Neil Patrick Harris has been getting a lot of media attention in recent weeks because he is hosting the Emmys tomorrow.

But he tells Entertainment Weekly that it’s certainly not going to be The Neil Patrick Harris Show.

“I feel like it’s my job to honor the show, so I don’t feel like it’s a big showcase for me,” he says. “In fact, I feel like if I showcase myself too much, it’s a detriment to me. Because it’s the Emmys that you’re watching. You’re not watching Neil Patrick Harris at the Emmys. So I need to be amusing enough that you are won over, hopefully, and then you trust me to do whatever I want.”

Harris also has his third nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy for his role as the brilliantly caddish Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother, which means there’s a wild card in all the planning: What if he wins? “If I don’t win, it’ll be fantastic,” he says. “I’ve got tons of jokes ready for that. If I do win, I think I have to go do the press gauntlet midshow, and then they’ll cut to me back there saying, ‘Our next two presenters are…’ I thought about calling [Malcolm in the Middle’s] Chris Masterson and seeing if he would sub in for me, as me, while I went to the gauntlet, and not even make a reference to the fact that he’s not me. Just have him keep going. Because I get told I was wonderful on Malcolm in the Middle almost as much as I get told I was wonderful on Doogie Howser.”

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