Neil Patrick Harris

If you think Neil Patrick Harris is one of the nicest guys in entertainment, you’re absolutely right.

The actor couldn’t have been kinder during our recent conversation, especially when the battery in my recorder suddenly died and he offered to call me back. I asked him about How I Met Your Mother, this year’s Oscars, being a dad and other fun topics:

I thought of you as I was watching the SAG Awards — I feel like every awards show is better when you’re there!

You’re very sweet.

Do you get into awards season at all?

I watch them when I can, but I try to only watch the ones I have a vested interest in, lest I suffer from awards show overload. Because they’re fast and furious right now.

Are you pulling for any Oscar nominees?

I absolutely loved Hugo.

That’s the one movie I haven’t seen.

You have to go see it in 3-D at the theater. We had been watching a lot of screeners, and we got the Hugo screener, and I refused to watch it. So we went and saw it at one of the ArcLight theaters.

It is so good, and Martin Scorsese’s clearly a master of the lens. But to give him a shot at taking such a classy approach to 3-D filmmaking was just great. And it has to do with magic and automatons and great lessons ... I just thought it was fantastic.

So if you were ever asked, would you be up for hosting the Oscars one day?

Oh, I would not say no. The circumstances just have to be right — that’s a very zeitgeist-y position to be in. I think they made a great choice with Billy Crystal this year, because he’s so beloved and he’s so comfortable in that seat. Given sort of the complicated first chapter of this year’s Oscars, I think it’s great to know that you’re gonna get a consistent, good show with Billy at the helm.

You’re doing something with M&M’s this week, right? What’s that about?

M&M’s called me and asked if I would do one simple thing: Go to The Grove and reveal the image of their new brown M&M, Ms. Brown.

Who in their lifetime gets that kind of ask? Literally no heavy lifting — I don’t have to dig anything, I don’t have to stock any shelf, I don’t even have to write anything. It’s like the greatest job ever, so I said yes.

Personally, sometimes I get freaked out with objects that are humanized. Like, we eat M&M’s — they’re not supposed to talk!

Yeah, I think most people feel the same way. However, I spent a whole summer with the Smurfs, so I have a lot of "talking to inanimate object" experience. (Laughs)

CAPTION By Casey Rodgers, AP Images for Mars Chocolate

I’m a big fan of Adventure Time, so I was thrilled when you appeared on that show.

Thanks! That was a very random get — you know, the creators just started tweeting me about half a year ago. I’d never even heard of it. So, through the awesomeness of Twitter ... I saw it, thought it was clever and liked the ballsy-ness of them not going through the normal channels. It seemed very indie. So I went and did it, and it was cute.

Do you think that as your own children get older, you might be interested in doing more stuff for kids?

Oh, for sure — I’ve angled myself in that way already. I do a lot of books on tape for Beverly Cleary, and another Smurfs shout-out for that demographic. I’ve gotten to hang out with Elmo, I’m the Fairy Shoeperson on Sesame Street. So hopefully our kids will get to see and hear me as much as they’re able.

What has being a father taught you?

I think to go with the flow more. You know, they’re so mobile and unformed, and yet strong-willed when they’re able to run and walk and smash things with their fists ... You can’t have any hard edges — both literally and figuratively. Because they’ll just kind of do what they want. You learn from them and sort teach them as things happen, rather than in a hyper-structured way.

And you’re still working on this season of How I Met Your Mother, right?

Indeed. We still have seven more shows to go.

What can you tell me about the next few episodes?

They’re introducing a blond vixen played by Becki Newton, who is going to kind of spin a web around Barney. So he’s going to have a love interest for awhile.

I guess that’s good, though I kind of adore it when Barney is pining for Robin.

Yeah, but the Barney and Robin chapter happened, and you know, in a lot of shows that couple up their main cast members they have to kind of keep on truckin’, otherwise you just get stuck in that same rut week in and week out.

I don’t think Barney pining over Robin on a consistent level is exactly in line with his character traits. So I’m excited that there’s someone he can work his sexual magic on.

And do you think the mother should be revealed before the end of the show, or should that be saved until the last moment?

Well, I’ve always been under the assumption that it will be the last thing that is revealed in the show. That being said, they had a structure of the show that was an eight-year structure, because that’s as long as our contract goes. Theoretically, it could go longer than that. And if it did, that might be kind of clever, if at the end of the eighth season they revealed the mother — and then if there happens to be a ninth season maybe then the mother could be a part of the gang.

I don’t know. It’s so much buildup that whoever ends up being that would have to do a really ridiculously stellar job, just because there’s been 150-odd episodes already where we haven’t found out who she is. So maybe it’s better if it’s revealed and we black out and say, "Good night, everybody!"

One more question: Do you think a Dr. Horrible sequel will ever happen?

I do. I know Joss (Whedon) is excited about it, Nathan (Fillion) would love to do one, Felicia (Day) as well. And I would certainly be on board. I just have this sneaking feeling in my gut that they would make a Dr. Horrible feature film and then cast Andrew Garfield as Dr. Horrible.

No!

We’ll see what happens. (Laughs)