Gay&Night-ZiZo December 2014

Interview / Neil Patrick Harris
It’s been a very good year in the life of Neil Patrick Harris, master showman and star of stage
and screen. First he released his autobiography, then he married his long-time partner David
Burtka in Italy, and in October it was announced that Harris had been chosen to host the
Oscar ceremonies next February. On top of all that, he’s been earning rave reviews for his
supporting role in Gone Girl, one of the biggest and best lms of the year. That’s the kind
of fabulous good fortune that has followed the multi-talented actor throughout his life, and
following in the footsteps of legendary Oscar hosts such as Bob Hope, Johnny Carson, and
Billy Crystal has long been one of his dreams.
“I’ve always loved the Oscars and I have great
respect for its history... and I want to make sure
that it’s a classy event,” Harris says. “It’s the biggest
sandbox in the world... and I don’t want it to
seem like I’m doing the same award hosting gig
that I did on the Tonys. I loved Johnny Carson and
Billy Crystal honoring the gravity of it without getting
heavy and boring. And I have no idea how to
balance that, but that’s going to be the task ahead.”
This is the kind of plainspoken wisdom that
Harris brings to his work and our world. He’s been
the star of two highly successful TV series (Doogie
Howser M.D. and How I Met Your Mother), he’s
headlined several Broadway productions (most
recently Hedwig and the Angry Inch), and he’s
hosted both the Emmy and Tony awards. It’s the
kind of remarkable career that few performers
have achieved, let alone one of the handful of
openly gay actors working in the business. But
for a child prodigy growing up in New Mexico
who went on to become a teen TV star, then a
successful Broadway performer, and ultimately a
gay icon, Neil Patrick Harris is only just starting to
come into his own as one of the most versatile and
engaging showbiz stars.
The fact that he’s eminently personable and
charming has undoubtedly helped ease his
acceptance into mainstream pop culture after
he came out in 2006 via an interview in People
Magazine. Harris recalls: “Your internal fears are
that once you make an announcement like that
you worry you’ll never work again. But things
have progressed since then – now I don’t think the
media is on a witch-hunt anymore to out actors.
You can have a career and play straight roles
without audiences raising much of an eyebrow. It’s
becoming more acceptable.”
The 41-year-old Harris begins his new
memoir, Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own
Autobiography, with a cheeky warning, that his
“self-serving celebrity autobiography is different
from other self-serving celebrity autobiographies”.
The book allows you to move quickly from one
particular area of Harris’ life to another. It’s a very
novel approach to the traditional biography format
that has helped turn the book into a bestseller.
Neil Patrick Harris lives in New York with his
long-time companion, chef David Burtka. They
were married in Italy on September 6th and are
parents to twins named Harper Grace and Gideon
Scott, born through a surrogate mother in 2010.
Harris is currently starring in David Fincher’s hit
lm Gone Girl.
Neil, what was your wedding like?
“[Laughs] It’s still a bit of a blur. We didn’t want
to make a big thing of it and so we decided to have
it in Italy [at a castle near Perugia – ed.] where we
took our rst trip together. Elton John came over
and performed at this castle that a friend of a friend
arranged for the ceremony. There were only about
fty guests because we wanted it to be a small and
intimate gathering. It was important to me to be
able to make a declaration of my love and commitment
to David in front of our very closest friends as
well as share that experience with our kids.”
Why now?
“I’d been working on How I Met Your Mother
for nine years, so that blocks out pretty much
nine months of each year and now it felt like the
right time and everything fell into place. It doesn’t
change anything between David and me. We’ve
been together for ten years and he’s still the same
wonderful guy as ever.”
This is a pretty good year for you. You
published your memoir, you hosted the
Tonys again, you’re playing in Gone Girl,
and now you’re hosting the Oscars?
“I’ll admit, it’s almost worrying that so many
good things are happening to me. But hosting the
Oscars has been a dream of mine and I’ve been
able to prepare for this a long time by hosting the
Emmys and Tonys, so at least I have a good idea
of how to handle it. The preparations are a lot more
elaborate, though, and it’s an immense honor and
responsibility.”
Do you already feel the pressure
starting to build as Oscars host?
“[Laughs] Not yet. But there’s some nervous
tension starting to develop and you actually need
that to get you to work at the highest level. At least
I’ve done enough awards shows to know how to
handle unexpected circumstances or things that
go wrong. You need to have this alert sensibility
where you need to be ready to comment or deal
with the unexpected and that’s part of the expectations
that come with the Oscars and the fact that
it’s a live event and a billion people are watching
you. There’s a lot of work to be done and I’ve never
done an awards show of this scale before, so the
big challenge will be to come up with great song
and dance numbers and make it as entertaining
and exciting an experience as possible.”
Text Fred Allen / The Interview People 201
013