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 Wedding Date stars Debra Messing & Dermot Mulroney. |
HOLLYWOOD -- Whether it's a hit or a flop, The Wedding Date certainly gives Dermot Mulroney plenty of exposure -- professionally and personally.
Mulroney's co-starring role as an escort hired to pose as Debra Messing's boyfriend may be the 41-year-old actor's highest-profile role to date. It may also be his least-clothed work, thanks to a scene in which he drops trou, takes a shower and then drops towel in front of a wide-eyed Messing. The camera angle prevents us from getting the full Monty, but the seated actress got an eye-level eyeful.
The roguishly handsome Mulroney wouldn't have had it any other way.
"I was determined to do it au natural -- nude all the way," he insists with a mischievous smirk. "Only because, you know, when's the next chance I'm going to have to flash Debra just for the sport of it?"
It also happened to be in keeping with his character's nature, he suggests -- like anybody's buying that.
"Feeling shy or anything would have been half-measures in this part. I think you see that I don't suffer from shyness in this role."
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As for Messing, that's another story.
"Debra, for the first time ever, had trouble with her lines. We just did it over and over -- she'll tell you," he laughs. (Admits Messing: "I was gobsmacked. It was actually shockingly easy just to sit there and react. In all honesty, I think it was the first time either one of us had shot a scene like that.")
Mulroney confesses his wife, actress Catherine Keener, hasn't seen the scene, but he's sure she won't mind as "she's familiar with, um, what that looks like."
What Mulroney isn't so easygoing about is the other kind of exposure he gets from leading man roles like this. Although he's appeared in more than 40 movies over the last 20 years -- including hits like My Best Friend's Wedding and About Schmidt -- he's managed to fly beneath the pop-cultural radar. That's something else he wouldn't have any other way.
"I don't get recognized that much, really. And when I do, everybody's nice and don't take up too much of my time. It's just kinda low-key. It's weird. I almost don't wanna talk about it and jinx it," he says. "In fact, I feel like the idea of doing a whole bunch of more popular movies, the result of that isn't always desired. You know what I mean? There's a downside to the upside. That has started to occur to me more these days, that it's diminishing returns."
For an unsubtle reminder on the personal perils of fame, he only has to look to two close friends: Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. When asked his view on the circus surrounding their breakup, Mulroney politely but firmly replies, "I'm not going to comment on that."
In fact, while Mulroney is forthcoming and eminently quotable on a host of topics -- be it escorts ("I'm not encouraging anybody to do anything unseemly, but I don't have a problem with it"), how he gets his abs in shape for the camera ("You look at the film schedule, you figure out what day you're going to have to take your shirt off, then you count back three weeks and start doing situps every day") and even romantic advice ("The big things might be more noticeable, but the little things might be more important") -- he is slightly less open about more personal details of his life, especially his marriage. Clearly, the Virginia-born actor, amateur musician and father of a five-year-old son is more interested in maintaining his privacy than being gossip-column fodder.
"I have everything that someone would want: A family, and a terrific career and I still get to maintain a certain amount of everydayness to my life," he explains.
The latest invasion of Mulroney's privacy comes later this year, when he co-stars with John Cusack as rivals for Diane Lane's affection in the online-dating romantic comedy Must Love Dogs. This time, the female reporters in attendance are saddened to learn, he'll be keeping his clothes on.
After all, he seems to have had all the exposure he needs for the time being.