Q: But could it also be because females really like you?
JD: Um, no. I think it’s because kids and I really understand each other on the same…
Photos from Life As We Know It
Q: Emotional level?
JD: Yeah, probably.
Q: Speaking of kids, do you see yourself as a big kid?
JD: Uh, yeah. I think people would probably agree that I’ve got a lot of childish, uh…kid in me. If you ask my friends or my wife, or anybody else, I think that they would probably agree.
Q: You took up a real challenge, turning this Lifetime-type of story into a movie for the big screen.
JD: Huh? What are you asking, that we should be on Lifetime?
Q: Well, it has all those ingredients—romance, babies…
JD: Boo!
Q: About that movie poster…
JD: I don’t think it’s sexy! I think if you look at it closely, you can see that they super-imposed a 65-year-old man’s legs on me. Or I need to do a little bit more exercise. I didn’t want to do a lot of shirtless things like that, and if I was gonna do it, I wanted it to be funny. When they said, “Do you mind walking by in the poster in your underwear and with a beer bottle?” I said, “That’s funny, I’ll do it.” So here it is, on the movie poster. Lifetime would never allow a beer bottle on their poster!
Q: Did this movie and all that diaper duty make you think at all about being a dad?
JD: Well, my sister had twins who are about the same age as the babies in this movie. I remember telling her what to do when they were crying. I told her, “I read this in a script!” And it worked! But yeah, it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and that’s probably the reason I was drawn to this story in the first place. You know, the idea of a guy who’s not necessarily ready to do this, who suddenly is faced with this decision, and “Am I gonna man up, or not?” Most of us would say, “Oh, I would do it. I would step up.” But I think what really made the film work was that this guy is reluctant about it. He’s not happy about it. My character is the last person you’d think would be ready to do this. But as the movie goes on, and as much of a burden as he thought it was at the beginning, it becomes a blessing.
Q: How is filming Transformers 3 in Chicago going?
JD: It’s been great.
Q: What can you reveal?
JD: Optimus and Megatron make love, and have a little baby called Megaprime!
Q: That you get left with!
JD: Yes, I get left with Megaprime! And I’m up for it, all seven little bastards!