Neil Patrick Harris and Josh Radnor discussed their diverging approaches to acting on How I Met Your Mother<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Harris admitted he often wondered if his comedic performance annoyed Radnor during filming<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Radnor reflected on personal challenges adjusting to fame and praised Harris for his iconic portrayal of Barney Stinson<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Neil Patrick Harris<\/a> and Josh Radnor<\/a> got real about their sometimes challenging relationship.<\/p>\n Harris, 52, appeared on the Monday, March 23 episode of How We Made Your Mother<\/a>, a podcast hosted by his former costar Radnor and How I Met Your Mother series co-creator Craig Thomas<\/a>.<\/p>\n During their conversation, Harris told Radnor, 51, \u201cI always kind of felt that that my performance annoyed you, Josh.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat?\u201d Radnor asked, surprised. \u201cTell me more. Tell me more.\u201d<\/p>\n Harris said he was \u201claser-focused\u201d on making the comedy happen on set, explaining, \u201cI was very indifferent to the heart and the pathos of it because I wasn’t written that way. And I know that was your job, right?\u201d<\/p>\n On HIMYM, Harris\u2019s Barney Stinson<\/a> was an over-the-top ladies\u2019 man, and he was responsible for many of the series’ biggest and boldest jokes. Radnor, however, played Ted Mosby<\/a>, perennially lovesick and always searching for his true love.<\/p>\n Neil Patrick Harris (left) and Josh Radnor in ‘How I Met Your Mother’ Harris explained, \u201cI remember often when we were filming, and I sensed frustration from you because you wanted the scene to be like a good scene and I was looking at you like, \u2018Motherf—er, I’m doing spit takes.’ \u201d<\/p>\n Thomas, 50, opined that their differences were part of what made the show great.<\/p>\n \u201cI’m not like airing dirty laundry or anything,\u201d Harris said. \u201cI’m just saying I think it required like multiple perspectives of all of us to create it. But as it was happening, I was sort of like, \u2018I think that Josh is just kind of annoyed by the gnat flying around all the time just doing bits.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n Radnor, for his part, said he also felt tension sometimes. \u201cI think it might have been a little bit of confusion between actor and character. Like Barney was often incredibly almost dismissive of Ted, and you were so good at playing that. I think sometimes I felt dismissed by Neil, but I was being dismissed by Barney,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Looking back on it, Radnor said he was \u201cdelighted by our weird chemistry.\u201d<\/p>\n He explained, \u201cI never doubt that Barney is obsessed with Ted, and I never doubt that he wants the best for him. And also sometimes, oftentimes, they’re on totally different pages, like in terms of where their heads are, what they\u2019re looking to do … We were like inhabiting different worlds, but they were all under this larger umbrella world.\u201d<\/p>\n Harris said it\u2019s nice to \u201chave these conversations now\u201d because while it was happening, it felt like a \u201cdisconnect.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s not like an unresolved issue that I have or anything. I just remember being at craft service or something and you were personally just more like buddy buddy with Jason [Segel] <\/a>and that we’d like say hey to each other or whatever but like we were sort of doing different shows when we were filming it,\u201d he remembered. \u201cI remember thinking \u2018Is Josh mad at me\u2019 a lot. Like \u2018Am I doing something to annoy him?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n Neil Patrick Harris (left) and Josh Radnor in ‘How I Met Your Mother’ Radnor said that he was also handling his own personal life while filming the show. He noted that Harris, Segel and Alyson Hannigan<\/a> had all done shows before, and Cobie Smulders<\/a> was a \u201ccomfortable\u201d person.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was my fourth pilot. I was not a famous person, and I think that I had a harder adjustment with losing my anonymity, being the center of this show,\u201d he said. “I didn’t know how to process this in a way that felt healthy, other than kind of trying to keep it at arm’s length.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf I was like a little pissy or something, I’m sorry,\u201d he said. \u201cLike I think that I was just trying to manage a lot of different things and emotions, and they came out sideways sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n Radnor also remembered that months before they were cast in the show, he and Harris did a play called The Paris Letter, where they played lovers. \u201cWe were doing this very intense, intimate theater piece and then suddenly we were Ted and Barney literally like four months later, and it gave me vertigo,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n Thomas said that Radnor and Harris had \u201cdifferent assignments\u201d and \u201cvery, very different roles,\u201d but that ultimately contributed to the secret sauce of what makes How I Met Your Mother, which ran from 2005 to 2014, so special. \u201cAnd I think your guys’ specific combination as a duo was fantastic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Radnor said that for a long time, he wondered if Harris\u2019 comedy was more \u201cvaluable\u201d than his \u201cheart-forward thing.\u201d But now, rewatching the series for the podcast, \u201cIt took me a long time to realize that the task that I was given, I was doing it really well. And I’ve actually gone back and kind of forgiven myself for being so hard on myself<\/a> in those years.\u201d<\/p>\n Radnor also praised Harris for giving a \u201ctotally classic performance\u201d on the show. \u201cSo, I’m glad to even say these words to you. Like, it feels good because I think in the last analysis, we just made something really cool together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n![\"Neil](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0eeb3b1714c305229d565e59865a5f32.jpeg\"\/)
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Credit: Richard Cartwright\/CBS via Getty<\/p>\n![\"Neil](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/27161bf9a4f39d91d19a73df248a4761.jpeg\"\/)
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Credit: Monty Brinton\/CBS via Getty<\/p>\n