Actor Nathan Fillion found it daunting working alongside Neil Patrick Harris, but in a good way. He had nothing but kind words to say about his Dr. Horrible co-star. To Fillion, even Harris’ weakness was a good weakness to have for actors.
Nathan Fillion once revealed what he admired about Neil Patrick Harris
Nathan Fillion, Neil Patrick Harris, and Amy Acker | Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Fillion worked alongside Harris a couple of times in his career. They famously collaborated on the Joss Whedon web series Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. It would take a few years for the actors to reunite, especially since Fillion was busy with Castle for a large chunk of his career. But after Castle‘s divisive ending, Fillion had more freedom to do other projects like A Series of Unfortunate Events. Harris, who starred in the show, was who offered Fillion his guest role in the series.
“So when I got a text from Neil saying, ‘Keep an eye out for this project that’s gonna come across your table,; I knew that I’d likely do it. I’d be in Vancouver, I’d be working with Neil Patrick Harris, which I’d love to do, and I’d be involved with this piece that I’m so wildly impressed with. And, it’s elegant, I mean: the words, the stories, the script — elegant,” Fillion once told Seat 42.
Doing the show could be both a fun and frustrating experience for the sci-fi actor. But Unfortunate Events also reminded Fillion how talented his co-star was. At the same time, it might’ve revealed what Harris’ one weakness as an actor was.
“Neil does so much and he does it so easily. He makes it look super-duper easy and it’s not and I know that. I know it’s not, because I’m terrified of the sheer volume. But the way that guy attacks work — I don’t think he knows how to not work hard. I think that’s his one weakness. The boy’s good at it,” Fillion said.
Nathan Fillion would’ve gone insane if he had to do Neil Patrick Harris’ role in ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’
Fillion once gave a little more detail regarding working with Fillion on A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Netflix show could be a challenge for Harris. The Gone Girl star was cast as Count Olaf, who was also an actor. As the Count, Harris was in the unique position to play multiple multiple characters on the show.
“They all just took on a life of their own from there because once you’re in the makeup — which takes a long time to do — you’re staring at yourself a lot,” Harris told IndieWire about the experience. “I’ve stared at my face a lot over these past few months.”
“I took it on as a challenge to make sure it was Olaf playing the characters and not Neil showing how many different characters he, as an actor, can perform,” Harris added. “It’s Olaf as an overtly adequate actor putting on the guise of a character. And that’s a hat on a hat in a lot of ways, since this is a project that needs to resonate for teenagers as well as 40-somethings.”
But watching Harris’ versatility in the role showed Fillion the depths of his co-star’s skills. Although some labeled Fillion a sci-fi actor, he’s played a large variety of roles. Still, he believed Harris’ Unfortunate Events role was one part he couldn’t do without going insane.
“He has this incredible opportunity in front of him, to portray all these incredible characters, the prosthetics, the accents, the deep character work, the costumes, and he transforms so entirely between episodes,” Fillion once told Vulture. “I don’t think a lot of people could do what he does so happily, because he goes through hours and hours of prosthetic makeup every day. It would drive me insane. There’s so much incredible work being done over there. Just the sheer visual of that program, I’ve been longing to do something stylized and beautiful like that.”