Dermot Mulroney is willing to return to his escorting ways for a sequel of The Wedding Date — and he can’t believe no one has asked him yet.
Mulroney, 60, gave Us Weekly a resounding “yes” when asked if he’d do another Wedding Date movie with Debra Messing. “I don’t know why that’s never occurred to anybody,” he exclusively told Us earlier this month while promoting season 13 of Chicago Fire.
He pondered, “Are you the first person that ever said that to me?” before letting out a laugh.
In The Wedding Date, which hit theaters in 2005, Mulroney plays Nick Mercer, a male escort who Kat Ellis (Messing) pays to be her pretend boyfriend for her little sister’s wedding. Nick accepts the challenge — and makes Kat’s ex-fiancé Jeffrey (Jeremy Sheffield) jealous — but ultimately finds himself falling for her, and decides not to keep the money.
“What do you think I’d be charging now?” Mulroney teased, referring to Nick’s fee. In one of the more memorable scenes, Kat gets cash from an ATM during a hen party because she wants to sleep with Nick and assumes she should pay him for his services.
The couple don’t have sex, and Nick is so insulted by the cash he finds that he crudely tells Kat, “Just so you know, you’re 300 short.” The remark causes Kat to reply, “You’re telling me that if something happened last night, I would have to pay you $1700! That’s a down payment on a Ford Focus!”
Mulroney recalled the “hilarious line” about the car, saying it was “beautifully delivered.” He noted that while it “kind of dates the movie” it is also “part of its charm, too.”
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Looking back at the film, Mulroney told Us that it did “something phenomenal” because it “grew over time to be even more beloved.”
Credit for the rom-com becoming a cult classic “goes to Deborah and that amazing cast and just that quirky movie,” he added.
Mulroney continued to gush over his leading lady, saying, “I have nothing but love and respect” for Messing, 56.
While Mulroney said the two actors have “touched base a little bit over the years” their careers have taken them in different directions.
“I wish her so much love and so much laughter. We had such an incredible time making that movie together,” he shared, noting, “We’ll be paired together for life in the cosmos and till the end of time.”
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Mulroney also thanked the fans who have dubbed The Wedding Date as a “comfort movie” classic. “It was rediscovered in the age of comfort movies where people, I’ll dare say women, watch that movie over and over again,” he teased. “That was, like, a cultural moment that we’ve gone through.”
He insisted that watching it back now will “give you that magic I was talking about,” and he’s up to revive it on the big screen.
While fans wait to see if The Wedding Date will get a sequel, they can watch Mulroney on Chicago Fire. The actor made his debut on the NBC series Wednesday, September 25, as Chief Dom Pascal.
“It’s been amazing. They didn’t pull any punches,” Mulroney told Us of his intense start on the drama. “The flip side of that is how incredibly warm my reception was with the cast. … They literally as a group decided to have a lunch with the new guy on the first day that we had a group scene. I didn’t know it at the time, but that wound up being really touching.”
He gushed, “That’s the whole vibe on this [show] that they operate as a family. And they included me right out of the gate.”
Chicago Fire airs on NBC Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
