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Being himself is the easy part

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Special to The Times

Neil PATRICK HARRIS reprises his role as himself in “Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay,” which opened Friday. He also stars on CBS’ “How I Met Your Mother” and, yes, he was Doogie Howser, M.D.

Can I get you anything? Do you need a lozenge?

I have a coffee in my hand. I made it myself.

I wish you had someone to do that for you, really.

You know what I long for? A butler. I’m not one to need a bevy, an entourage or a posse, a crew. I don’t need a crew. I need a butler. Who doesn’t judge me. If I arrive home late and angry he’s there still with a sandwich to take my coat. And irons. No one has butlers anymore.

I think Diddy did.

Who?

Do we call him Diddy or Puff Daddy?

He probably calls him his boy. I want an English one, in his 60 or 70s, white gloves and all. To cut the crust off my sandwiches. . . . Think how fun a dinner party would be. A murder mystery dinner party!

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How often do you have murder mystery dinner parties?

Not often enough. What happened to those? Those were great fun. That’s where I’m headed! This show that’s going to happen in L.A. A small walking tour-ish interactive sort of mystery! It’s not a murder mystery per se! It’s called Accomplice: Hollywood. Small groups will not know where they’re supposed to go, but they’ll get a call and arrive where they’re supposed to arrive. Sort of like David Fincher’s “The Game.”

You’ll interact with people who will be part of the game, people who will not. It will alter the way you see Hollywood. That’ll be this summer. For my 30th birthday party my friends threw me a treasure hunt. I was sort of kidnapped by my friends and thrown in the trunk of a car. All day I had to accomplish tasks. . . . It was the coolest day of my life.

Speaking of crazy projects you’re involved in? What? “Dr. Horrible”?

Oh! “Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.” It is the brainchild of Joss Whedon and his brothers. The whole clan of them.

It has brothers!

He called me. I was in New York, and he called me to ask if I wanted to work with him on -- and I just said yes. Joss, Jed and Zach. And Maurissa! Jed’s girlfriend! The four of them, they wrote these songs. Joss described it best: a low-rent supervillain. And his aspirations to become more powerful in the supervillain hierarchy. And there’s nine songs in it! They’re going to air it on the Internet!

How do you find the Internet in general?

I peruse the Internet with great frequency. I think the Internet short, the Internet movie, is turning a corner. They are seeing they can make it more clever than just five or six friends with a camera putting it on YouTube.

Maybe the strike was responsible for that. I’m a huge Joss fan! And have been dying, literally dying to work with him.

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What’s your weekend look like?

My weekend looks very free. I’ve been fortunately crazy busy since “How I Met Your Mother” got up in full swing again, I’ve been every-daying it.

I was in Austin for the film festival for “Harold & Kumar.” I filmed an episode of a game show called “Regis Philbin’s Million Dollar Password.” Based on “Password” from days of yore! My weekend is gonna be lots of lounging about. I might take in a film! Though I just missed Jim Henson -- they were showing some early experimental work at that silent movie theater. I missed that.

I didn’t know he had early experimental work.

He was nominated for an Oscar for a little eight-minute movie he did. Then there are a bunch of weird early commercials. I love that stuff.

What do you do? Take the dogs to the dog park. Lay low. It’s better than saying -- I’d insert some trendy club name, but I don’t know them! If I said a place I knew it would really date me. I go to that hip new outdoor club, the Standard. 1998!

Well, you turned that corner of age that we do.

I’m almost 35. What does that mean? What does that entail? Just a lack of desire?

Look out for your back. And your teeth.

I do find I’m interested in wines and things now. I’m actively listening to Alton Brown. So maybe that is something to do with growing up.

OK. You need to lay down, old man.

I did my own stunts yesterday. I get a wallop of a punch. I’m not geriatric yet, fool! I got some young whippersnapper left in me. I’m a stuntman at heart, see? Why am I talking like it’s the 1930s? Thus aging myself. OK, that’s all I got.

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