The Verge: Colin Egglesfield

The gossip headlines may ask, "Is Colin Egglesfield dating Kate Hudson?" but rest assured, it's only for the movies. The 37-year-old Egglesfield has spent spring canoodling with Hudson and Ginnifer Goodwin as the male lead in the in-production romcom Something Borrowed, a high-profile boost after the actor was bounced from the struggling revamp of Melrose Place. Egglesfield takes it all in stride, however; it's just another curveball in a career that's been full of them, zig-zagging from his pre-med background to high-fashion modeling to daytime soaps.

How did it happen? He told Movieline.

So Colin, I know you've been shooting Something Borrowed because I think every time you hug or kiss Kate Hudson in the movie, it gets a full page in Us Weekly.

[Laughs] Yeah, the paparazzi have pretty much been everywhere. It's pretty amazing how they end up showing up in the most random places and find out where we're at. It hasn't been a horrible thing -- obviously they got some really good pictures of us out in the Hamptons! Then again, I'm not Kate Hudson where they follow me around every time I go to the deli.

What can you tell me about your character in that film?

He's a guy who'd engaged to be married to Kate Hudson's character, but I fall in love with her best friend [played by Ginnifer Goodwin]. Each girl has something different about them that I'm attracted to, and that's what makes it more believable and difficult. Kate Hudson's character is very outgoing and the life of the party and she gets me out of my shell, and Ginny's character is someone who I feel like I have a deeper connection with, someone who's a good listener and a potential soulmate. It's that dilemma of, do you follow your heart and go after that person you connect with on a deeper level, or do you go with that person who fits the bill of you think you should be with?

That sounds like potentially the trickiest role in the movie, because how do you play your attraction to both girls without coming off as a jerk?

Exactly. That has been the fine line that we've been walking. It would be so easy for this guy to come off as an ass, because he's cheating on the woman that he's about to be married to with another girl, but when you see my backstory and you see the connection that I have with Ginny, it's like I wanted to be with Ginny but she never let me know she wanted to be with me, so I figured that it wasn't meant to be. Over time, I believe that if people are meant to be with each other, they will end up together. I don't know if destiny is what it is, but in the end, I think it's inevitable.

You booked this role back in March. Is that a silver lining from getting let go from Melrose Place?

Normally, TV shows film from July to about February, so this is the downtime where people who do TV are able to do film. Had Melrose Place been picked up for season two, and had I not been written off into the sunset on a motorcycle, I still would have been able to do the movie. [Laughs] What's great about having done Melrose Place is that it was an awesome experience and it kind of got me a little more recognition and definitely helped with getting this role.

It's interesting how one thing leads to another. You went from being pre-med to modeling to acting. How does that happen?

You know, growing up in the midwest, Hollywood was never anything that I thought would be a possible career choice -- I just didn't grow up in that environment where you're exposed to it from an early age. My dad's a doctor and my mom's a family therapist, so that's what I knew and felt comfortable with and that's what I felt like I should do. Still, growing up in a small town on the south side of Chicago, I always was curious and wanted to see the world, so I thought about doing Doctors Without Borders and getting to travel. I always put it out there that I wanted to do something different, and then it was a couple weeks before graduation and I heard about this model search. I went to it and it was kind of like American Idol, where they line you up in this cattle call, and decide if you'll go to this model convention. I just did it on a whim -- I heard that you could travel and make good money and work with supermodels, so I thought, "Why not? I'll just give it a shot."

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