HOW HIMYM MET THE MOTHER The rest of the cast loves Milioti already. "They all think she's a fantastic actress," says Thomas. "I know a couple of them had seen Once. We flew Cristin out to do an on-camera audition with Josh [Radnor, who plays Ted] with our decoy script pages, and it was funny — Neil walked into the makeup trailer while I was just chatting with Cristin, she was getting make-up to go do this screen test with Josh, and Neil walked in and looked at her and his eyes widened and he sort of said, 'Oh my God, are you the mother?!' And he gave her this big hug and was like, 'You’re the mother!' And Cristin and I were like, 'No, it’s still just an audition; it’s not done. I’m not cast yet.' Neil was celebrating a little too early." Adds Bays, with a laugh: "That’s when you widen to reveal the other two girls that are also screen-testing in the trailer." Continues Thomas: "It was dangerously close to that, because two other people did come in, and they had thankfully stepped out of the trailer but Neil was doing his victory dance that it might be Cristin. There were other two very lovely wonderful actresses coming in to read for it but ultimately we really believed in Cristin for it. The right choice."
CRISTIN ON SET "Ultimately, when we were shooting the train station scene — this is actually fun — all the extras are staff from How I Met Your Mother. They’re all there. It was really fun. I kind of felt bad for Cristin because it was really like Jesus has risen when she showed up on the set — the whole crew was like 'Here she is, the women we’ve been waiting for for 10 years!' And she’s like, 'I'm just an actor.'"