ABCNeil Patrick Harris is comfortable in his own skin, as he proved during Sunday's Academy Awards.
The Oscar host, 41, stripped to his skivvies for a Birdman-inspired bit, eliciting mixed reactions from the audience and at-home viewers. Later that night, at the Governors Ball, Harris admitted to E! News that he "didn't think" twice about wearing tighty whities in front of millions of viewers. "I did Hedwig, so I'm used to being on stage without much on," the Tony Award-winning Broadway star told E!'s Marc Malkin.
The actor's brief appearance in his briefs did make some people think twice about whether Harris had stuffed his underwear with a sock to make his penis appear larger. During Monday's Live! With Kelly and Michael, Kelly Ripa revealed that her favorite part was seeing her good pal on stage "in his underpants."
Michael Strahan, meanwhile, was mystified. "I gotta ask him if he put some padding," he said.
When Harris joined the co-hosts later in the episode, he answered Strahan's question. "With the lights, they see through things [in rehearsals]. We had to do something so you couldn't tell my religion," he said. "They had to take a second pair of underwear and sew it to the first so you couldn't see through it."
Harris added that there was "no sock" involved. David Burtka is a lucky man!
Celebrity hair and makeup artist Sonia Lee groomed the host for the Birdman bit and confirmed that Harris wasn't trying to make himself appear more well-endowed than he really is. "We had, like, two minutes to change. It was like being backstage at Saturday Night Live. His green room was a long way from the stage, and we had to get him changed really, really quick," she explained to Details. Plus, Lee continued, "He's very comfortable. He's an entertainer. He's mostly focused on creating a great show."
Lee gave Harris Montez Renault moisturizing body lotion, and right before the cameras returned from the commercial break, the host spritzed on Curve cologne. "He was only in his underwear," Lee said, "so we wanted to make him feel like he was wearing something. He just grabbed it and gave a quick spray."
Underwear seemed to be at the forefront of everyone's minds during Sunday's Oscars. Best Director winner Alejandro González Iñárritu joked about it during his acceptance speech, saying, "Tonight I am wearing the real Michael Keaton tighty whities. They are tight, smell like balls, but it worked! I'm here. Thank you, Michael."