Dermot Mulroney and ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images; TriStar/Everett Collection

Dermot Mulroney said he knows what’s to blame for not landing another acting role for a year following 1997’s My Best Friend’s Wedding.

The actor, who starred alongside Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz and Rupert Everett in the Oscar-nominated rom-com, recently told The New York Times that he had few acting opportunities following its release, despite it being a successful film.

“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,” Mulroney explained. “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.”

My Best Friend’s Wedding, directed by P.J. Hogan, follows a woman who realizes she’s in love with her long-time friend after he announces he’s engaged, leading her to try and win him over just days before the wedding.

However, Mulroney still found a way to continue his Hollywood career after the hit 1997 movie, going on to star in dozens of other projects. And recently, he returned to the romantic comedy genre with Anyone But You, playing Bea’s (Sydney Sweeney) father.

As a rom-com veteran, he also told the Times that he shared some advice with the movie’s other lead, Glen Powell, about the impact of those types of movies.

“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 said. “‘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.”