10 Best Times Actors Played Themselves

Before Barney Stinson, Neil Patrick Harris played another scheming, amoral womaniser: himself. His appearance in 2004’s Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle was nothing short of a revelation, a career reinvention for the actor then best known for playing medical prodigy Doogie Howser.

Harris is delightfully demonic playing himself in the stoner franchise. In his first appearance, he’s rolling on ecstasy throughout, a hedonistic risk taker whose early success led him down a dark path.

An actor who never phones in a performance, Harris sells the part spectacularly, with an addled glint in his eye throughout. He’d been in the wilderness for a while when he landed this role, and so it was not impossible to believe that this really was what had become of the former Doogie Howser MD.

Later films play on Harris’ increasing public profile, with his coming out pitched as a scheme to make it easier to pick up women. It’s a mischievous, invested performance in a series that didn’t necessarily require such effort. It paid off, though - the comedy chops he displays here can only have been good for his future career.