Neil Patrick Harris doesn’t seem too eager to ever host Oscars again: ‘It’s a bit of a masochistic job’

Neil Patrick Harris thinks Jimmy Kimmel will make for a terrific Oscars host next month.

He also seems awfully glad it’s not him that will be hosting Hollywood’s biggest night as he did in 2015.

‘It was something to check off the bucket list for sure,’ he tells AOL Build.

‘It’s a big commitment and it’s a bit of a masochistic job to be honest.’

When Harris was tapped to host the Academy Awards, he had already hosted the Emmys twice and the Tony Awards four times.

But he found the Oscars to be an entirely different beast.

‘So many people watch that telecast that there’s already heightened pressures,’ he explains. ‘When you’re sitting home watching I don’t think, nor should anyone, have any concept about the weird amount of work and stresses that have gone into making this singular night happen.’

It’s a delicate balance of trying to keep the audience interested and entertained and getting all of the awards presented.

‘… There are so many awards that have to be given out and each movie now is so different. Most of them now tend to be small, independent films that are getting a lot of Academy push and many people that are watching at home haven’t seen any of the movies.

‘So then you’re trying to come up with content that people will get but they might not have seen.’

Harris points to Jimmy Fallon’s epic opening number from La La Land at the recent Golden Globe Awards.

He described it as ‘really great’ but ‘if you haven’t seen La La Land’ you don’t know what that means. It was a really right on the money parody.’

During his Oscars stint, Harris did a comedy bit involving the low-grossing films Birdman and Whiplash that culminated in his walking onto the stage wearing only a pair of tidy whites.

He now believes plenty of viewers had no idea he was channeling Michael Keaton in Birdman.

‘It’s a hard job,’ he says.