Canadian actor Cobie Smulders is best known for her role in How I Met Your Mother and only just recently joined the Hollywood family in the summer of 2012 with a key role in The Avengers, leading to multiple return appearances in its upcoming sequel along with Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In between all this Smulders managed to squeeze in two very different movies: as Vince Vaughn's pregnant, police officer girlfriend in the dramedy, Delivery Man; and as the voiceover for Wonder Woman in The LEGO Movie.
Delivery Man is based on the French Canadian film, Starbuck (both written/directed by the Ken Scott) and tells the story of slacker, David Wozniak (Vince Vaughn) who can't commit to his pregnant girlfriend Emma (Smulders), and lacks any real serious focus in life. Everything changes when David is forced to take responsibility for his actions after learning his anonymous donor donations to a sperm bank has resulted in a lawsuit decades later and the revelation that he is the biological father of 533 children.
Screen Rant chatted to Smulders about her roles in Delivery Man and the Marvel Cinematic Universe - the latter of which to find out if her character Agent Maria Hill will eventually steps in the Director's chair.
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Tell us about Emma. What attracted you to the script?
Cobie Smulders: Well Emma who I play in the movie, Delivery Man. She's a New York cop. She's very tough. She's very stubborn. She likes being in control and she's currently dating…a kind of… he's a bit of an underachiever. He doesn't really have any major life goals. But he's very sweet. He's very loveable and he's got a really big heart. She's in this relationship and she finds out that she's pregnant and so she has a big decision to make and she gives David an ultimatum which is, you need to change who you are and you need to recommit to this relationship and recommit to this child and change your life or I'm going to raise this baby by myself. I can do that. They have an interesting switch about half way through which is when she comes to him for help because she's having doubts about what kind of mother she's going to be. And he comes in and really comforts her and really supports her. And that kind of empowers her to continue on and to believe in herself.
So working with Vince, was it tough to keep a straight face?
He's a very funny man. I mean, when we're not shooting of course, he's very very funny. All the scenes we did together were pretty intense and very emotionally driven so there wasn't a lot of breaking.
You're everywhere at the moment… You're doing the voice over as Wonder Woman in the new LEGO movie, and of course you're popping up as Agent Maria Hill. In the trailer we see Nick Fury in the hospital, so does this mean there's a power shift and Hill gets to step into the Director's chair?
I can't tell you anything! I think I would be taken out! I think she's a SHIELD agent over there (points to her makeup artist). She's a MARVEL agent.
What is your criteria for selecting roles?
It's all about the story really, if the story speaks to me in the case of the Delivery Man. I'm a parent and the theme is of parenting in this movie really spoke to me. I was drawn to that. And also, who's involved. I really loved Starbuck and I was eager to work with Ken and I've always loved Vince's work, so I was really excited that he was attached.
So, is there a heartfelt message in this film?
Oh yeah, I think that there are a few. I think the main one for me was, all of these kids are really looking for their biological father and obviously genetics is meaning a lot to them but I think what it comes down to is the time you put into a relationship is how close you will be and family is about spending time together and about having that bond, rather than having the same blood.
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Cobie Smulders can next be heard in The LEGO Movie (along with co-star Chris Pratt) and seen in Disney and Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
A DreamWorks Pictures and Reliance Entertainment presentation, the film is written for the screen and directed by Ken Scott, based on “Starbuck,” the original screenplay written by Ken Scott and Martin Petit, and also stars Chris Pratt and Cobie Smulders. “Delivery Man” is produced by André Rouleau and executive produced by Ray Angelic, Scott Mednick and Mark Sourian.
Delivery Man hits theaters on November 22, 2013