It Takes an Adult to Make a Kids’ Show

Interview avec l’acteur américain Neil Patrick Harris.

Si Neil Patrick Harris a incarné pendant neuf ans le rôle de l’attachant coureur de jupons Barney Stinson dans How I Met Your Mother, il a définitivement tourné la page. Depuis 2017, il est le cruel Comte Olaf de la série Les Désastreuses Aventures des orphelins Baudelaire, de retour sur Netflix à partir du 1er janvier pour une ultime saison. L’acteur américain se confie sur son rôle de grand méchant.

As the hooknosed, hygiene-challenged, villainous Count Olaf in A Series of Unfortunate Events, Neil Patrick Harris could easily be the stuff of nightmares — yours and your children’s. Unfortunate Events, in which he wickedly places the Baudelaire orphans — Violet (Malina Weissman), Klaus (Louis Hynes) and Sunny (Presley Smith) — in harm’s way while chasing after their inheritance, isn’t typical family fare. But the malice and nefariousness are surprisingly enjoyable. “We’re far from friendly, but I like that a 10-year-old and a 40-yearold can watch the same scene and enjoy it for different reasons,” he said. “We feel like we’re making something that, in all of its nastiness, in all of its cynicism, is good.”

2. Hewing closely to Daniel Handler’s marvelously macabre Lemony Snicket novels, the Netflix series will end after Season 3, with the last of the 13 books. Which will give Harris, 44 — a multiple Emmy nominee as the womanizing Barney in CBS’ How I Met Your Mother and a Tony winner as the transgender East German rocker in Hedwig and the Angry Inch — more time to spend with his husband, David Burtka, and their 7-year-olds, Gideon (his thing is chess) and Harper (hers is belting out songbook standards), who live in New York while he shoots in Vancouver. 3. And yes, the twins are allowed to watch their father at work. “Of course, it’s probably not the perfect content because it’s pretty dark — a lot of slapping children and smoking cigarettes and trying to murder 14-year-olds,” he said with a vaguely maniacal chuckle after pouring himself a glass of Scotch at a New York photo studio. “I don’t know that that’s a conversation to have at the dinner table, but for us it’s a little bit different.” Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.

4. The New York Times: So what is that, two fingers of Scotch? Neil Patrick Harris: No, not two fingers. [Measures against his index finger. It’s slightly over.] How dare you, ma’am.

5. N.Y. Times: Why don’t you take a sip and tell me where we are with Olaf? N.P.H.: He’s losing it as the series goes on. He’s Wile E. Coyote, frustrated that the Road Runner

keeps getting out of his reach. So he’s tired and swinging roundhouse knockout punches, even though that’s not the best way to box. And that’s fun to play.

6. N.Y. Times: You’re unrecognizable as Olaf. And Olaf himself plays different characters. How much time do you spend in the makeup chair? N.P.H.: About 2 1/2 hours. I start in the specialeffects makeup trailer and do all the prosthetics. I have a big forehead piece that covers my eyebrows and a nose that goes on, and then they paint it to match my skin tone, airbrush the whole thing with wrinkles and spots and handpaint bags under the eyes and capillaries. After that I get a three-piece unibrow, two mutton- chops, a goatee and a two-piece wig. Then I get dressed, and I’m ready to go.

7. N.Y. Times: Whew. N.P.H.: As much time as I spend in the process of looking like Olaf, it pales in comparison to the workload that Louis and Malina have. They’re on set doing their scene, blocking and learning lines, and then they’re rushed to school to think only about honors biology. Then there’s a knock at the door, and they stop where they are and go recite dialogue and act stressed and emotional. Rinse and repeat all day long until they’re pumpkined, which is the term for when they’re wrapped.

8. N.Y. Times: Talking about smart kids, you also host NBC’s “Genius Junior.” What’s the appeal? N.P.H.: It’s these remarkable kids that do the most amazing feats, who can spell “omnidirectional” backward as fast as you can say it and remember a shuffled deck of cards and know the Greyhound bus map. These are achievable goals. If it can be aspirational and inspirational and still watchable, then I’m happy to be the ringmaster of that circus.