Cobie Smulders Only Snagged ‘How I Met Your Mother Role’ After Jennifer Love Hewitt Rejected It for ‘The Ghost Whisperer
When you think of which tv series’ you’d consider iconic, legendary, or fan-favorite level of achievement, How I Met Your Mother is probably high on the list. It’s a pop culture phenomenon, almost with the same notoriety as Friends or even Seinfeld. And while it continues to air in reruns, fans still talk about it, watch it, and recite favorite lines.
Do you know who else might be thinking about How I Met Your Mother? Jennifer Love Hewitt might occasionally reflect on the CBS tv show, except she’s probably not as enthusiastic as fans are about looking back. Hewitt is reported to have been a top choice for the role of Robin Scherbatsky. But she turned it down, making room for Cobie Smulders to become a star. Given the success of the show now and over time, Hewitt seems to have missed out on a big opportunity.
‘How I Met Your Mother’ is very much still a fan favorite
If you haven’t watched How I Met Your Mother or are still catching up, the spoiler-free premise is pretty straightforward. There are nine seasons of adventures to enjoy, and you’ll follow five main characters, as a flashback narrative, of Ted Mosby, who’s telling his children the story of how he met their mother.
Part of the tv show’s success is the portrayal and intricacies of these core characters. In addition to Ted as the protagonist, his friend circle includes Marshall Eriksen, Barney Stinson, Lily Aldrin, and Robin Scherbatsky, who’s played by Smulders. These five friends and their antics as single and dating adults resonate with fans still today. And despite the few plot holes, as Insider points out, it’s a nine-season show worth bingeing.
Jennifer Love Hewitt was offered this part
Some actors are still kicking themselves for having passed up an opportunity to play a role in a movie or tv series that ended up being hugely successful. Hewitt is probably one of them. Glamour talks about the time Hewitt rejected the role of Robin Scherbatsky on HIMYM. The show’s two creators, Craig Thomas and Carter Bays admitted during a Reddit AMA that Hewitt had been their first choice for the role.
Instead of signing on to HIMYM, Hewitt elected to play the lead role in the drama, The Ghost Whisperer, about a clairvoyant who could communicate with the dead to affect change in the real world. The Ghost Whisperer ended in 2010, which meant Hewitt had more free time to tune into HIMYM. Smulders, who had been marginally unknown at the time, had assumed the role of Robin and hasn’t looked back since.
Everyone loves Cobie Smulders
Smulders had been working in Hollywood for a while before How I Met Your Mother, according to her IMDb profile. You might remember her role in The Lego Movie (voice of Wonder Woman,) Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Maria Hill,) or as Leigh Ostin in The L Word.
But her career since HIMYM has only seemed to blossom even more. She played Maria Hill in a series of Avengers movies and starred in several tv series, including A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017,) Nature Cat (2017-2018,) and Friends from College (2017-2019.)
But what fans are most excited about is a new chapter in the How I Met Your Mother story. How I Met Your Father began earlier this year, and Smulders is reprising her role as Robin. Hulu has officially confirmed that the tv show would come back for a second season, with double the episodes, too.
Smulders is probably the best person to play Robin. And it looks like Jennifer Love Hewitt missed out on an opportunity.
