Up until a few years ago, John Corbett was known primarily as the deejay from “Northern Exposure.” Then came a recurring role as Sarah Jessica Parker’s beau on HBO’s celebrated series “Sex and the City,” and the lead opposite Nia Vardalos in the box office record-smashing chick flick, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” and the laid-back 43-year-old Wheeling, W. Va., native morphed into Hollywood’s sexiest gentle giant (he’s 6’5”). In the romantic comedy “Raising Helen,” which opens today, Corbett plays a dashing Lutheran minister who woos Kate Hudson.
QUESTION: You play a little ice hockey in “Raising Helen.” Do you have NHL potential?
JOHN CORBETT: I’d never skated before, so they set me up for lessons for, like, two months. Man, I could skate all over the place. Then they cut the whole (scene). I was fighting guys, skating, defending the goal, and I think they used one shot of me lifting my helmet up and waving to Helen. But now I can skate, so it’s cool.
Q: What do you think of the movie? JC: I think the movie has a nice balance of some laughs and some tears. I saw the final cut yesterday for the second time, and I cried in it, like, two times. That’s sort of weird because I will cry once usually at a movie, but then when I see it again and know what’s coming, I won’t cry.
Q: This role will certainly reinforce the “nice guy” label you’ve been given. Were you apprehensive about playing not only another swell dude, but a minister to boot?
JC: Whenever I read a critique of my work, people always wonder when I’m gonna play a villain or something, so I was nervous to play a priest. As an actor to have to say lines like “I know I’m sexy — I’m a sexy man of God,” that’s f---ing hard to say. It’s hard to say and be believable, and not want to bust out laughing, or just turn to the camera and say “Please don’t make me say this out loud.”
Q: “A sexy man of God” is pretty cornball. How’d you manage to pull it off?
JC: That was the hardest thing to say. Somebody should give me an Oscar just for saying that line. To say it all day long, and to try and mean it, man, it’s a weird thing. It’s easier to learn how to ice skate.
Q: Speaking of weird, “Sex and the City” is reportedly going into syndication on squeaky-clean TBS of all places. How bizarre is that?
JC: Very bizarre. I don’t get it. I don’t know how it’s going to work, you know. So much of that show is R-rated. I actually wouldn’t go in and do any (overdubs). I said the “F-word” a few times on the show, and they wanted me to come in and put in some “fricks” or whatever else, and I said no, man, I’m not doing it. I think some of the people behind the scenes at TBS are mad that I wouldn’t come in.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 28, 2004. Read the original PDF.