Celebrity News

Neil Patrick Harris: Coming out helped my career

While many fear that disclosing their sexuality may hurt their career, Neil Patrick Harris had the opposite experience.
“Once all the cards were on the table, I got more opportunities than ever,” Harris says in the June issue of Rolling Stone (on newsstands Friday). “Some actors don’t get hired because you can’t look into their soul and see what they’re like, because they’re kept guarded.”
In the cover story, Harris’ brother, Brian, recounts just how the “How I Met Your Mother” star came out to his family.
“It was three conversations,” Brian explains. “First he goes, ‘I just don’t think I’m going to date, really, for a while.’ And he had some bad luck with the girls he dated early on. Probably because he was gay! And then we had a different conversation about how he likes girls, but he kind of likes guys too. And we had another conversation after that: He likes guys.”
In his latest role, the 40-year-old actor takes on Broadway in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” as Hedwig, an East German transgender singer.

“I didn’t think he could pull off the femininity of [the role],” says Harris’ husband, David Burtka. “This is such a stretch for him. In his day-to-day, he’s not a very feminine guy.”

“I have always been highly aware of how I was presenting myself,” Harris adds. “Which, now that I’m playing overtly feminine and loving it, is kind of a stupid concern.”