22 Years After My Best Friend’s Wedding , Dermot Mulroney Has a New Appreciation for Rom-Coms

The one thing all romantic comedies have in common? They celebrate the two things everyone wants in life—rom and com, of course. To honor that, we're devoting a whole week to the genre. More on the rom-coms we love, past and present, here.

Dermot Mulroney has starred in some of the most beloved rom-coms of the modern era: My Best Friend's Wedding and The Wedding Date, to name just two. And he was recently a part of the utterly charming ensemble cast in the Hulu series Four Weddings and a Funeral, a Mindy Kaling–produced reimagining based on the movie of the same name.

He's currently taking his career into a bit of a different direction, though. He called Glamour from Europe, where he's joined the cast of the Amazon series Hanna, for its second season. "It's an absolutely thrilling new job," he says. "So I'm having a blast, and it's really cool to be in such a high-quality TV still. I'm really lucky." Mulroney is also currently appearing in HBO's hilarious comedy The Righteous Gemstones in a recurring role—though he's waiting to be in the same room as his wife before he catches up on the show.

Lucky for us, Mulroney was down to answer some of our Inappropriate Questions, Glamour’s column that asks all the cheeky, slightly off-kilter stuff best saved for a second (or better yet, third) date. Here he shares his thoughts on rom-coms, the show he can't wait to binge-watch, and more.

Glamour: You’ve done some iconic rom-coms in your career. Do you personally like rom-coms? Do you have a favorite?

Dermot Mulroney: Well, I do [like them] more than I used to. I think I kind of had to look away from the heat there for a while. Now I've really recognized how a good, unique, well-made, romantic, funny comedy is super hard to make. So it turns out, over time, you pull back a little and you realize there aren't that many in each cycle. And so the few really that I've been in end up being prominent because it's a really hard note to strike. I have a lot more respect for them than I probably should have at earlier phases of my career. I should go on record saying it's really what kept me on the map and sustained my career when it went through its natural ups and downs and so forth, as everyone's does. I have nothing but love for the genre. You'd better believe it. A deep, deep love for the genre and gratitude.

[The happiness people get from rom-coms] really lasts. It lasts so long. I wouldn't have known this until this much time has gone by. But the impact of those movies...really, I'm talking about My Best Friend's Wedding and The Wedding Date. They really impact people's lives, and they always have such a distinct impression from those movies, more so than other types of films that I've done. They really leave a mark on people. It's amazing to see over time.

If you have a full day to binge-watch whatever you want, what do you pick?

These days I pick documentaries. Not a very exciting answer, but that's because I'm working alone in a hotel. At home, if I was watching with my wife, we'd choose different stuff, comedies for sure. Although, Peaky Blinders is a big obsession of mine too at the moment.

But the real question is: What is bingeing? And what are the modern cultural repercussions of what that is? Because it's different. And I don't mean you're watching the thing differently or they make them differently or they release them differently, what I'm saying is that people's reaction to the product is different. Their reaction also is somewhat magnified, I'm noticing, if you see four in a row of something. Or having shown up on Homecoming, the way people viewed that affected how they remember the piece a little better than if you go to a movie. It seems to impact a little more deeply. So, yeah, be careful.

What's the weirdest thing you do in your alone time?

You know, for me, one of the weirdest things is to go to a mall and go into a department store to buy, let's say, a necessity. I don't know why, but I'm just not really accustomed to doing that by myself. Sometimes the most normal shit feels really weird when you're doing it alone.

I did do a yoga session in the middle of the London Natural History Museum with about 250 other people. That's pretty weird. You'll end up finding yourself at weird yoga classes and things like that when you're alone on location.

Fill in this blank: "I love when my partner..." What is something you enjoy about your relationship?

FaceTime and hikes. Hikes, I think is what we've been enjoying a lot. When I'm home in Los Angeles, it's an amazing city for any kind of outdoor activity. But a good, friendly well-timed FaceTime right now is of super value to me.

Do you have a favorite movie or TV love scene?

I'm flashing on one I tried to have with Zooey Deschanel in the New Girl, which is still one of the most screamingly hilarious scenes I've ever been in. She's trying to break up with me or something, I don't remember. But the best one...gosh, I just saw Sharky's Machine. You really can't beat that with Rachel Ward and Burt Reynolds, and William Fraker's cinematography throughout that film.

What's the most inappropriate thing a fan has ever said to you?

Well, I've got another namby-pamby answer for that, and I knock on wood, because every single person that's ever come up to me has been nice and smiling. And really what I've gotten all over the years is just this incredible goodwill. More or less every day, someone just is incredibly nice to me, out of the blue, some stranger. It's amazing. I've had a few people drunk, couple of ass grabs, but I'm good. I've made it through so far pretty unscathed.

Who was your first celebrity crush?

It's Tatum O'Neal, because she was in Paper Moon. That still for me stands as one of the top three greatest American movies ever made. So that whole movie, and that girl that was exactly the same age as I was, sort of tomboy con artist. Too cool. Way too cool. Also, Kristy McNichol. Remember her?

When you're alone in bed, you're trying to fall asleep at night, what are you thinking about?

The thing I have to try to not think about is the coffee that I'm going to have right when I wake up. That will keep me awake because it makes me excited for coffee. So I have to avoid thinking about that at night.

And then recently I heard that the military researched clinically the best way to fall asleep. You're supposed to sit on the edge of your bed and take 20 deep breaths. I mean, yeah, you don't need research to tell me that. But then they have you choose in your mind's eye whether you're in a hammock or if you're lying in a canoe in the dark outside on a lake. And you're to pick one, really focus on that, and then have 10 deep breaths, you'll be asleep by number three. Works like gangbusters.

Abby Gardner is a contributor at Glamour.

Originally Appeared on Glamour