Phone interview with Neil Patrick Harris

Today, Mars candy announced that they will be delivering real chocolate joy to millions of Americans via the launch of their Real Chocolate Relief Act. With actor Neil Patrick Harris, the candy company passed out thousands of pieces of chocolate to New Yorkers at M&M’S World in Times Square this afternoon. As part of the new campaign though, every week through the end of September, Mars will give away a quarter-of-a-million full-size packages of real chocolate on Free Chocolate Fridays. Americans can claim one of 250,000 full-value coupons each Friday (begins tomorrow May 8 at 9 a.m. EST) by visiting RealChocolate.com. The coupons will be limited to one per person, per week. I'm in! And if I wasn't already, Mars (a Weber Shandwick Chicago client) hooked me up with the following phone interview with Neil Patrick himself.

5 minutes before the interview...I'm staring at my cell phone waiting for it to ring. I'm thinking, Neil Patrick is about to call you, how will you answer it? Hey, sup NPH!? How goes it Doogie? Suit up! Ahh, don't forget to hit the record button!

CELL VIBRATES and I realize that he'll be hearing my Golden Girls ring back tone, lol!

"Hello, this is Tara" (no last name, like I'm Cher or something or as if he's calling to make a doctor's appointment, yeesh).

So, tell me, how was it passing out candy in Times Square today?
Neil Patrick Harris: It was a lot of fun. Because of the barricades the crowd kept looking on wondering who was going to preform or something. I think it's great what Mars is doing though and am glad to be a part of it.

What was your favorite candy growing up?
NPH:
[From] Mars candy it would be Snickers, which is pretty complete and filling.

How about now, what’s your addiction?
NPH:
Right now it's Pinkberry. I bought the whole cast Pinkberry during our wrap party. (I then dorkily asked him what his favorite topping was and he said he likes strawberries and blueberries, the traditional ones. I then went on to tell him about the secret menu option of the mochi topping and he said that it sounds like the In and Out secret menu and that he'll have to try it.)

I saw the Mother's Day e-card you recorded for the Noreen Fraser Foundation about women getting a mammogram and I also saw you at the Stand Up To Cancer show, is cancer a cause that particularly resonates with you? (Yes, I sounded like I was reading from a piece of paper and I was)
NPH: For Stand Up To Cancer my friend was producing the show and asked me to be involved. But since my mother's friend is a cancer survivor and my boyfriend's mother died last year from Leukemia, it just seemed like now more than ever it was important to do. For Noreen Fraser they just asked me to give two minutes of my time to record the message while I was on set, so it seemed like the least I could do. View his e-card here.


I love your character Barney on How I Met Your Mother, how is it playing such a snarky dude?
NPH: Barney is a hoot. He has such a great voice and they're always writing him monologues and new rules to say, so it's not boring and I'm highly caffeinated.

Do you relate to him at all?
NPH:
Yeah I like to laugh, but I'm not as alpha male as he is, but I suppose that's a good thing, because I'd be getting in all sorts of trouble.

Do you have a good group of friends like he does?
NPH: A great group of friends. Most of them are married and have kids so I live a pretty quiet suburban life in Studio City when I'm not filming.

Besides How I Met Your Mother what else are you working on?
This is when my phone stopped recording, so I'll have to summarize his response, but I was able to hit record again just afterward. He said that he is co-producing a Los Angeles version of the hit off-off Broadway interactive theatre experience Accomplice: New York, but Accomplice: Hollywood. Apparently, it's a live clue based scavenger hunt that takes place entirely on foot throughout Hollywood Boulevard and at different locations. He said it's an interactive and intimate experience. Also, one of the characters is a blogger (yay!). He said I had to go and blog about it and I was like hell yeah! No, I didn't really say that. I probably giggled and said yes, I blog about everything, lol.

As a celebrity you're often talked about online, what do you think about blogging and online media?
NPH: I think it's a great tool to find out people's opinion's on things, but it's important not to believe the first thing you read, which was probably more the case five years ago when blogging started. It's also a problem that news organizations are quoting bloggers as if it's fact.

Do you Twitter?
NPH: (Laughs) I don't twitter, everyone keeps asking me about the twitter. Twitter is the new Beanie Baby, isn't it? I don't, I would, but I would twitter just with a private group of friends. I don't quite understand the idea of twittering for the masses. It seems a little bit invasive, but maybe I'm just a private person. It seems weird to twitter I'm at this restaurant right now. As a celebrity quote unquote that seems dangerous. It might be fun to let my friends know that some movie was cool, but then again you could just call them on the phone. (UPDATE: months later NPH started tweeting at @ActuallyNPH)

In the first episode of How I Met Your Mother Barney says, "I'm so blogging this!"
NPH:
(Laughs) Yeah, Barney's blog kind of dropped off. (I then added, Barney will have to start twittering now anyway and he laughed again).



Overall, it was really easy speaking with Neil Patrick. He was pretty low key and friendly. Voice sounded just like it does on TV, which kind of had me tripping that it was coming out of my cell phone instead of the tube.

9 comments

  1. Great interview, Tara!

    NPH FTW!

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  2. Awesome interview! How cool!!!

    I wish he would Twitter though. :)

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  3. this is awesome. so cool. i love NPH! :)

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  4. Oh, I'm so jealous you got to talk to him! I totally <3 him!

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  5. I want to marry NPH and have babies with him. Don't question the logistics of that :P

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  6. very cool interview! :) i signed myself up for chocolate reminders.

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  7. How cool that you got to interview him! I love him on HIMYM. That show is fab IMHO.
    Very cool!

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  8. NPH is hilarious. (I wonder if I'm the first person to observe this.)

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