The Worst Daughters Ever (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} gonerilandregan) wrote in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} ohnotheydidnt,@ 2007-11-28 16:21:00 |
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Hugh Laurie is a Trekkie?
HE IS NOT IN THE MOVIE. Sorry, bbs.
Hugh Laurie has been asked the question so many times you can almost feel his soul crying out in anguish.
Why, every critic in North America wants to know, has the grouchy, venom-spewing crankypants he plays on the out-of-left-field smash House (9 p.m. on Fox, Global) been so readily embraced by viewers who wouldn't put up with such antagonistic condescension from their own doctors?
Laurie, a model of self-deprecatory graciousness who speaks in a jarring British accent, inevitably effects an air of thoughtful consideration and -- without any sign of impatience -- searches for a new way to state the obvious.
"One of my favourite moments in Star Trek is when Captain Kirk looks out over the vast infinite cosmos and says, 'Somewhere out there someone is saying the three most beautiful words in any language,"' the Emmy nominated 48-year-old, grasping for fresh analogies, told me at the fall TV press tour in Los Angeles.
"And of course your heart sinks and you think it's going to be 'I love you' or whatever, and he says, 'Please help me!"'
He pauses for effect. "What a philosophically fantastic idea that vulnerability and need is a beautiful thing. And House is a character in need of human contact and some kind of redemption, and that 'please help me' aspect is an important element in the show.''
It has been from Day 1, when the Vicodin-popping medical maverick insulted his first intern, engaged in his first power struggle with the woman signing his paycheck (Lisa Edelstein) and antagonized his first load of patients who, as the series went on, would occasionally turn around and slug him.
If he didn't -- in his own twisted way -- care so much about their welfare, go to outrageous lengths to ensure their survival and wrestle with his own physical and psychic demons while doing so, well, we probably would have tuned out long ago.
"You spend your whole life looking for answers because you think the next answer will change something -- maybe make you a little less miserable,'' a struggling intern told the dysfunctional upstart a couple of weeks ago.
"And you know that when you run out of questions you don't just run out of answers -- you run out of hope!''
Pretty philosophical for a 9 p.m. network show about a guy who plays table hockey and watches TV soaps between browbeating sessions with interns, but addressed to an acidic rabble-rouser who undercuts authority and gives the finger to convention at every turn, it provides an emotional heft that makes him, if not exactly sympathetic, at least oddly lovable.
"Though House may appear to be an abrasive, awkward and occasionally abusive companion,'' notes Laurie. "I think people are entertained by him. He is a game 'worth the candle'. Do you have that expression over here? He's a character worth putting up with. And the fact he saves lives -- that's a pretty endearing quality.''
In recent weeks the sourpuss practitioner has been functioning as a sort of sardonic, ill-tempered Donald Trump clone, weeding his way through medical apprentices to replace the fed-up team who told him where to stick his stethoscope at the end of last season.
The quirk, of course, is that what House is looking for in a doctor has less to do with medical smarts than issues of character.
"One of our characters is a New York plastic surgeon,'' notes producer Katie Jacobs by way of example. "But why is he giving up plastic surgery to come and potentially be one of House's fellows? What House discovers is that, having done plastic surgery, he has amazing insights into human behaviour.''
He also has a high tolerance for abuse, and the kind of rebellious spark the churlish misanthrope respects in an underling, though it's no guarantee he'll make the final cut.
"He's as enigmatic to me as I hope he is to members of the audience,'' Laurie says of his scowling alter-ego. "That's part of the fascination -- not knowing. If one could explain in a few sentences who he is and what makes him tick, it would feel sort of glib, two dimensional -- shallow, in fact."
He considers briefly. "So that's three dimensional,'' he notes, aware he's overloaded on adjectives. "But just very thin!"
Source.
I love him. Can you tell? By the way, because I didn't want to make two posts about House, there's an interview here with Katie Jacobs about last night's episode. It has a spoiler.
HE IS NOT IN THE MOVIE. Sorry, bbs.
Hugh Laurie has been asked the question so many times you can almost feel his soul crying out in anguish.
Why, every critic in North America wants to know, has the grouchy, venom-spewing crankypants he plays on the out-of-left-field smash House (9 p.m. on Fox, Global) been so readily embraced by viewers who wouldn't put up with such antagonistic condescension from their own doctors?
Laurie, a model of self-deprecatory graciousness who speaks in a jarring British accent, inevitably effects an air of thoughtful consideration and -- without any sign of impatience -- searches for a new way to state the obvious.
"One of my favourite moments in Star Trek is when Captain Kirk looks out over the vast infinite cosmos and says, 'Somewhere out there someone is saying the three most beautiful words in any language,"' the Emmy nominated 48-year-old, grasping for fresh analogies, told me at the fall TV press tour in Los Angeles.
"And of course your heart sinks and you think it's going to be 'I love you' or whatever, and he says, 'Please help me!"'
He pauses for effect. "What a philosophically fantastic idea that vulnerability and need is a beautiful thing. And House is a character in need of human contact and some kind of redemption, and that 'please help me' aspect is an important element in the show.''
It has been from Day 1, when the Vicodin-popping medical maverick insulted his first intern, engaged in his first power struggle with the woman signing his paycheck (Lisa Edelstein) and antagonized his first load of patients who, as the series went on, would occasionally turn around and slug him.
If he didn't -- in his own twisted way -- care so much about their welfare, go to outrageous lengths to ensure their survival and wrestle with his own physical and psychic demons while doing so, well, we probably would have tuned out long ago.
"You spend your whole life looking for answers because you think the next answer will change something -- maybe make you a little less miserable,'' a struggling intern told the dysfunctional upstart a couple of weeks ago.
"And you know that when you run out of questions you don't just run out of answers -- you run out of hope!''
Pretty philosophical for a 9 p.m. network show about a guy who plays table hockey and watches TV soaps between browbeating sessions with interns, but addressed to an acidic rabble-rouser who undercuts authority and gives the finger to convention at every turn, it provides an emotional heft that makes him, if not exactly sympathetic, at least oddly lovable.
"Though House may appear to be an abrasive, awkward and occasionally abusive companion,'' notes Laurie. "I think people are entertained by him. He is a game 'worth the candle'. Do you have that expression over here? He's a character worth putting up with. And the fact he saves lives -- that's a pretty endearing quality.''
In recent weeks the sourpuss practitioner has been functioning as a sort of sardonic, ill-tempered Donald Trump clone, weeding his way through medical apprentices to replace the fed-up team who told him where to stick his stethoscope at the end of last season.
The quirk, of course, is that what House is looking for in a doctor has less to do with medical smarts than issues of character.
"One of our characters is a New York plastic surgeon,'' notes producer Katie Jacobs by way of example. "But why is he giving up plastic surgery to come and potentially be one of House's fellows? What House discovers is that, having done plastic surgery, he has amazing insights into human behaviour.''
He also has a high tolerance for abuse, and the kind of rebellious spark the churlish misanthrope respects in an underling, though it's no guarantee he'll make the final cut.
"He's as enigmatic to me as I hope he is to members of the audience,'' Laurie says of his scowling alter-ego. "That's part of the fascination -- not knowing. If one could explain in a few sentences who he is and what makes him tick, it would feel sort of glib, two dimensional -- shallow, in fact."
He considers briefly. "So that's three dimensional,'' he notes, aware he's overloaded on adjectives. "But just very thin!"
Source.
I love him. Can you tell? By the way, because I didn't want to make two posts about House, there's an interview here with Katie Jacobs about last night's episode. It has a spoiler.
