“That’s too much”: When ‘Ted’ Josh Radnor said he wanted people to move on from How I Met Your Mother

Josh Radnor played the role of Ted Mosby for nine years on How I Met Your Mother. His portrayal became so iconic that he almost became synonymous with the character. However, the show’s success had a downside as people kept overlooking his other acting projects, even years after the CBS sitcom ended.

In 2018, four years after How I Met Your Mother had finished airing, Josh Radnor in an interview with GQ talked about how fans still walked up to him to only talk about his work on the sitcom. The actor said he felt it was high time for the viewers to move on from the show and enjoy his other works as well:

“I almost never think about [the show]. It’s a weird thing, when you haven’t done something in almost four years. But people will still come up to me and say, 'I just watched the series for the eighth time, all the way through.' And I’m like, That’s too much. You’ve gotta move on.”

Josh Radnor once said he wanted the audience to move on from How I Met Your Mother

During the interview, Josh Radnor added that fans kept reciting How I Met Your Mother’s dialogue to him, which he did not even remember, as it had been a long time since he said goodbye to his character:

“They speak about the show with such ferocious intensity and passion, and they quote lines that I cannot remember saying. And I feel bad, because it’s such a part of certain people’s lives.”

The actor compared the situation to when someone keeps talking to you about what happened in your childhood though you have grown up, and added that he wants people to notice his other acting credits:

“It’s almost like if you had relatives and they only wanted to talk about how you were in the sixth grade. And you’re like, 'I’ve done a lot of stuff since the sixth grade! I’m getting a PhD here!' I don’t mean to diminish it or say it was juvenile—but it definitely feels like it was in the past.”

Radnor, however, said that the show gave him creative freedom and stability, as he did not have to depend on anyone else for work opportunities:

“The thing I always think about How I Met Your Mother — for as complicated as that experience was — is that it allowed me to live a creative life. The thing I never liked about being a young, unemployed actor is that I was always dependent on people saying yes to me.”

Radnor played the lead Ted Mosby across all nine seasons of the sitcom, telling his kids the story of how he first met their mother. Ted was a hopeless romantic who fell for several women before settling down with Stacy, the mother, until a twist in the series finale changed his fate.

Radnor’s portrayal of the architect who had various adventures with his friends in his 20s was well appreciated by fans, though there was some criticism directed toward his character's choices.

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How I Met Your Mother ended in 2014, and the actor has since appeared in shows like Mercy Street, Rise, Hunters, Centaurworld, and Fleishman Is in Trouble. He has also been a part of the films Social Animals, Liberal Arts, and All Happy Families.

For more interesting features on How I Met Your Mother, keep following Soap Central.

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