Neil Patrick Harris has promised Netflix's 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' is "more true" to the books it is based on than the 2004 movie was.
Neil Patrick Harris
The 43-year-old actor portrays the villainous Count Olaf in the highly-anticipated new series and found that because the show has allocated two episodes to each of Daniel Handler's novels, he was able to "fully invest" in his character far more than Jim Carrey could when he appeared in the film, as that tried to fit all of the books in the series into just one installment.
He said: "I think it forced Jim Carrey to rely on Jim Carreyisms as opposed to being able to fully invest in Olaf as a character.
"I think we're allowed to be more true to the source material because we have more time to do so. So I wasn't really conflicted by comparison."
While filming on the show was shrouded in secrecy, Neil - who has six-year-old twins Gideon and Harper with husband David Burtka - did his best to stay true to his character on the rare occasions he was sighted off set and in costume, complete with heavy prosthetics.
He told the Daily Beast: "I made sure I never smiled the entire time I was out there.
"Anti-mugging for the paparazzi. In every picture I was grimacing and rolling my eyes and scowling because I wanted to be as Olafian possible."
And the actor relished the chance to be as "dismal" as he could without having to explain his actions because of the way the stories are told.
He explained: "The story's told from the kids' perspective, and therefore the adults can be wider swaths of dark colour, instead of having to be really true, realistic versions of things.
"So I had the freedom to be just dismal without needing to explain why."
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