“This movie goes back about four years, I think, is when I first started writing it,” Duhamel, 48, said on the Today show on Friday, November 27. “And she was the one who said, ‘You know what? You can direct this. You can do this.'”

The Safe Haven actor decided to give Fergie, 45, some love in the movie itself after she encouraged him to go for it early on in the filmmaking process.

“When we were doing the final credits, I go, ‘You know what? I gotta give Ferg a little shoutout’ because she was somebody who told me to go do it,” he said. “Because honestly, I wasn’t sure if I could.”

Earlier this month, Duhamel teased the Buddy Games premiere and gushed about his passion project.

“Ladies & Gents, it’s been a long time coming but the official countdown to BUDDY GAMES has begun!!” he wrote via Instagram in November. “Get ready to laugh your asses off (I think we all need a little more of that these days).”

The Transformers actor and “Big Girls Don’t Cry” singer separated in September 2017 after eight years of marriage. Fergie, however, did not file for divorce until May 2019. The pair’s divorce was finalized in November of that year.

“We decided to separate as a couple earlier this year,” the duo told Us Weekly in a statement after their split announcement. “To give our family the best opportunity to adjust, we wanted to keep this a private matter before sharing it with the public. We are and will always be united in our support of each other and our family.”

The exes share 7-year-old son Axl, whom they welcomed in 2013.

Duhamel has since been linked to Audra Mari, whom he was spotted with in May 2019 while out in Malibu. The pair was photographed kissing at a Toronto airport in December of that year and later reunited for a holiday party the same month.

Author:Johnni Macke - Source: US Magazine