Alyson Hannigan

IF MAGAZINE: Do you feel like HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER has hit its groove in the third season?

ALYSON HANNIGAN: Oh, yes. I feel like we had a very strong first season, but then second season, we just came out of the gates kicking and we got stronger and stronger, and it was a phenomenal second season, and I’m sure the third season can only be as good if not better.

iF: Are you looking forward to the possibility of having the ensemble cast expand?

HANNIGAN: Is it going to expand?

iF: Well, the series creators, Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, said they’re getting closer to identifying the mother of the title, so once she’s introduced, it’s possible she’ll be added to the cast ...

HANNIGAN: Yes. Well, I’m all for it, because let’s even out the sexes. We’ve got a little boy-heavy cast, and Cobie [Smulders, who plays Ted’s on-again/off-again girlfriend] and I need as much support as we can get, because sometimes it turns into a boy-fest. And we need our girls, so get another girl cast member – c’mon!

iF: What does the relationship between your character Lily and her now-husband Marshall [Jason Segel] do for Ted’s character in story terms?

HANNIGAN: It probably reiterates the longing that [Ted] has to find [that kind of love] for himself.

iF: What is the rhythm of the humor on HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER compared to the stuff Joss Whedon was writing for you on BUFFY?

HANNIGAN: Oh, that’s a hard question. I mean, Joss is a genius. With BUFFY, there was a lot of humor, but there was also the monster factor and the drama factor. But the two shows are similar in that I can be funny one moment and then dramatic in the next. I really love and appreciate that they don’t ever shy away from the true emotion and it’s got the heart that I always respond to as well.

iF: In both BUFFY and the AMERICAN PIE movies, you’re cast as someone who is very demure on the surface and then very sexual underneath. Does HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER continue that tradition?

HANNIGAN: [laughs] Well, I think that was the pilot. [They still do it] occasionally. But thankfully they didn’t go fully into the AMERICAN PIE realm. I don’t think they could at eight o’clock.