Josh Duhamel, a reluctant daddy in "Life As We Know It"

CEBU, Philippines - Josh Duhamel  (When in Rome) reinforces his romantic hero status in Warner Bros.’ new comedic love story, Life as We Know It.

Everyone has a different plan for their perfect life. For Eric Messer (Duhamel), it’s moving up from being a broadcast technician to a full-fledged director in national sports television. But life as we plan it is seldom life as we live it.

Such is the case when Holly’s (Katherine Heigl) and Messer’s plans are put on hold by the sudden and tragic death of their mutual best friends. Holly and Messer have always tolerated, rather than enjoyed, each other’s company, but now they find themselves co-guardians to baby girl, Sophie.

Duhamel says, “They both love this little girl, and they both feel obligated to at least try to do what their friends wanted…even though they’re both going in completely different directions in their own lives, and they really don’t like each other.” Backed into a corner, Holly and Messer will have to make it work…somehow.

“I thought this script was special,” explains the actor. “The story was very funny, but also tragic and sad at the same time. In my opinion, those are the best movies. I think that every man who is making that transition from singlehood to fatherhood will be able to relate to this movie.”

Messer is on a track to move up in his career, before things get derailed. “He’s basically the guy that pushes the button, but he’s waiting for his shot to finally direct, which, not to be cliché, is what he’s always wanted to do,” Duhamel continues. “When he does get his chance and things don’t go quite as planned, he blames Holly and that adds to the tension between them.”

Co-star and producer Heigl was key in getting Duhamel on board as Messer. The friends had been hoping to work together for some time when Life As We Know It came their way. “I thought he’d be perfect for Messer—even though Messer is a bit of a scruffy, baseball cap-t-shirt-and-jeans kind of guy and Josh is really polished. I just knew he should play this role.”

Duhamel spent a lot of time discussing the character with his director, Greg Berlanti. “Greg and I felt it would be easy to fall into the trap of just playing him as a charming womanizer who needs to learn about love, but we wanted him to be a lot more than that. We both felt that it was okay if he was unapologetic or says or does things that the audience may not like right away. Face it, guys can be like that.”

“Josh Duhamel is too good-looking, has too much hair, is too tall, too nice, too charming, too good at what he does,” producer Paul Brooks deadpans. “Seriously, though, he was a bit of a revelation. Great instincts, great timing. And I think the chemistry between him and Katie was just brilliant.”

Berlanti couldn’t agree more. “Josh is one of those guys’ guys who men would want to hang out with and women love, which is exactly what we needed him to be in this role.” Opening across the Philippines on Oct. 20, Life As We Know It is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.