"Definitely the Romantic Type"

You never know when you’re going to get your big break. Josh Duhamel managed to get his playing Army Ranger William Lennox in the enormously successful Transformers films.

Duhamel has since made inroads with the films When In Rome and Ramona And Beezus. Now the 37 year-old hopes to continue progressing with the new romantic comedy The Romantics.

In the film, Josh plays Tom, a soon-to-be groom torn between his fiancée Lila, played by Anna Paquin, and her maid-of-honor Laura, who was his former flame. He talks about playing a character involved in a love triangle.

“This issue is interesting,” he believes, “I think a lot of times people end up settling for someone who’s safe, somebody who’s not going to demand as much of them and I think that’s what my character does or he’s about to do in this movie, yet he knows that the one that’s going to bring the best in him is Katie’s character.

“And it’s just growing up and coming to terms with that, I think, is where his biggest indecision comes from,” Duhamel adds, “It’s whether or not he’s going to go with the girl that can make him better or he’s going to go with the girl that’s going to make things easier.”

Duhamel also shared what inspiration drew him to make a potentially unlikable character on occasion like Tom work for this film.

“I hope nobody has to go through a wedding like this,” Josh says, “But yeah, it makes me appreciate my wedding and it makes me appreciate that I knew going in that I was with the one I wanted to be with. The scary part was the idea of not knowing for sure…this guy did not know if he was going to be able to go through with it the night of the wedding and that’s the biggest nightmare you could have, especially for a groom-to-be.”

“But again, that’s what drew me to it,” he continues, “It was this

"Definitely the Romantic Type"

guy I think a lot of people especially have this sort of coming of age when they decide to step up and be a man and make a decision or not. And that’s what he was struggling with.”

Josh also adds that Tom and the other characters’ potentially dodgy level of likeability is is what contributes to the realism found in The Romantics.

“There have been friends that I’ve had for a long time who were equally as dysfunctional,” Duhamel says, “We’re not making out with these others’ wives, but I think everybody can sort of relate to the imperfections of these characters in some way. And I think that’s ultimately why it was something I wanted to do.”

“In a lot of movies today, there’s a lot of idealizations of people,” he adds, “And so talking about the likable thing, I feel like most people I know are still trying to figure things out and are drifting and this gave us a chance to represent, in a non-idealized way, young people emerging in adulthood. There’s that great piece in Time magazine a few weeks ago twentysomethings and I think this film sort of captures and instills that period of life in a very authentic way and that gave us all as actors the opportunity to do something authentic.

Duhamel also revealed how he feels his own view of love and romance has changed, as he’s gotten older.

“I just look for a really nice ass,” Josh begins jokingly, “I think you grow up and you realize that isn’t just about the aesthetic, it’s about whether or not that person makes you better, whether or not that person makes you happy and you’re lucky if you can find it.”