My chat with Justin Bartha of “The New Normal”

Justin Bartha is a little special to me because I was there during as couple of big nights in his career.

The first was in 2003 at the premiere of Gigli, the infamous box office bomb that starred then couple Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck. My date and I had excellent seats but no red carpet credentials so we stood across the street of the theater in Brentwood to see the stars get out of their limos. Justin was first and he was unknown but the crowd cheered and he waved a few times, clearly enjoying the moment.

Then a year later, I was at the premiere of National Treasure in Pasadena and at the after-party, I chatted with Justin a but and I remember telling him how funny he was in the film and how he was going to be a big star. He did not seem convinced that that would happen but he’s done pretty well for himself with a National Treasure sequel as well as The Hangover and its sequel and such hit films as Failure to Launch.

Now he’s set to star in NBC’s The New Normal as one-half of a gay couple (his partner is played by Broadway star Andrew Rannells) who create a unique family with the woman who is going to be the surrogate mother of their child.

I caught up with the 34-year-old actor at the TV Critics Association summer press tour last week.

Here is our conversation:

Q: Have you played a gay character before?
Bartha: I think all my characters are a little gay?

Q: Really? Okay, maybe Gigli.
Bartha: Gigli? (laughs) No, he was not gay. He was straight. But they are all a little gay, everyone of them.

Q: Even Hangover? National Treasure?
Bartha: Sure!

Q: You have been in a lot of hit movies. Why did you decide to do a TV sitcom?
Bartha: It never really interested me until I kind of found something of quality. That’s all I care about is working on something of quality. It says something. For me, the movie scripts and other things that I read weren’t really saying anything very interesting. This is about the characters being seemingly real and dealing with life in a way that actually exists. We’re not being chased by robots or anything like that.

Q: It’s great that you actually called Ryan Murphy to express interest. Did you become a lot more bold in that way after the success of The Hangover movies?
BARTHA: Well, I didn’t have his number in my phone. My very able representatives did it. Listen, when you’re a part of something successful you get sent a lot of things that aren’t necessarily appealing and it can sometimes be frustrating. So I had read about this show. [Executive Producer] Ryan Murphy is always interesting and I just had a feeling about Andrew. Not a lot of people knew who he was here but I lived in New York and I’d seen The Book of Mormon and I knew how brilliant he was and capable of. Ellen Barkin was also involved. It has too many elements that are positive to not be interested.