Neil Patrick Harris on Why He's Haunted by Ellen DeGeneres' Oscars Selfie

ABC/Bob D’Amico(LOS ANGELES) — 2015 Oscars host Neil Patrick Harris compared notes on Wednesday with last year’s host, Ellen DeGeneres, and the two entertainers chatted about the pressure of performing in a room full of celebrities.

“We’re right in the thick of it,” Harris, 41, told DeGeneres. “They started loading in the theater. They’re doing all this stuff now there, at the theater, and my team of writers are thinking about jokes. And it’s a tricky process with the content, as you well know. I should really ask you: What was it like for you a week, six, five days out?”

DeGeneres gave Harris some advice before passing the torch.

“Well, you write as much as you possibly can,” she said. “And up until that day you’re changing jokes and timing it in rehearsal. And really until that day. I mean, I was changing things an hour before it started.”

Harris confessed to being intimidated by DeGeneres’ 2014 Oscars selfie, which pictured Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, and other big names.

“Your selfie shot was the most spectacular, successful thing,” the Gone Girl actor said. “It worked out so well. But it’s a horrible dark cloud above my head now. How do you try to beat the selfie that broke the Internet? … It turned out to be a great thing. Selfie’s into my brain, so I’m gonna try to do something better.”

The Oscars will air Sunday, Feb. 22 at 8:30 p.m. ET.


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