Neil Patrick Harris,
welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Thank you so much, man.
This is my first time on the show.
I'm excited and a little bit nervous.
Oh, well, how can you be nerv... I'm the one
who should be nervous, because, I mean, like
Neil Patrick Harris has touched
so many of the greatest shows and movies
and productions and everything that we know of.
I always find myself wondering, in a career like yours,
do you think you have the Midas touch,
or do you just know where Midas is
and what he's about to touch?
(laughs) Man, that's so flattering.
I-I like to sort of see
if I can live in Kevin Bacon's wake.
(both laugh)
And be a few degrees away from the real man
who's a few degrees away from everyone.
I'm old, mate. I-I've been around for a while
doing a lot of disparate things.
So, thankfully, I get to keep working
in, like, weird ways I never imagined.
-Right. -Acting, sure.
Uh, but, like, hosting award shows? Weird.
Never part of the plot.
Writing books? Weird.
Like, I just do weird stuff lately,
so, you know, it is what it is.
You-You've historically just been
one of the most busy people out there.
Like-like you said, writing, singing,
performing on Broadway, acting in movies,
TV shows, hosting shows.
So, what have you been doing at the height of the pandemic?
Because there was a period where nobody could work.
-So, what were you doing? -Yeah, well, I was working
right as the pandemic started.
I was filming The Matrix 4 in San Francisco.
And that was right when everything
started being a little bit cuckoo
-at the beginning of last year. -Right.
And then I... We came home,
were about to head to Berlin
to film the second half of the movie there,
and, uh, the lockdown happened,
so that got held for a while.
I got COVID.
My husband, our kids, we all got COVID early on.
And so we were just hunkered down.
We were fine.
Like, medium on a-- on a--
On a spicy level, we were, like, a four.
And then-- So then we were--
We had antibodies and we felt fine,
so we weren't, y-you know,
um, as nervous as-as some people around us were.
But we just kept to ourselves.
Um... I'd been working a bit,
so it was actually kind of nice to exist.
We were kind of-- We had finished renovating a place
and we were able to move in.
And, I don't know, I-I thought--
We have ten-year-old kids, my husband and I,
and-and, uh... and I think it's important
to be showing them
the positive aspects of this as much as the negative.
This is normal to them.
-Mm-hmm. -It's not-- It's a little abnormal
but it's not super weird, like it is to adults.
So we've been just acknowledging that this is what it is
and spending time together,
sitting in each other's sauce
and trying to break up fights.
And I really feel like I know my family more than I ever have.
And that's chaotic,
but it's also kind of fantastic,
so I've been-- I've been blessed.
Then I went to Berlin, filmed more, uh, of that movie.
I went to Budapest and filmed a movie with Nicolas Cage.
Oh, nice. Why-why do you--
Yeah, why do you s-sound surprised about it?
You're like, "I went to Budapest." (stammers)
It sounds like you were, like-- It was a stopover flight
and then, all of a sudden, you were in a movie with Nicolas--
The way you said it. It was like, "I-I was in Budapest.
Then I was in a movie with Nicolas Cage?"
Because I had just finished being in Berlin, Germany,
filming a big, giant movie.
And I thought that was super cool and I can now,
you know, sit back with my family for a while.
And then I got an e-mail asking if I wanted to go
to Budapest, Hungary, and film a Nicolas Cage movie.
Never met the guy.
Never thought I'd really be in Nicolas Cage's orbit.
And in the middle of the pandemic.
Budapest is completely locked down.
It was one of those fly there for multiple days of quarantine,
-film for two days and split. -Yes, yes, yes.
I was there in this hotel.
Everything. No restaurants were open.
-It was really strange, right? -Oh, yeah, no.
So just a weird time to be traveling the globe,
filming things, right now, this last year.
But I did it. It's a comedy. It was super fun.
And, uh, Nicolas Cage is as lovely
as you would imagine Nicolas Cage could be.
-Have you met him before? -I love that. I love-- I-I haven't.
I haven't. But I also haven't been to Budapest.
So maybe that's how it happens,
is, like, I go to Budapest
and then I'll be in a movie with Nicolas Cage.
-Best VIP room ever. -(laughs)
Um, let's talk about, uh,
your new show that's gonna be premiering on, uh, HBO Max.
It's already, um, aired
on the other side of, uh-- of the Atlantic
to really, really, really great receptions,
and that's a show called It's a Sin.
A beautiful and powerful story.
Talk me a little through what this show is about.
Well, it... (exhales)
It sort of does-does two things.
It's-it's written and produced by Russell T Davies,
and he's prolific.
He did Years and Years,
A Very English Scandal, Dr. Who.
He's done great-- The original Queer as Folk in the U.K.
And then he wanted to do something
that was more personal to him.
And so he wanted to do a five-part, sort of,
larger story about HIV/AIDS and how it came into the U.K.
after it had been in the States in the '80s.
And no one had-- has really written that story.
And so that's kind of the dynamic of it.
It's-it's a limited series.
It follows these...
people on the edge of adulthood
from various parts of the U.K. that come together in London.
And you're watching them all live these exciting lives
of possibility and you really like them.
And yet you're also watching knowing
that this big...
-shadow is slowly coming over everyone. -Yeah.
And so it's very emotional.
It's very... uh, educational
but not in a really pejorative,
kind of, um, lecture-y way.
Your f-- You want these people to screw each other literally
and have fun and dance, you know?
And yet you know what's happening.
You know what's coming.
-So it's a really interesting dynamic. -Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Um, I play the mentor to one of the kids,
a Savile Row tailor guy who's living kind of,
um, lovely, monogamous,
old-school, same-sex, uh, couplehood life,
uh, and is an example to one of the kids, uh, in the thing.
So I-- My part's not gigantic,
but it's been really exciting to be a part of a piece of art
that turns into an education
in a way that people are responding to legitimately well.
My job is actor.
I don't feel comfortable in the role of educator.
-Right. -I'm not-- I'm not very educated. (chuckles)
So when I am able to be a part of something
where people can be effective,
where a generation who lived in the world of HIV/AIDS
can really have a profound experience
reliving things that they had experienced,
but, more importantly, Trevor,
to have a younger generation that, quite frankly,
doesn't really know much at all about HIV/AIDS,
that really legitimately doesn't know any of it
and how it happened and how it came to be
and what it means now.
Because, essentially, you can have,
you know, unprotected sex,
catch it, take a pill, you should be fine.
Like, a lot of younger generation,
that's all they know from it.
So to be able to educate
in a way that's still kind of vibrant,
that's-- like, that's a really--
that's a really nice notch to have on a belt.
It's a beautiful story.
And, you know, some-some of the comments I've seen about it,
especially from the U.K.,
have been many of the feelings I had
when just watching the first episode was-was that
it's interesting to explore the paradox
of the joy that was contained in a world
that was overshadowed, as you said earlier,
by-by this ominous feeling.
It feels like that was important to show as well.
Because sometimes stories tell one side of the story.
Very sad or only happy.
This seemed like it was a complicated reality
of what it was.
That's very well said.
And-and that's what I think is so great about it.
Because the '80s were that--
you know, had that kind of heartbeat to it.
And there's lots of scenes with people dancing in nightclubs,
and it's-it's- there's a sexiness to it, you know?
So you also-- You-you get intoxicated by that.
And yet, at the same time, there's this...
there's this voice on-- o-over your shoulder,
whispering in your ear, saying,
-"Don't forget, this is about HIV/AIDS." -Right.
And it's a very serious topic.
And so, as you go, it's...
(sighs) Your-your concern for the people and--
Yes, obviously, without spoiling anything,
not everyone in the cast survives,
because that's sort of part of the-the storytelling.
And then-- But even in episode one,
wondering who all these people with great futures,
wondering who's gonna mess up and how and what's gonna--
like, who's gonna survive,
it's a very treacherous tightrope of a show.
I don't know. I-I think Russell T Davies
has-has had extraordinary writing
after extraordinary writing.
He's-- He-he makes content that is really, really vital.
And, uh-- And this is no different.
Yeah, it's, uh, it's really been well-received,
um, in the U.K., and when it premieres in the U.S.,
it's gonna be interesting to see, you know,
how people resonate with the story and what they feel
about it. Before I let you go,
I would love to know how you worked on your accent,
because one of the, one of the... (stammers)
the feuds that's constantly, uh, you know, brewing
between the U.S. and the U.K.
is how people do the other's accents.
Everyone loved your accent-- how did you work on it?
Um, I have a pretty decent ear for accents,
but I really didn't want to rely on that,
-so there was a dialectician that I worked with -Uh-huh.
a fair amount, we went through the entire script.
We sort of decided what type of person
-he was... -Right. Did you, did you, like, do that thing,
where you, like, live in, like, were you walking
around your house, like, (English accent): "I would like
-some tea, please?" -(laughs)
No, I went... I went about a week early
to walk around and just kind of sit at pubs and listen
to people so that, like, my ear was just in-in-in line--
but the hardest part, to be honest,
was when we were filming... my accent...
I was fine with my accent as written,
but then between takes, I wasn't sure whether I should maintain
the accent or whether I should drop it, because I didn't want
to seem like this weird method actor that, like, is always
in character, always speaking with a posh British accent.
And yet it seemed like it was equally strange
-To just flip out of it, right? -to drop it and talk
with hard Rs, uh, the whole time in Manchester,
where everyone's talking like...
and so I just kind of split the, split the difference.
I probably talked more like a Brit than an American
just-just to make it easier on myself.
But, no, man, I have a massive talent crush
on the U.K.-- I think the work that they do, uh,
on television, I think that the work that they do on film
and on stage is-is, uh,
really exciting and really, uh,
um, important and I've always wanted to be a part
of something like that, so I was very conscientious
about not just yawning and faking my way
through an accent, for sure.
Well, just judging by the reviews,
I can safely say they've also got a crush on you.
Uh, Neil Patrick Harris, thank you for joining me on the show.
Congratulations on another fantastic project and, uh,
here's to the next Budapest, my friend.
Uh, cheers, man-- we'll see you soon, I appreciate it.