Farewell, How I Met Your Mother: Ted's 'Daughter' and 'Son' Spill 7 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets
BY VLADA GELMAN
As How I Met Met Your Mother heads towards its swan song, TVLine continues to take a look back at — and offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse of — the show’s nine-year run.
In our latest farewell-themed piece, we chatted with Ted’s kids, played by Lyndsy Fonseca (Nikita) and David Henrie (Wizards of Waverly Place), and uncovered seven things you probably never knew about the character’s known simply as “Son” and “Daughter.”
THEY ALMOST STUCK AROUND | During the CBS comedy’s very early days, the kids’ fate was a bit up in the air. “They weren’t sure what they were doing with our characters because they thought it might have been a much bigger role than it turned out to be,” reveals Henrie. “They weren’t sure if they wanted to do any storylines with them. It was sort of a hazy area.… We were, at first, going to negotiate a series-regular contract. As we started to shoot, they were like, ‘We think it’s just going to be these little things at the front of the episodes.’ So it turned into more of a recurring thing.”
DAD READ TO THEM | Though they never appeared on screen with him, Fonseca and Henrie did share some time with their TV father. “Josh [Radnor], in the first season, would be at work that day so he would read the off-camera lines that Bob Saget does,” shares the actress.
THEY CHEATED TIME | Fonseca and Henrie “went back a few times the first season [to shoot scenes] before [David] started going through puberty and all of a sudden became a man. The creators were like, ‘Oh, no. This isn’t good,’” recalls the actress with a laugh. To work around their rapidly growing star, the two young actors shot stock footage to be used in future episodes, including the series finale. “Everyone abandoned the stage, and it was just me, Lyndsy and the two show creators,” remembers Henrie. “We had to sign [non-disclosure agreements] as far as secrecy.” Adds Fonseca: “We signed a confidentiality agreement saying that we would not say who the mother is. They also didn’t know how many years the show was going to go. They filmed the ending of the show then just to have it.”
THEY DON’T REMEMBER THE SECRET – OR DO THEY? | With so much time having passed since they shot that final scene, Fonseca admits, “I don’t even remember what I signed! I don’t even remember what the secret was. David says he kind of does. So it’s been this running joke between the creators and me.” For his part, Henrie says, “I do remember. I think I remember. We’ll see.” So good luck to trying to pry it out of these two – not that people haven’t tried. “My friends and my family are the worst,” adds the actor, “[and] especially people at bars who try to get me drunk to get it out of me.”
THEY HAD A FAMILY REUNION | Coming back to film the hilarious Comic-Con teaser in which Ted’s children let loose on him, “it was like not a day went by, honestly,” says Fonseca. “[Director] Pamela Fryman hugged us like we were still kids. They clapped when we came back on set.” The pair insist they didn’t know what the video was going to be until they got there. “We were handed [the pages] on the day,” reveals Henrie. “Literally, we got the scene five minutes before we went on. It’s so funny. I was wondering that same thing – when they were going to address why our character are so young and not getting any older nine years later.”
THEY MAY REMAIN JUST “SON” AND “DAUGHTER” | Like their Mother, who still doesn’t have a moniker, Ted’s offspring are currently kind of anonymous. While Henrie believes “it’d be nice to have a name,” Fonseca has a different theory on how that subject will – or won’t – be addressed. “I don’t think they’ll ever reveal [their] name,” she says. “I kind of like it. It’s cool. These kids are from the future, and there’s something mysterious about them. The whole show is about how they came to be. It’s kind of funny that there’s some mystery to it.”
THE DAUGHTER APPROVES OF MOM | Fonseca – who still counts herself as a fan of the show and regularly watches it – had an “A ha!” moment when she saw the reveal of The Mother in last season’s finale. “I was like, ‘Why does that face…? Why does she look so familiar?’ It was driving me crazy,” she says. “And then my boyfriend reminded me that we had seen her on Broadway doing Once. She was absolutely fantastic. She is incredible. I’m really excited to see her do more on the show. I think it’s a great pick. She’s very talented. I’ve only ever seen her in Once, but I was blown away.”
