How I Met Your Mother - Cristin Milioti Interview

We’ve spent years with Ted, but are only just meeting your character. Do you know if the creators knew all these details about her ahead of time, like that the first person she loved died?
No, they didn’t say anything about that. But I did love that because it gives her a Robin. We all sometimes carry these people around with us that we’re unable to let go of until the time is right. And then you realize that without them you couldn’t have gotten to the place where you were ready to meet the right person. [We’re] seeing her as a fully fledged person and not just this sort of — what’s that thing called? Deus ex machina? It showed she has gone through the same ups and downs as the five of them have — like we all do. That’s what’s so relatable and so wonderful about this show.

So the big climactic scene last week is when you played "La Vie En Rose" on ukulele. Did they have a conversation with you about what you knew how to play or was it like, “Learn this song”?
They knew that I played ukulele from seeing a video online that I did for the New York Times, where I played this old Irish folk song. So, early in the season, they were like, “You know how to play 'La Vie En Rose'?” And I was like, “Nope.” And so I practiced it, even though I wasn’t sure if we were going to use it, and thank God I did. Because then they came to me and were like, “Hey, you’re going to play 'La Vie En Rose' next week.” And I was like, “Great. I happen to know it.”

The ukulele over the last year or so has kind of become a controversial issue — it’s called cliché or too twee. Do you have a defense for it?
Yeah, here’s my defense: Everything sounds awesome on it. That’s like saying the piano is twee. Everything sounds awesome on it and it’s easy to play — it’s like the ultimate party instrument, or just "alone on the porch" instrument. I get it — I know, a lot of young girls play it [laughs] — but I disagree. My dad actually bought me the ukulele I play on the episode.

Oh, it’s your ukulele?
It’s my ukulele. The show bought me some expensive, tricked-out ukulele shipped from Hawaii and I couldn’t play it. So I asked if I could use my janky one. And we did.

There’s such a mythology surrounding your character. This isn’t just a normal character meeting his spouse — it's like seeing Jaws at the end of Jaws. Was it difficult to step into such an already mythologized role?
Oh, Lord yes. I was so nervous. It didn’t hit me until I finished the eighth season and actually watched the episode where I buy the train ticket and I was like, “Oh, oh, this is so much bigger than I had realized.” But I also feel like I was sort of guarded from all that because I’m not on any social media whatsoever. I’m only on Instagram, and it’s under a ridiculous name and I’m friends with like five people. All of whom I’ve had dinner with.

A co-worker had a small criticism of your character: You’ve lived in New York. Have you ever met anyone who cared so much about an umbrella that they would go back to a bar for it?
Yup. And it’s me. I have. I’ve never been able to keep track of an umbrella, but then my dad gave me this fancy umbrella. It was in his car and I had again lost some awful Duane Reade disaster umbrella. It was my first adult umbrella that wasn’t from a drugstore and I have left it all over New York and every time I went back to get it.

Wow. That’s when you really bonded with the character.
Yeah! My friends always make fun of me because I had loaned it to a few people — you ever see that Kids in the Hall sketch? You know that show?

Yeah.
Remember when Bruce McCulloch lends out that pen and he spends the whole episode chasing the pen down? It was like that. I would lend it to someone and the next day I would call them and be like, “So where can I meet you to pick up my umbrella?” I still have it.

Source:

Read Full Interview at Vulture