unaware of Smulders’ technique, which was used throughout the show’s nine-season run. Radnor has since praised Smulders for her ability to help him get into character, saying that she has a "visionary" approach to acting.
The original article on Yahoo Entertainment quotes Smulders as saying: "Only Josh and I know exactly what was said, and the context of what was said, and how it was delivered… But now you know what was going on." Radnor added that listeners can use their imagination to wander and try to figure out what Smulders might have said to him.
How I Met Your Mother originally aired from 2005 to 2014 and followed the story of Ted Mosby and his friends as they navigated love, careers, and life in New York City. The show’s finale revealed that Ted ultimately married and had children with Tracy McConnell, but the show’s earlier seasons focused heavily on Ted’s on-again, off-again relationship with Robin.
