No. One of the biggest pieces of advice my dad gave me growing up was, "Just whatever you do, love it." It was something that was really, truly ingrained in me from a very young age. I've groomed horses since I was about six, so I think that’s the only job I've had other than filmmaking. I started that when I was about 13, just working in stables. I mean, it's mucking out, it's getting really down and dirty, but I loved it. I loved every second of it and that's a great thing to learn actually, love what you do.
Rosalee is a small town girl who is a bit of a dork. Do you embrace your own inner dork?
Honestly, like I said, I took a lot of particular qualities in me and basically bunched them all together and put them on screen. I was watching it last night for the first time and I knew sort of what I was doing. You always know sort of what you're doing throughout filming, but you never see it put together. When you see it put together, it's sort of like, “Hmmm.” So I was sitting there and seeing myself do these quirky things that I do in life and I don't necessarily love the whole world to see these dorky things that I do, you know, or the laughs or the complete hilarity of situations. I'm watching going, “Wow, this is going to be really, really interesting.”
Like jumping up and down when you’re excited?
Yeah, you know, I will be the first to admit I do that all the time. I'm not one to pretend I'm this cool human being because I'm certainly not. I think that it's really important to embrace the inner dork.
Did you squeal when you got this part?
I did, just like Rosalee. I wanted this part so, so, so much. I'd just finished filming “Blue Crush” actually, which was quite a long time ago. I got ”Wonderland” - the script - and this script at the same time. I read them actually on the plane back from Hawaii. I said to my agent, after “Blue Crush,” I said, "I want to do something really just completely different, something really dark and shocking." Then I happened to be on the plane [and] I read “Wonderland.” I said, "God, this is great. It's perfect." And then I thought, "Yeah, but you know, we'll see this next one." I read the title and I thought, "Okay, Reality TV show thing?" I didn't understand. And I read it and I fell in love with this script so full-heartedly. It was probably the most I've ever wanted a part. And so I landed, I called my agent and I said, "I want to do them back to back. If I had a perfect, ideal world, that's what I would want to do." Like I said, when I put my heart into something, I do it 100%, so it was really a combination of luck and hard work, I think, with those two.
What attracted you to this script? Was it its innocence?
Yes, it was written that way. I knew Robert Luketic was directing it and I love “Legally Blonde.” I thought he just added an intelligence to something that could've been really mediocre, and I thought he made it really unique. I was dying to work with him and I knew that he would elevate anything that was already there.
Did you and Topher Grace really grow up in the same small town?
It's extraordinary. I spent about five years and he spent his entire life in Connecticut. [From] about eight to 13 I lived in Darian, Connecticut - this small town in Connecticut - and he grew up there. And I was 13 when I got “The Horse Whisperer.” He's a few years older than me, so he was probably about 15 or 16. He was in high school, so he certainly didn't know me. I was just some little kid. I ended up getting “Horse Whisperer” and moving to Boston.
[Topher] came up to me at a party when I first moved to LA, which was way before this, and I first got to LA and was overwhelmed by everything [and it was] certainly a Hollywood party. I was standing there in the corner, the new girl sort of thing, and he came up to me and said, "You're Kate, right?" And I said, "Yeah," because I knew Topher from “That '70s Show.” And he said, "Did you live in Darian, Connecticut?" And I said, "Yeah." You know, one of those things that somebody comes up to you at lunch and you say hello and they say something, and you're like, "Oh God, a certain subject." And I said, "Yeah," and he said, "Oh, I'm from Darian." I was like, "You're kidding?" He said, "No." And so then he said, "Do you know so and so?" And I said, "Yeah." It was amazing, because it was like such a small town that we had the same doctor, we had the same teachers, and all these crazy things. Then it happened, fate would have it, a couple years later - three years later - they said, "Oh, I think Topher Grace is going to do this." I said, "That's hilarious because we're both from the same small town.”
Additional “Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!” Cast Interviews:
Josh Duhamel / Topher Grace / Ginnifer Goodwin
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
"Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!" Photo Gallery
"Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!" Credits, Soundtrack and Trailer
