How I Met Your Mother is easily one of the most entertaining and popular sitcoms created to date. If anything, it underwent such a successful run that a majority of its star-studded lead cast went on to gross some incredible roles that further shaped their respective careers. For instance, Cobie Smulders scored the iconic role of Agent Maria Hill in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
However, Josh Radnor, who played the lead role of Ted Mosby in the superhit series, ended up in a pickle because of the series. As it turns out, Mosby was so not okay with being typecast that he even went on to pass on any and every role that felt too similar to his iconic HIMYM role. In fact, if anything, he could have even gone on to destroy his career because of the same!
How I Met Your Mother‘s Josh Radnor Had Immense Fear of Being Typecast
For about almost a decade since its first episode aired, Josh Radnor did an immaculate job at bringing the dorky but kind and passionate Ted Mosby to life in the How I Met Your Mother sitcom. That said, he was pretty closely associated with his character due to the same. But this very factor was what bothered the actor.
As it turns out, Radnor was anything but okay with being talked about synonymously with his HIMYM character and thus, also feared being typecast into the same roles. Because of this very reason and fear of being typecast, he even ended up passing on multiple roles offered to him that felt very similar to that of Mosby.
During an interview with the Smashing Interviews Magazine, the actor confessed the same, saying:
I pass on any role that feels like the other role on How I Met Your Mother. I would rather work a little bit less and do things that feel different.
Apparently for Radnor, the role he takes on has to “feel right” to him before he reciprocates it with his acceptance. That said, he spends his free time throwing himself into other fields that he is passionate about rather than working 24/7 as an actor. As he continued to say:
When I’m not working, I throw myself into music or write, and I’ve written a couple of plays. I’m not super desperate to work as an actor all the time. It has to feel right because I do so many things.
While that’s that, Radnor also feels the need to emphasize that his character in the Cobie Smulders starrer hit sitcom is actually just a character he once embodied, and he has a lot more to himself than just the nerdy Ted Mosby. This, of course, means that fans need to allow themselves to associate him with other characters as well.
Fans Need to Remember That Josh Radnor is “A special actor that’s theater trained”
Continuing during the same interview, Radnor further explained extensively the reasoning behind this perspective of his passing on any and every role that feels too similar to that of Mosby, saying:
I don’t think the whole world is obsessively watching How I Met Your Mother over and over and over again, but there is an army of people that do that, and they want me to be that guy.
This is because, according to his perspective, he is a free actor who can take on whichever role he wants. That being put out there, associating him so closely with one character, in particular, would actually be an injustice to all his other roles.
As he continued to explain:
But I’m an actor. I’m a special actor that’s theater trained. I’ve got to keep moving. So they can watch that show as much as they want, and I’m delighted that they are. It’s a great show, and I’m happy to be part of it, and it changed my life. But now I’m doing different stuff.
Obviously, getting stuck as only one character in fans’ eyes would be nothing short of a nightmare for an actor as versatile as Radnor, so his point is only understandable. But even then, passing on roles just because of this reason also sounds like the very thing that may have destroyed his blooming career.
You can stream How I Met Your Mother on Netflix.
