[IMG:L]Hollywood.com caught up with How I Met Your Mother star Neil Patrick Harris on the same day he was nominated for an Emmy as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series–and learned exactly why he’d better remember to thank Bob Barker in his acceptance speech.
Hollywood.com: Where were you when you heard about your nomination?
Neil Patrick Harris: I was dead asleep in bed. I decided that any kind of buildup that I brought to it would only crush my dreams if things weren’t positive, so I just decided to sleep in. Then I got a great call in the morning and then the calls kept coming in and I jumped in a car and went and did a bunch of interviews.
HW: Who was the first call?
NPH: My great friend James Carpinello, who broke his foot doing Xanadu and wasn’t able to open the show, called me. He was watching them live.
HW: Your How I Met Your Mother co-stars called you?
NPH: Everyone’s called me but Cobie [Smulders], but she’s in London studying Shakespeare, so she has an excuse.
HW: But Alyson Hannigan screamed into your phone?
NPH: She was very excited and very sweet. She’s such a wonderful girl. And Josh [Radnor] and Jason [Segel] both called and they were super happy too. I gotta say, the nomination is really nice, but nicer was all the people that texted and called me. All my friends called to say wonderful things. That was nicer than any of it.
HW: Which episode did you submit for nomination?
NPH: “Showdown with Bob Barker.”
HW: Why was that a good representation?
NPH: We went through and the other one was when Barney revealed his apartment for the first time, but the nomination specifics dictate that you have to edit together every scene that you’re in in the show. They have to be edited together and that’s presented to this committee. So we did that with a few shows and sort of looked at the run of scenes in a row. That’s a different dynamic because our show is an ensemble show, so it’s like the funny scenes take place in between other funny scenes, so when they’re all smashed together it’s a different vibe. We just thought that “Showdown” worked well, Bob Barker‘s got some buzz right now and I had a ball improving with him.
HW: Was that last scene where you’re going to tell him but you don’t improvised?
NPH: No, that was all written. He looks at him longingly, wishes he could say something and pauses for a ridiculously long time and then says… it was cool. And Bob was great. We thought he would be one take, I want to get out of here, because we piggybacked an actual show of theirs. So when the show was done, the audience was asked if they wanted to stay, I just sort of jumped in row seven and we just kept going.
[IMG:R]HW: You lived every Price is Right fan’s fantasy.
NPH: When you watch that show, we rehearsed it a couple times and I cheer and run down the aisle and stuff. This woman on the aisle came up and said, a larger woman who was a birthday party clown, said that she’s been going to The Price is Right every week. It was like her 45th time, she’s never been on the show, so would I do something, like give her a high-five or hug her? So if you watch the show, I run and I full on hug her and pick her up and shake her and set her down. So that was kind of fun.
HW: Of the competition in your category, who are your favorites?
NPH: I’m a big Rainn Wilson fan, just as an actor. I was a Six Feet Under geek and his work on that was so unique and strong and poignant yet odd. He was really wonderful and The Office is a great show. It’s an interesting category, comedy, because you have one hour shows like Desperate Housewives competing with half-hour filmed shows improvisational style like The Office competing against Two and a Half Men and How I Met Your Mother which is multi-camera. It’s different from a drama show, which is pretty much uniform, so it’s hard to pick. Entourage is an entirely different beast than How I Met Your Mother. I personally don’t think they should be judged in the same category, but that’s the way it is. Everyone’s really great – and good for Jon Cryer. He’s sort of the backbone of that show in my opinion. It’s nice to see him get a nomination.
HW: Of all the women who are nominated, who would Barney go for?
NPH: Tina Fey is kind of dirty hot. America Ferrera, no. Barney is very superficial so anyone named Betty whose forename is “Ugly” he would probably avoid. Minnie Driver is kind of dirty sexy hot. I say Minnie Driver because she’s got that dirty British voice and you know how those Brits, they act prim and proper but they say really naughty things all the time. So I’d say Barney would be all up in Minnie Driver‘s business. Barney likes his cougars. He could go Felicity [Huffman] style, but I wouldn’t disrespect Bill Macy.
