LOS ANGELES — Don’t confuse “How I Met Your Father” with “How I Met Your Mother,” star Hilary Duff says.
Characters don’t match up. “This person isn’t our Barney. This person isn’t our Ted. We love the landscape of that show and we can we appreciate how they told that story,” she says. “But, really, the characters are just so different.”
Then, too? “This is just a much more current explanation of a friend group and young people today.”
Some of the exploits of “Mother’s” regulars wouldn’t fly in the face of #MeToo. “Father,” she says, is “original without borrowing.”
In the Hulu comedy, now in its second season, Duff plays a photographer looking for love. She confides in a group of friends and helps them find comfort in their own relationships.
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The cast of “How I Met Your Father,” from left, Charlie (Tom Ainsley), Jesse (Chris Lowell), Ellen (Tien Tran), Sophie (Hilary Duff), Valentin…
While Duff starred in the Disney series, “Lizzie McGuire,” when she was a teen, this is a different situation – she’s an executive producer who helps shape the show’s direction.
Her last series, “Younger,” was shot in the single camera format and “it takes a long time to shoot those.”
Now, after shooting “Father” with multiple cameras without an audience, “I can’t imagine doing (a series) any other way.” Multi-camera shows bring more energy. “Every day we’re moving and there’s a pace.”
While some “Lizzie” looks now make her cringe, Duff says the process “prepared me in a way that has stuck with me forever. Obviously, the business is something that constantly changed. But I don’t exactly know how. I think I just feel really grateful that I keep getting hired.”
While the first season of “Father” only had 10 episodes, the second (which started in January) will boast 20. That ups the ante and also lets other characters get their moments in the spotlight.
Executive Producer Elizabeth Berger says those first episodes helped the show’s creatives discover who the characters were. “The writing experience is very different because you’re bringing to the table so specifically what everybody does so well. Things evolve organically because you’re getting to know the humans and you’re getting to know their brilliant work.”
Christopher Lowell, who plays Jesse, says the writers “learned our voices. We sort of learned our voices and they really play to all of our strengths. So the characters get even more distinguished.”
Tien Tran, who plays Ellen, says it’s often easy to predict how an actor is going to say a line. “You’re like, ‘I know how they’re going to move.’
“It’s very easy to take a toxic path for some of these decisions that our characters make, but I love that our show oftentimes takes a healthier, more mature (path),” she ads. “Sitcoms of yore would maybe take the easy, sort of toxic path. It’s a good model for how relationships should be approached in real life.”
Pamela Fryman, who worked on “Mother,” says it was great to change the narrative and try something different. Because “Father” is on Hulu, she has time to do longer episodes – not a 21-minute network show. “It becomes a bigger, more fun show to do.”
Jesse (Christopher Lowell), left, comes to Sid (Suraj Sharma) for advice.
She and the writers get a chance to see what the actors can do when they all sit down for the first reading of a script. “We like being surprised with whatever they bring to the table,” says Francia Raisa, one of the writers.
Similarly, the actors enjoy discovering what situations the writers have put them in. “They really surprise us at every turn,” Duff says. “It exceeds my expectations, but it is a collaborative effort. Everyone is very ‘open ears’ and ready to make us feel heard, which is a cool place to be heard.”
The actors often try to corner the writers during rehearsals to ask a multitude of questions.
The only problem? “I recently discovered that we’ve been lied to,” says Tom Ainsley, who plays Charlie. “Quite often, I’ll get what I think is the scoop and I’ll come in the next morning and tell everyone. And they all go, ‘We haven’t heard that.’ And I go, ‘Well, they can’t have told me. There’s no way they would have told me and only me.’ And, I have a feeling they’re trying to find out where the leak is.”
“How I Met Your Father” returns for its second season Jan. 24 on Hulu
Hilary Duff and Christopher Lowell often get moments together on “How I Met Your Father.”
Ellen (Tien Tran) shaves Charlie (Tom Ainsley) in “How I Met Your Father.”
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