John Corbett is "Bigger Than the Sky"

In Theaters Feb 18

“When I first started out [I was] in La Mirada Civic Theater,” Corbett said. “What was my first play? I think I did Witness for the Prosecution. That’s how I got into acting. I took an acting class at Cerritos Jr. College and I did a handful of plays, maybe five or six plays. Plays like Hair and Under Milkwood, a Dylan Thomas play and Marathon 33. It was a lot of fun, man.”

Beneath the Sky features characters like the pompous thespian, the frantic director, the kooky costume designer and the free spirit leading lady. Corbett knew a lot of these characters in real life.

“That was the thing about this flick, man. Has anybody here ever done community theater? Anybody? No? All these characters are sort of Universal. I mean, when I read this thing, I guess it’s about 20 pages in where my character shows up and wakes Marcus up and says, ‘Let’s go. Let me take you on a little journey.’ And we go to the theater and Patty Duke is working on costumes and the place is alive. That’s what it was like for me when I was doing theater. It was really 24 hours a day and the theater was just alive 24 hours a day. People were building sets and making props and making costumes and rehearsing and I just fell in love with that lifestyle because most people go home and shut off at the end of the day, five or six o’clock, have their T-bone and watch TV. Theater is wild. It’s alive.”

Fond memories aside, Corbett no longer thinks he could go back. “I’m afraid to do theater now. Now that people know who I am, I get offered plays here and there. It was so much easier to do it when nobody knew who I was. I can’t even imagine that somebody would come and pay money just to come and see me now. And I have this fear of really being and not being worth the 15 bucks. So I can’t do it. Hey, I’m not worth 15 bucks on stage for two hours. It was much easier when I was starting out.”

Leading man Corbett may be best known for as Aiden, the faithful lover to Carrie on Sex and the City. In Bigger Than the Sky, Michael is the one who’s afraid to commit. Corbett could understand the environment that breeds that kind of phobia.

“Theater is incestuous. Everybody sleeps with everybody on some weird level. They’re single and young… But I’m also a guy in his early ‘40s who’s never been married too, so it probably applies to me on some weird Dr. Phil level. No kids. Thank you, lord. A buddy e-mailed me this great commercial. It’s a UK commercial and it’s got this little boy in the supermarket and he wants these Sweeties. And the dad’s there and they’re in the market and he’s like ‘AGGGHHH, I want my Sweeties!’ He throws them in the thing and the dad puts them back on the shelf. Kid tips the cart over, he’s pulling all the stuff off the thing, the dad’s just sort of watching. Aggggh. The kid’s going nuts. He’s laying on the floor. It’s about a 30 second rant and rave. And at the end it’s just got the dad’s face looking at the kid and it says, ‘Use condoms.’ Greatest little commercial, man.”

He jokes, but Corbett has said a lot of things that he didn’t mean to be 100% serious. At his last press junket, he said he was giving up acting, yet he still has projects lined up. “You know, when you do these interviews, you kind of have to make yourself laugh. I think the last time I said that, I was kind of just joking, saying, ‘Oh, I only have to promote two more movies. Thank you, Jesus. I can’t wait to get out of this.’ And no, I don't think I’m going to quit acting. I was just kind of having fun with myself and saying the stuff out loud. I don't know what else I would do really to express myself. I don’t really paint. I do play music. I was talking about quitting acting and playing music last time. But I’m going to do both. I’ll play some music, but I don't think I’ll quit.”

Still, don’t expect Corbett to be popping out younguns anytime soon. “I might get married, but I don't think I’ll have kids. All my buddies that I went to high school with who are my age, I’m 43 now, they’re all sending their kids to college. I just was in West Virginia a week ago and my buddy’s sending his kid to college, his little boy, and I said, ‘Would you want another one right now? Would you want another one? Little screaming meanie.’ He said, ‘Are you out of your mind? It took us 19 years to get to this place.’ Now he feels a little bit of freedom. For the last 19 years, really since basically since he got out of high school, he’s been a papa. And no, I don't think so. I don't think I have any energy to be a parent. It takes a lot of energy, man.”

Corbett is leaving for a five city tour to open Bigger Than the Sky in select markets, including Minneapolis, Austin and Atlanta. Like My Big Fat Greek Wedding originally played to specific Greek communities, Corbett expects to be visiting communities with theater contingents.

“What we did for Big Fat Greek Wedding, we hit 46 cities in 42 days. It was amazing. But we went to all the Greek communities and we’d have screenings. Nia and I would do the morning drive radio thing and we’d go do the morning couch show with Bob and Tony and talk about the movie, say we’re playing at the local Orpheum theater in their town. And we would literally have three screenings for the Greek community a half hour apart. And we’d come and introduce the movie, leave, go to the other one and do it, and it was a grass roots thing that I think we’re going to try to do with this one. You know, it’s a small movie. The budget for promotion isn’t big. I don't know how many cities it’s opening in but I think it’s small. I think it’s like nine.”

Catch Bigger Than the Sky starting February 18 in select cities.