Why The My Best Friend's Wedding Poster Hurt Dermot Mulroney's Hollywood Career
There's no question that "My Best Friend's Wedding" is one of Dermot Mulroney's most famous roles ... but according to the actor, it also adversely affected his career. Well, specifically, the poster for the movie adversely affected his career.
In an interview with The New York Times regarding the overwhelming success of the recent romantic comedy "Anyone But You," which became a box-office success after some time in theaters, Mulroney addressed the poster for "My Best Friend's Wedding" and pointed out that his diminutive presence on the ad alongside co-star Julia Roberts made him look sort of insignificant.
As the outlet notes, "My Best Friend's Wedding" was an enormous box-office success, which led Mulroney to think he'd be overwhelmed with opportunites after the fact. Apparently, that wasn't the case. "I was sitting there ready for the gift with purchase that was supposed to come along with being in a popular movie, and instead, I probably didn't work for a year," the actor revealed. "I chalked it up to me being so tiny on the poster, the little guy on the cake. I thought, gosh, you guys, if you'd made me a little bigger, maybe I could have gotten a job."
Still, the movie's legacy has been important to Mulroney's career; not only do people still mention it to him in public, but it was the first time he ever worked with Roberts, which eventually did lead to more work.
Julia Roberts and Dermot Mulroney have worked together since their successful rom-com — and they would again
In the years since "My Best Friend's Wedding," Dermot Mulroney and Julia Roberts have worked together a handful of times, including on the film adaptation of the Broadway play "August: Osage County" and briefly on the Amazon series "Homecoming" (where Mulroney briefly plays Roberts' boyfriend). Still, in the years since, they've both addressed either a sequel to "My Best Friend's Wedding" or another rom-com; in the NYT piece, Mulroney said, "I'd give anything to go around again with Julia. We're trying, for sure. We'll do whatever anybody can get up and going." In November of 2018, he told The Talk (via People) that he's been ready for a sequel for years: "I've been clear from the beginning, I've been clear from 1997 that I'm ready for a sequel. So, I'm on record."
Roberts, for her part, speaks fondly of Mulroney and her experience on "My Best Friend's Wedding," largely because the two have remained close friends for nearly three decades. "We really got lucky coming together," Roberts told E! Daily Pop in April of 2022 as she celebrated the film's 25th anniversary. "None of us knew each other before we made the movie, and we just had a really great chemistry. It just worked. I mean, we all really liked each other. Dermot and I are still really great friends — we talk all the time, And I think that that is a testament to the beautiful time that we all had making this film together." With all this considered, hopefully Roberts and Mulroney will find a way to work together again ... and in the meantime, Mulroney is mentoring the next generation of great rom-com stars.
Dermot Mulroney said he gave Glen Powell some career advice regarding romantic comedies
In the initial NYT interview, Dermot Mulroney did say that he spoke to the leading man of "Anyone But You" — Mulroney appears in the movie as the father of Sydney Sweeney's character Bea — and let Powell know that something like a studio rom-com can affect your career in a myriad of unexpected ways.
"I didn't want him to do what I did, which was minimize how important something is that might feel a little light or a little fluff when you're doing it," Mulroney told the outlet. "'What these movies mean to people,' I told Glen, 'will last for decades.' It will last until after you're gone in a way that maybe the other cool stuff he's doing won't. It has a different kind of absorption."
Powell appeared in a popular rom-com years before "Anyone But You" — the Netflix original film "Set It Up," which also stars Zoey Deutch — and with other projects like "Top Gun" and his upcoming Richard Linklater vehicle "Hit Man," which he co-wrote with the director, he's definitely branching out. Still, Mulroney's advice is plenty valuable, and the veteran actor certainly knows a thing or two about doing an iconic movie that stays with you for decades.