11 Questions With: Patrick Dempsey

Known to most as the impossibly (Mc)dreamy doc on TV's 'Grey's Anatomy,' Patrick Dempsey is poised to become a leading man on the big screen ... again. He first achieved heartthrob status in the '80s as the boyish star of 'Can't Buy Me Love' and 'Loverboy,' before fading from the spotlight. But now, Dempsey is taking his movie-star power out for another spin in 'Made of Honor' (think 'My Best Friend's Wedding' with the roles reversed). He got candid with Moviefone's Tom DiChiara about the perils of "going commando" in a kilt, the allure of becoming a clown and the secret to that perfect 'do.

Getty Images

1. Were you wary that 'Made of Honor' would be perceived as too similar to 'My Best Friend's Wedding'?Oh sure. I think it's very hard to do any romantic comedy without it being compared to something else, so what you want to try to do is make it your own and keep it as fresh as possible. Because you know you're going to get those comparisons until people see it, and then they're going to go, "Oh, you know what? It's different. It's a different experience."

Sony

2. How did Michelle Monaghan land the part of your love interest?We met a lot of people, Paul Weiland [the director] and I. And then Michelle came in, and it was just a real easygoing conversation, and she just had a wonderful sense of humor and was very smart. You could tell she was someone you could go and play with, and we needed to do a lot of improvisation to bring the script alive, and we knew that she was going to be capable of that.

Sony

3. For one scene in the film, you had to wear a mini-kilt. Did you follow Scottish tradition and "go commando"?[Laughs] For a short time. I tried it out and I realized that this is not the kilt I want to be doing that in. Yeah, I didn't need to show that.

Sony

4. What is your favorite memory from the shoot?Shooting in Scotland. We had like one day to [film] all the Highland Games there and the big scene where my character says, "Look, I love you." We were running out of time ... We tried three or four different ways and went home completely depressed. Then we looked at the dailies [and realized] it was nice to have that struggle and that angst because it really forced us to try a lot of things and not give up on it.

Sony

5. Is it true that as a teenager you wanted to be a professional clown?Yeah, I started off as a juggler. I had my own one-man show that I used to travel around the state of Maine doing. I had tried to get into Ringling Bros. ... [which] was the one place that you could go to work. That would have been a fun thing to do when you were young, travel around the world with a circus.

Michael Loccisano, FilmMagic.com

6. Who's the sexiest cougar your character slept with in 'Loverboy'?Ha! The sexiest cougar! That's a good question. Who was in that? Oh, Barbara Carrera was pretty sexy. She was pretty sultry.

Everett Collection

7. You've been a heartthrob both in the '80s and now. Are the female fans crazier today than they were back then?I think more so now. I think it's the power of the character I play on TV. I think it has a lot to do with Shonda Rhimes and who she's created with that character. I've been fortunate enough to be in his shoes and play him, and I think people project that image onto me. I realize that it's not me. And I enjoy the opportunities it's allowing me to have. I'm very thankful to be working [laughs].

Getty Images

8. Regarding 'Grey's,' how do you feel about Shonda Rhimes' plan to get Meredith and Derek back together for good by the end of this season?It's good. I have like a rainbow color of pages in front of me that I'm trying to put together in my script, and I just got to the final scene. And it's a beautiful scene where we get back together. It's really quite something. It's unexpected, I think, the way it plays itself out. It kind of gets back to the essence of what made this show so great.

ABC

9. You're big into racing cars. How'd you get hooked?I've always loved it, since I was a kid. I just got a two-day competition certificate from my wife and got involved that way. There's a lot of great programs and schools out there where you can just sort of step your way up. And I just got more and more into it. I ran the Daytona 24 Hours this year, which was a goal.

Getty Images