Talking with Neil Patrick Harris

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- After making his signature years ago playing a nice guy in prime time, Neil Patrick Harris loves his chance at being a weasel. He just refuses to take much credit for it."Barney Stinson has a voice like no other," he says of his "How I Met Your Mother" character, "but the credit for him goes to the writers, truly."Being known for Barney has been a game changer for Harris, best known before now as the squeaky-clean title character on ABC's "Doogie Howser, M.D."Barney's main vice is his womanizing. Almost every week on the comedy (8:30 p.m. EST Mondays, CBS), he's either hooking up, talking about hooking up or recalling a time when he hooked up. Sometimes he can be mean to his friends.But deep down, Barney is faithful to his closest buddies. It's a caring trait that his portrayer clings to. In many ways, this makes Barney human."I'm always questioning, always concerned about, Barney being someone you want to be a friend with, but you wonder why," Harris says. "You might be wronged by him, but not disgusted by him."Harris says Barney cares for his friends. "He doesn't have as many as he claims he does," he says. "He has his friends' back. He can get disgusted about them, but that doesn't mean he doesn't care. They are his world. He doesn't even talk about work with them. He wants them to succeed, but he wants to be the mastermind behind it."Barney is "a voice of contempt" on the comedy, which is why Harris says he gets Emmy attention for playing the part. He's been nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy twice, but has yet to win.Often in TV comedy, the more colorful characters get the acclaim, even when the story often is not about them."He lends himself to being noticed," Harris says. "I have many friends who share similarities with him. They're mainly actors."(E-mail Terry Morrow of The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee at morrow2(at)knews.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)