"House" In Da House: Talking To Hugh Laurie

Joel Brown on Meevee.com had the opportunity to talk to Hugh Laurie himself after the July Fox's "House" press conference and put together a nice little piece on the chat.

After Fox's "House" press conference yesterday, a few of us went up to talk to Hugh Laurie afterward, and he delivered a pretty stunning insight into the secret of making his cranky and misanthropic character likable.

He started in an unexpected place, then went somewhere great: "One of my favorite moments in 'Star Trek' is when Captain Kirk looks out over the vast cosmos and says 'The three most beautiful words in any language are-', and of course your heart sinks because you think it's going to be 'I love you' or something, and he says, 'Please help me.' What a fantastic idea, that vulnerability and need is a beautiful thing. And actually House is a character in need - of human contact and some kind of redemption - and I think that 'Please help me' aspect is an important element of the show."

That's the kind of moment that we come here to California to get, when we manage to tap the deep thoughts of the creative minds whose work keeps us watching television. Of course, it's not always like that. You can also scroll down the blog a little way to see a picture of Laurie on the bumper cars at the Fox party last night.

Here in this item, let's start with the news we all expected, that Foreman and Chase and Cameron will all be back this season, despite their hasty exits from the hospital payroll in last season's finale. "It so obvious that everybody is back, and we struggled with how to do this," executive producer Katie Jacobs said, looking down the line of the cast. "And the truth is, everybody is back eventually. And everybody is back having changed and having different capabilities. ... To sort of express the change, we were thinking, well, maybe just Hugh and Lisa and Robert would come out first..."

As the season opens, though, House's three acolytes are working elsewhere...

...and House is sifting through 40 potential replacements. Cheery guy that he is, he makes them all wear numbers, like marathon contestants.

As Jacobs explained it, "In the first episodes, House is alone and he is solving cases by himself. And Cuddy is pissed and (Wilson) thinks he is losing his mind. And Cuddy will insist, and eventually win, that he hire a new team. And he will do it in a very House-ian way. So essentially the truth is over the first episodes he's going to call in all the resumes on his desk, it's a very large number, I think 40, a large number, and we're going to see who survives. We're going to play a 'House' version of 'Survivor.'

"We were on the phone with Fox, and we said, 'We're going to kind of play 'Survivor' with 'House,' and they said, 'Don't you mean you're going to play 'American Idol' with 'House?'"

Someone asked Laurie about his Emmy nomination for best actor and how he found out about it.

"I was asleep in, well I wasn't asleep when I found out about it, obviously that would not be possible," he said, showing some of his old Fry and Laurie wit. "I was in bed and the phone rings and you know, you get a piece of news, and it's a very thrilling way of waking up. And I also heard at the same time that the show had been nominated (for best drama) and it was a happy day. Happy day. And you know we are still-"

"We are still happy," said Lisa Edelstein, who plays Cuddy.

"Still slightly happy, actually," Laurie corrected her. "It may not look like it, but this is us slightly happy."

Some asked if he felt slighted when he wasn't nominated last year.

"I didn't - I didn't feel - good Lord no!" Laurie said, looking appalled at himself anyway. "I mean no one has any right at all to ever feel slighted-"

"Or entitled," Edelstein suggested.

"-or entitled in any way to anything. I think any of us would agree that simply to be, first, actors who have a job; secondly, to have a job with other actors whose work they enjoy and respect; to be doing scripts that we adore almost to the point of reverence. It's actually slightly unhealthy, you know, these blessings are so manifold," he said. "Our cup runneth over so that we have absolutely no business expecting or being crabby if we don't get some particular cherry on top. We've already got so many cherries on top of so many cherries that one more cherry is - I've exhausted that metaphor."

Laurie was asked about what happened when his former comedy partner Stephen Fry turned up on Fox's "Bones" as a therapist.

"Well, it was an absolutely fantastic experience for both of us, actually, to be, I mean - after 20-odd years of working together to wind up 8,000 miles away from where we started in two trailers that were only 50 yards apart was a very peculiar thing and a very enjoyable thing," Laurie said. "And yes, we looked back at some very happy days and did talk about it, actually, as we always do, in a vague kind of way, we talk about reconvening and carrying on where we left off. I don't know in what form, but I hope one day we will. Possibly on a stage, actually, that's our next thought."

Someone then asked Robert Sean Leonard why his character, Wilson, puts up with the exasperating Dr. House.

"At the risk of spreading even more wildfire rumors, I don't see what's so unattractive about House," Leonard said. "Maybe I've just been playing Wilson too long. (House) is extremely self-effacing, he's extremely funny, he's brilliant, he's scathingly honest, he's incredibly candid. What don't you like about him? ... I'm not sure what people mean. he's shocking and he's bold and he can be unnerving. But as a friend, I would seek out someone like that, I think."

Daniel
Editor - www.house-md-blog.com