Neil Patrick Harris sat down with GQ to talk about some of his most iconic and memorable roles, and "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" was one of the first to come up. Hilariously, Harris wasn't even aware initially that he'd been written into the movie, which had a different working title at the time. In any case, once he was up to speed, Harris decided he'd rather play himself than have someone else portraying him. "My only demand was that I would sign up, and then they wouldn't then rewrite it and change it," said Harris. "Because as much as I want to take the p*** out of myself, I still want to respect the work."
It's admirable of Harris that he had no problem with taking himself down a peg in a major comedy film. Fans who have seen "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" will recall that the movie portrays the actor as a drug-fueled maniac and car thief. Harris would go on to reprise this exaggerated version of himself in both sequels as well.
"I had to play this really, yeah, messed-up version of myself, and they let me improvise a bunch," Harris recalled. "So I was licking things and dry-humping things. Just a normal day at work." Considering the resurgence in his career that eventually followed, it would seem that Harris got more than just a bit of fun and a paycheck out of the movie after all.
