Can you say who that was?
Nia: It wasn't true actually. It was just a mistake. It was a big mix-up, which makes me crazy.
John: They were interested in me actually. That's why they sent me a script in the first place. And they said that I was out of the country. They didn't know that I was in the same country, which was Canada.

So, I go down to the hotel bar to have a drink that night about 10:00. And I'm sitting there talking to one of the hair people in the show about this funny script I read. She (indicating Nia) elbows me - she's sitting right next to me at the bar - and says, "I wrote that," and offered me the role 10 minutes after we met.

Nia: After weeks of me going, "What about that John Corbett guy?" and the producers going, "He's great but listen, you've got to get over it. He's out of town. He's working on something." Is that not insane?

That is insane. Why did you think about John in the first place?
Nia: Because I love what he did on “Sex and the City” in that he managed to maintain his masculinity in a pretty difficult role. I just thought he did a great job. I wanted someone All-American. What I think we've seen in these films is 'girl from the wrong side of the tracks and uppercrust white bread guy.' I didn't want that. I wanted 'pretty wealthy family and All-American guy.' I wanted a real All-American. The guys that were coming in to read for this part were All-American in that they were like football player types. I didn't want 'frat guy.' These guys that were coming in didn't have the intelligence that John had. There was just nothing there.

He turns around and first of all, I'm looking at him and saying, “That's him! That's him!” when he first came in. Gary Goetzman, Tom Hanks' partner, was literally having drinks with me saying, “You've got to make a decision. We are shooting in five days.” I said, “I'm just not excited about any of these guys” (all the prospects). He was like, “Either am I but you know what? You're going to build a chemistry with them and you'll hit upon this relationship.” And I said, “I don't know. Isn't the chemistry there or it's not?” This was my first movie and I felt like an ass for even saying I don't feel a chemistry with these guys. Then in walks John and I was like, “Get him!” Gary knew John and Gary was willing to just offer it to him flat out but he wanted to see us together in a room. That's what we were asking his agent for, “Can we just have a meeting with him? Just a meeting?” And his agent said he was out of town. But Gary knew John's work and was all for it. So he literally walked with him for 5 minutes, we talked with him for 5 minutes, and Gary said, “That's it. That's it.” The way we were talking was like we knew each other, yet there was that shyness there because I didn't know him. Isn't that wild? That was just it.

We barely rehearsed. We would do the lines once and then shoot it.

John: I don't remember us rehearsing ever.
Nia: I know. We didn't rehearse. It was just there. Which to me, again, just really tells me to go with my instincts. My instincts were telling me that those guys were wrong.