Robin Scherbatsky returned to MacLaren’s Bar nearly 8 yeas after we said goodbye to our favorite Canadian news reporter and her gang of friends on the long-running CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. Cobie Smulders looked like she hadn’t aged a day as she slipped back into the world of HIMYM, this time in the Hulu spin-off starring Hilary Duff titled How I Met Your Father. “It was just such a fun day,” she told HollywoodLife in an EXCLUSIVE interview., while recalling shooting the finale episode. “They recreated the entire MacLaren’s set and it was truly a bizarre experience! Walking into it was like flashing back 10 years!”
Cobie continued, “It was such a wonderful like walk down memory lane for me. I very much enjoy playing Robin Scherbatsky for the nine years I got to and it was nice to just pop back in!” The spin-off was renewed for a season 2 shortly after its 10-episode premiere season, and Hulu announced the sequel would be getting supersized with 20 episodes. In the finale of season 1, Robin helps Hilary’s character Sophie through some boy trouble, as her friend-turned-something-more Jesse (Chris Lowell) said “I love you” during their first night together — which is something HIMYM fans know Robin knows a thing or two about.
As for Cobie making a return as Robin in the upcoming season 2, she said she would be “happy to come back in!” “I haven’t had any conversations with anyone, but if it makes sense to their show and the season and the storylines happening, I’d be happy to come back in!” she gushed.
When looking back on her time playing the scotch-drinking, cigar-smoking, pop-star-turned-journalist, Cobie said she feels like the cast “really lucked out, because we had such great writers that allowed us to do a lot of different things.” “I think that sometimes when you’re doing a long-running sitcom, you can kind of get typecast and stay within certain behaviors and certain jokes, and things you have to constantly be doing, so it was nice that I got to do the Robin Sparkles stuff, and then she was a reporter, as well. It was always fluid and they were always allowing us to try different things so you never felt stuck,” she explained. “Even if there was something that was cringe-worthy, it was still nice to get an opportunity to try something new!”
Speaking of sparkles, Cobie spoke to HL in partnership with Colgate to discuss her new campaign with them to raise awareness of needed optimism and announce the Colgate Smile Fund donation to City Year. “I’ve loved the brand for so long, and when they came to me about helping spread awareness about the Colgate Smile Fund, I was really excited about it, especially this one grant that they’re giving to an organization called City Year,” Cobie told HL. “It’s an organization that goes into schools and they provide mentoring for kids and help develop socio-emotional skills to create more empathy and for children to create self-awareness and self-confidence.”
Colgate’s Smile Fund donation will assist in the development of social-emotional training resources and capacity building for City Year AmeriCorps members; young adults who serve full time in schools. The training will support AmeriCorps members in their role as student success coaches, helping children build critical life skills like self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship-building and decision-making. The work will ultimately impact almost a quarter-million children in systemically under-resourced schools in the upcoming 2022-2023 school year.
To learn more about the Colgate Smile Fund initiative and Colgate’s commitment to championing optimism in action, visit Colgate.com/optimism.