Tien Tran’s ‘How I Met Your Father’ character navigates NYC dating as a queer divorcée

Practically eight years after “How I Met Your Mom” ended its nine-season run on CBS, Hulu has debuted “How I Met Your Father,” a brand new sequel collection set in the identical universe however tackling extra up to date issues — with a extra numerous forged — within the age of courting apps and limitless choices.

Created by Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker (“Love, Simon,” “Love, Victor,” “This Is Us”), “How I Met Your Father” facilities on Sophie (performed by Hilary Duff within the current and Kim Cattrall sooner or later), who’s telling her son the story of how she met his father. Like the unique sitcom, “How I Met Your Father” takes viewers again in time, to the 12 months 2022, when Sophie and her close-knit group of mates are within the midst of determining who they’re, what they need out of life and easy methods to fall in love amid the hustle and bustle of New York Metropolis.

Tien Tran — a slapstick comedian and veteran member of The Second Metropolis in Chicago — performs Ellen, a younger girl who has simply moved from a small farming city after separating from her wife. Hoping to reconnect along with her adoptive brother, Jesse (Chris Lowell), Ellen turns into swept up in his new good friend group and begins a brand new chapter within the Large Apple, even when she is extra snug on an natural lettuce area than in a Brooklyn dive bar.

“I really feel very fortunate and honored to be part of the universe and in addition to develop the story in a means that higher displays what New York Metropolis seems to be like, higher displays what good friend teams appear like,” Tran informed NBC Information in a video interview. Ellen “comes into the good friend group as somebody who’s extremely optimistic and is attempting to carry on to that as a lot as doable. However as with anybody, she’s going to get knocked down.”

Having most lately labored as a author and actor on the Showtime comedy-drama collection “Work in Progress,” Tran auditioned for “How I Met Your Father” within the early months of the pandemic and instantly related with Ellen’s shared pleasure and trepidation about re-entering the queer courting scene after shifting to a brand new metropolis.

“I really like that Ellen is a queer Asian character however simply will get to be one of many mates,” Tran stated. “She’s not outlined by these issues, and it’s so vital that she is simply experiencing the identical trials and tribulations [as everyone else]. Everyone seems to be attempting so far, everyone seems to be attempting to outlive in a metropolis that’s thrilling but additionally could be unforgiving at instances, and in addition looking for a job. They’re all misplaced, however they’re all attempting to do this collectively. They’re all supporting one another … with none judgment.”

And whereas “How I Met Your Mom” was beloved for its operating gags, nostalgic enchantment and intergenerational storylines, it was additionally later criticized for its lack of variety — an oversight that Berger and Aptaker wished to appropriate with this standalone sequel. In doing so, Tran famous that Ellen “isn’t being tokenized in the way in which that some exhibits previously have completed” and is, as an alternative, “being added to a protracted record of queer characters which are on TV and movie that aren’t outlined by popping out trauma or any form of homophobia. There isn’t a homophobia, there is no such thing as a teachable second within the present.”

In her first collection common function, Tran has been capable of work with the likes of Duff, whom she grew up watching on “Lizzie McGuire” within the early 2000s, and Pamela Fryman, who beforehand labored as a director and government producer on “How I Met Your Mom” and has returned in these roles for the sequel. The expertise of working with such seasoned professionals on either side of the digicam, Tran stated, not solely pressured her to lift her personal degree but additionally made her understand that engaged on a multicamera sitcom is a particularly collaborative effort. 

“These are individuals which are on the prime of their recreation, so I’ve form of come onto set like a sponge, and I’m simply attempting to soak in as a lot of their knowledge and data as doable,” she stated.

Rising up in Erie, Pennsylvania, Tran first took an curiosity in present enterprise after watching her sister, Tram-Anh Tran, who performed a major character on the PBS kids’s thriller collection “Ghostwriter,” and Molly Shannon on “Saturday Night time Dwell.” However it wasn’t till Tran moved to Chicago that she was actually capable of hone her craft as a author and comic, discovering a way of neighborhood with members of different marginalized communities.

“I got here up within the Chicago comedy scene, which was already so queer. I feel I had a really fortunate expertise, and I feel that’s beginning to develop for individuals throughout all of the cities,” she stated. “It’s so thrilling now that there are such a lot of queer and queer POC comedians that aren’t solely getting their second however are additionally so humorous, so proficient. I feel it’s so thrilling now that it doesn’t really feel like a brand new factor anymore.”

Tran is aware of the slight however regular advances that Hollywood has lately seen in onscreen queer and Asian illustration — one thing that she admittedly didn’t all the time expertise rising up. Illustration is “vital to me as a result of it’s simply my life, and I hope that folks can see themselves mirrored in storylines like [Ellen’s],” she stated. “I feel it’s simply so thrilling now that there are such a lot of extra totally different characters.”

She cited Hulu’s “Dollface” — a few younger girl (performed by Kat Dennings) who, after being dumped by her longtime boyfriend, should cope with her personal creativeness so as to rekindle the feminine friendships she left behind — for example of a collection with “great Asian American illustration.” The collection additionally stars Brenda Tune and Shay Mitchell.

“I like that now there are these characters that may be flawed, goofy and bizarre and may stay their life with out having to be the voice of 1 neighborhood,” she stated. “There’s simply extra freedom and creativity, and it’s thrilling to be in a time the place there are actually so many alternative characters which are queer and Asian that folks can relate to.”

Tran hopes to change into a part of that rising wave of onscreen visibility, taking part in a personality that, she quipped, “has so much on her plate,” between her impending divorce and earnest want to reconnect along with her older brother, whom she hasn’t actually seen since their dad and mom’ separation.

“You’ll see components of Ellen’s courting life; you’ll see her fall on her face in several methods however nonetheless attempt to be optimistic,” Tran previewed with amusing. “You’ll see her navigate her relationship along with her brother in a means that’s, to me, very touching and really shifting, and I haven’t gotten to see a lot of that in several TV exhibits of this sort. You’ll see how she handles looking for a job, as a result of simply butter lettuce is the one factor that’s supporting her life in New York Metropolis, and he or she undoubtedly must have one other supply of earnings.”

And whereas “How I Met Your Father” would possibly illustrate the trials and tribulations of courting in right this moment’s world, Tran believes the present, at its core, is in regards to the invaluable friendships that the characters kind with each other — and that the forged has really fashioned within the course of of creating the 10-episode first season. 

“None of us have completed multicam earlier than, so we’re all coming into it with an open coronary heart of studying and going by means of this course of collectively, so being thrown into this new format that none of us have labored in actually instantly bonded everybody,” Tran stated.

“The largest takeaway that I hope individuals take from this present — and particularly on this time when it’s so arduous to satisfy up with family and friends in the way in which that we used to — is that it’s actually vital to domesticate, and it’s additionally thrilling to depend on, your chosen household,” she added. “I hope that folks take away that your value isn’t in who you date or who you find yourself with. It’s about all the relationships that you just domesticate with family and friends and family members alongside the way in which.”

The primary three episodes of “How I Met Your Father” are actually streaming on Hulu, with a brand new episode premiering each Tuesday by means of March 15.

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