Forward deployed at alassad air base to train them and make sure they can take the fight to i. S. I. L themselves. This is their battle to win, not ours. Charlie Neil Patrick Harris and Denis Mcdonough when we continue. Funding for charlie rose is provided by the following. And by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Charlie Neil Patrick Harris is here and were happy about that. Hes having a really big year. He won the tony for his portrayal of a transgender rock star, finished nine season run as Barney Stinson on how i met your mother, stars in gone girl and was chosen as the host of the 2015 oscars. If that is not enough, we want you to know more. He has a book called Neil Patrick Harris choose your own autobiography. I am pleased to have himt the table for the first time. Welcome. Thank you, sir. Charlie i say its never too young to write your autobiography. Do you think . I had been asked a couple of years back to write a memoir. I think because i was a child actor that means you have something to say. I never thought i had much to say. I still feel like my life doesnt is boring. Charlie it doesnt have an ending. Ive lived a lot of chapters. Thats what i keyed p in on. I didnt have a big arc to tell but i had a lot of extraordinarily interesting things ive gotten to do, whether act as a kid or White Water Rafting in costa rica or, yeah, having kids through surrogacy or hosting tonys and what the opening number of that is like but theyre all disparate elements and i thought it would be fun to find a structure charlie people want to know what its like to be you. I think they want to know what were doing. Unfortunately, the world we live in with the media, you have to answer yourself in a ninesecond sound byte to make it clean for the next question. So im only getting to talk about nice things, weddings and things in a short span of time. In the book, it allows you to be me. Written second person. Charlie why did you do that . Do you know those choose your own adventure books . Charlie yes. That was what it was based on. It was less drama and more of a fun read and, through that, you can decide if youre wanting to read more about my childhood you can go to this page and if youre wanting to jump ahead you can see Barney Stinson. Charlie readers can choose where they want to go. Thats why you called it choose your own autobiography. Yes. Theres also drink recipes, davids secret pages. Charlie did david proofread it as soon as you wrote it . Yes, and a couple of pages, his annotated notes are handwritten in the book so you can see how he runs my life. Charlie is it easy to write a book about your life . Did you talk to a tape recorder, sit down at a computer . I had the great help of another writer who is super funny, wrote on the daily show. He was able to help fill the smallish stories i had with life and comedy. But it was hard to it has an interesting and fun sense of humor, i hope, and i think through the comedy you can come up with dramatic, interesting stories. I think the idea of coming out in the media or having children with a samesex couple and the minutia about that, if you told a book about that, it would get drool. But as comedy, it might have more impact. Charlie was this book a performance . A variety show. Charlie what did you like doing . The variety acts in a circus. The circus, smalltown new mexico. The circus would come to albuquerque at the state fair and we would go once a year and i would go straight to the midway and the carnies and the freaks and i wanted to see the twoheaded woman, and there was a guy named popeye that would pop his eyes out of their sockets and they would shake and go back in. Charlie we had the same thing in a small town in north carolina. It was politically incorrect to like that for ten or 15 years. Im still a fan of the juggling. I love the fact they can have that skill and then go about their lives. Charlie what attracted you, i can learn a skill i can take with me . With magic i was learning how it was done and appreciating secrets and trying to figure out with my left brain, right brain, how it could possibly be done and then appreciating with the other side of my brain that it still seems magical. Watching someone float on stage. Charlie levitating. Levitation. You know its not possible. David copperfield, a whole special where he levitated himself with people all around and going through hoops and you think how in the world is that possibly done and i like to know secrets of how things work. Charlie i assume there was nothing that you were not prepared to include as long as you thought it was interesting because it seems like it was easy for you to talk about coming out and no. Charlie no . I would say no. Those were the ones that were trickier because i didnt want to seem slaycious. Coming out involves attraction and stories of how i knew i was gay. I didnt want to go into too much detail. Charlie because . I want to be authentic in telling my story but i dont want to seem the reason im including these incidences charlie you never had a thought of not including it, did you . Yes, and theres stuff i didnt include. Charlie what . What kinds of stuff . Ive worked with a lot of interesting, eclectic people. So there were certainly people i worked with and had less than enjoyable experiences. Professionally. Sure. I have been doing this for more than 20 years. Charlie yeah. So i didnt want to just include all of the charlie you wanted to make sure you didnt hurt people . Thats not my sense of humor, to be honest. During how i met your mother, that was a conversation we actively had. There were a couple of episodes in a row where the jokes were, like, oh, youre so embarrassing that youre single and youre this. The audience would laugh. And then they would say, youre so fat, youre this. And it was below the belt. We said, thats not our style. We want to be smart funny, we dont just want to look at you and decide what i can attack. Charlie one of the characters was supposed to be more meanspirited than it came out and someone said you brought such a niceness to it that your core essence was there and that they modified the character. Thats good. I think i have that as a little trump card. Charlie that youre likable . I think people feel like they know me. Im accessible. They grew up watching me through the years and, so, i think that then if i get to play dark or if i get to have secrets or something, its a little more unexpected because, you know, youve seen me hosting a lot of shows where i essentially say, come on in, relax. Charlie whats the art of that, hosting the tonies . The tonys . Its like being p. T. Barnum. Charlie youre very good at that. I love respecting people and showing an audience specific people doing things. Ed sullivan and i would like to show people doing all these things, a guy on a tight rope, roller skaters on charlie you could have been ed sullivan. I would have loved to have been. Charlie how would you like to do a show every sunday like that at 8 00 . Im enamoured people have studied a singular thing and not a lot of people are good at it and they can show it off. The tonys are great because its live and massive performances but performances that have been done night after night so youre assured of quality level thats hard to achieve on the other award shows because those are oneoffs. Those are writing an original song, getting choreographers, getting people to perform with you and crossing your fingers that the one time you do it in front of millions of people it goes well. The tonys is, and now this amazing number from this show. Theyre so happy to perform, then you kill it, they do a comedy bit, everyones so happy to be on stage and then another. Its a fun show. Charlie were the oscars electing you a surprise . It was a surprise to me. Charlie totally . Totally. Charlie did someone call you up and say we want you to host the oscars or would you be interested in this . I got a call saying the producers would like to sit down and meet with me to talk about it which i assumed meant i was a choice. Charlie did you have that conversation . Yeah, we went and sat. I didnt want to say yes because i had a lot of questions to them. Charlie as to whether . As to how creatively it worked. You dont want to sign on for something and be told exactly what to do and you feel like charlie its not me. Yeah, right . I want to be able to show its me and thats what im doing. So i assumed that with the academy and a show of that scale, there would be a lot more hurdles and a lot more people saying, no, you cant do that. Charlie im not surprised of the selection at all, but in reading about you, several people call you Johnny Carsonesque, you know . That was something Johnny Carson did really well, hosting the oscars. Yeah. I loved carson. I got to be on his show. Im a massive fan so i took that as a compliment. Charlie it was about style and elegance and a sense of being able to make it easy that he had and you have. I feel that charlie its working. Thanks. I feel its its own unique skill and ive gotten to do it a fair amount, but i also feel like i dont have a great amount to prove in that world. Like, i want it to go well for the show. Like, im not trying to land a Development Deal by killing it at the oscars. You know what i mean . Im not saying im not looking for work, im just saying i dont have an internal agenda for that. I really, truly want that night to go incredibly well for the people that are winning, who dont win, for the people watching at home. I want it to seem like were honoring movies, that you can sit back and enjoy it and not be nervous something is about to go wrong. Charlie and the audience wants to see you having a good time. Totally. Charlie looking like hes loving this. Not only me but all the presenters. Charlie yeah. And people coming up and accepting their award. You never want to see somebody shaking and getting the paper in their hand. Charlie a clip from this years tony awards. Here he is performing a number. Song song singing laughter hey, when you got the heels on and the microphone, you do what you gotta do a girls gotta make a living, you know . Charlie now, how long did it take you to make that work . A little while. I had never done drag or put on a wig or done the heels ever. Charlie yeah. Frankly, i had a strange aversion to it. I dont know why, i thought it would emasculate me in some random way. Just speaking personally. One of the reasons i took it on was kind of a challenge to see how much i could own that feminine side of myself. So it took a month or two of just walking in a circle in heels and figuring out how your hips move different. Guys walk straight, girls walk curvy. Charlie did you have help deciding that or find that on your own . Much, much help. The director michael mayer, choreographer spencer lift, the wardrobe, it was a real collaboration. Charlie might we see Something Like that at the beginning of the oscars . laughter well, i had lost 21 pounds to do the gig, so i looked super i emacated. No, you have to be more polished to do that for the audience. Charlie are you happiest on stage . Probably. Theres something pure about the stage experience. I think the redundancy of it gets to be tiring because when it goes really great for 20 performances and then on a matinee theyre less interested, its hard to get out of your own head and think, is it them, me, did i lose it . Charlie is it different every night or just occasionally its different. Its always different every night. Charlie the audience is always different, but you cant lock it and you cant do something wildly different just because, so you have to be in the same world every show, but you have to be able to listen to the other person, to the audience and sort of augment based on whats happening in that performance. I think starting from a, ending at zed, and having the audience applaud for it is a great completion. When youre making a movie or tv show or even hosting, its part and par sell. You do a scene here and there and they edit it later and you get to watch it later and see how it came across at the end, but when youre on stage, youre really performing it all the way through and then seeing how it went. Thats fun. Charlie take a look at this. An opening number of the tony awards as well with. The biggest opening number the tonys have ever done. Here it is. singing 150 of those. Can i have my close up, please . laughter on broadway, we dont need extreme closeups to prove were singing live. cheers and applause we sing live eight shows a week. Check it at the end of the day we are gathered together to honor the best and the brightest. singing captioning sponsored by charlie that, my friend, is talent laughter i still get goosebumps watching that i have to catch my breath watching it. Charlie number one, how fast hes speaking and how exhausted you would be afterwards. Third, how did you have the breath control to do all of that because youre singing at the same time at a rapid rate . And that was threequarters of the way through the number when you started watching it. Breath control is difficult. We had the lyrics written. Charlie is it difficult to breathe . It is. The audience laughed longer than i thought and i got one more extra breath in, but i was hoping i didnt screw up the teleprompter read. Those words were scrolling so fast on a tv screen i was looking right in the middle of. Charlie someone described it as a flip of a girl. He describes himself as a flip of a girl. Its this wonderful punk rock monologueish musical that john and stephen wrote about an east german woman trying to get out of east germany when the wall was up, met a guy, he was a boy at that time, fell in love, and the only way he could escape was to marry this guy who was an american and the only way through that to prove that they were husband and wife was to have a sex change operation, and it was botched, and it left him with an angry inch. Then he got to america and things went kind of sour, they got a divorce and she sort of left following this guy that shes obsessed with whos a rock star and she sort of sings her story and monologues her story about trying to figure out what oneness is, what makes what defines completion. And shes seeking her other half, and shes caught in this loop. Shes caught in this track like a broken record that if shes only with this other person whos successful, if theyre only together and if he only loved her, they would be complete. So she follows that, even though its not meant to be. And through the story and things that happened, she realizes that you need oneness. You cant be everyones fractured and broken and no ones completely whole, but when youre okay with that, then you are complete in who you are. Charlie he said it was more than learning and blocking a memory. It was like a total absorption. It had to be in every way. Ive never done anything like it. I doubt ill do anything like it again. It was 45 minutes of makeup to transform me into a different gender. All the way through talking, bra, everything. I was a woman, essentially. Then i had to have a german accent. I had to sing in a rock style that was unfamiliar to me. And i had to do a show with a a lot of variables. I would talk to the audience. People would talk to me, talk back, people i would reference, fondle. You couldnt just go into auto pilot because every night was different. Sometimes people were not liking it and you tried to win them over. Charlie how do you win them over . Its a good question. It depended. Normally i would try tricks i know well, like smiling at the end of a line to let them know its okay or pausing a little bit longer so the audience thinks somethings wrong so when i say my line i can kind of win them back. But with head dig, shes supposed to be a superstar. I had to do improv knowing it wasnt working because i thought the character needed to be in a place of failure so i ended up feeling egg on my face sometimes and i had to control myself to not try and fight my way out of it but to stay in this place when its not going well. Thats actually good for the show and the part so that was fun to do. Charlie despite all the things youve done whether the tonys or television you did before, do most people their first instinct is to say barney . I think most still say doodie. Charlie do they . Which is remarkable because it hasnt been on for so long. Charlie when . It was only on four years, ending in 94. Charlie youre doing okay. Yeah, in the building checking in, getting my name tag downstairs. The woman said, Doogie Hauser i said, im 41 but ill take it. I was very proud of that show. Nice to have multiple chapters in a book to refer to. Charlie exactly what youve done here. Yeah. Charlie tell me about barney. Who is barney . Barney stinson was sort of the fifth wheel, best friend, constantly single bachelor bro of ted, the antagonist of how i met your mother. He exemple side why you shouldnt be with anyone when the show first started. It was, like, ted, what are you doing . You dont want to get married or date anybody. Look at all the chicks lets bang them all he was an ad adventurous cad. Charlie this is when barney answered to a high council of players after he picks up a girl from the east side. Gentlemen, your attendance here, im sad to say that council has a barney that picked up a girl outside his territory. The east side is tuxedo charlies turf. Hes mad. True story. The agreement of 2004 defined fifth avenue to be our Hunting Ground dividing line. Your west side College Girls are not the slip i park my boat in. Now, you should know my east side debutantes are quite foreboden members of the council, bros, nobody wants a war of course, ive not forgotten the agreement of 2004. A bonehead move. A defendant im not able to. Have i not been a bro to each bro at this table . My friend from brooklyn pickle jar bob will give validation. Remember the tourist looking for penn station . She came in from boston, had a wicked look good in bed look and i gave her directions and she ended up in red hook. You told her you wouldnt cheat her in your quest to lie upon her. Impersonating yankees have you no honor lets not blow this detente to smithereens. On my subway ride from 61 and woodside i came up with a plan to keep you on each others good side. Barney, youre long eastern. You must grant them a west side hottie of their choosing. Thats the settlement . Cmon, thats not a settlement. What say you . I want robin. Lily. Charlie youve got to love that laughter that was an episode, they wanted to do it all as a nursery rhyme so the entire episode was written in rhyme, marshal telling a story to his son and i got to play five people at the same time. Charlie how do you get better . Ju