Neil Patrick Harris may still cash in his IOU from Whoopi Goldberg.
In an appearance on Wednesday’s episode of The View, Harris recalled working with Whoopi on the 1988 movie Clara’s Heart and the off-color promise she made to him for a decade in the future.
“You know, I did my first movie ever with Whoopi Goldberg. A movie called Clara’s Heart,” Harris said, via Page Six.
“She told me, I was 15, 16-years-old, she told me on my last day of shooting that in 10 years’ time she was going to have sex with me.”
The audience reacted with a bit of shock, but Neil Patrick Harris explained that he wasn’t offended by the remark. Goldberg, who at 62 is 17 years Neil’s senior, joked that she “might’ve” made that offer.
She also explained that it was a very different time when she made the promise.
“He had many questions as a kid, so I said, ‘Listen, wait 10 years, and I’ll take you through it.’ In those days, you could actually have some fun like that. You can’t do that now. People get very upset now.”
Still, the remark has drawn a bit of controversy, especially in a #MeToo age with greater awareness of the line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior.
Whoopi Goldberg Admits To Discussing Sex ‘Questions’ With Underage Neil Patrick Harris https://t.co/qMjvIVeLGW pic.twitter.com/vQ4gAvPDVq
— The Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) October 11, 2018
Neil Patrick Harris has been open about his sexuality and journey to acceptance as a gay man. He told Glamour that during high school, he felt pressured into acting straight because that’s what everyone around him was doing.
Harris noted that times were different in the 1980s, and LGBT teenagers didn’t have the freedom they do today to date whoever they want, so he dated and even slept with girls to feel like he fit in with his friends.
“In high school, all my friends were sleeping with girls, and it just seemed like that’s what one did,” he said.
“So therefore that’s what I did, but it left me feeling unsettled, as if I had somehow done it wrong. That’s not a good feeling.”
Harris said he knew it didn’t feel right, adding that he’s glad that teenagers today don’t have it the same way. That’s better than feeling forced to remain in the closet and get married to someone of the opposite sex only to come out much later in life, he added.
Neil Patrick Harris is now happily married — to a man — but as suggested by Page Six, he is still looking forward to his IOU from Whoopi Goldberg.