The secret surrounding the identity of the mother was only revealed in the 8th season of How I Met Your Mother – and Cristin Milioti was only cast shortly before that for a very specific reason.
The sitcom How I Met Your Mother kept its audience glued to the screen for almost a decade from 2005 without revealing who the female title character actually is. Ted Mosby’s (Josh Radnor) story of how he meets the mother of his children begins years before there is a face to see within the series itself. Only hints were scattered throughout the series, but the big reveal only came in episode 24 of season 8 – the last episode of the penultimate season.
Cristin Milioti was the first choice for the creators of How I Met Your Mother
When Cristin Milioti was introduced in the series as Tracy McConnell and thus as the mother mentioned above, she was not a big world star. According to a 2019 Screen Rant article, this was one of the reasons why she was cast. With big names, there is too much risk that they will come across with preconceived notions on the part of the audience. There are too many expectations surrounding them and they distract from the actual action.
To avoid this pitfall, the show decided to cast an unknown actress. Milioti had gained enough experience in other series such as Good Wife and 30 Rock and had also appeared on Broadway, but was still unknown enough not to raise expectations. As a result, casting director Marisa Ross considered him the perfect fit.
Her Broadway experience was also a deciding factor in casting Milioti. It was established early on in How I Met Your Mother that the character of Mother Bassgitarre played in a band. Milioti was able to incorporate her musical experience into her role.
Until she was cast, Milioti had not seen an episode of How I Met Your Mother. To understand the character, she binged the entire series before coming to the set. Thanks to her performance, she was able to fill in the gaps in Ted’s stories from her perspective in her big appearance in the very last episode.
