(no subject)
I know I should have been girl reporter and jotted down notes and stuff but damnit I wanted to actually listen and enjoy myself.. but I am remembering a bit more info from the SAG event Q&A with Hugh Laurie.
He said that he was afraid of too much backstory for House. That he wanted House to remain mysterious and for just a little information to be known about him. Like "getting a glimpse through a partially opened door." He felt that if too much was revealed about the character it would be like "throwing open the door and flipping on the light" and that the character would lose his mystery. But he trusts the writers and knows how carefully they make their decisions.
Also they do have medical consultants, but sometimes medical accuracy is sacrificed for making the story work.
If I remember correctly they shoot an episode in eight days.
Oh and I can't believe I didn't mention the fact that he's British and speaks with a British accent. But I figured everybody knows this.
Somebody asked him if they tried doing House as a Brit with the accent and he said "yeah for about 12 seconds." That the character was written as an American.
He didn' t work with a dialect coach on the American accent.
Somebody asked him how he made all the medical lingo sound so good. He said that all of the cast members stumbled over the medical jargon from time to time, nobody more than anybody else. And that somebody spelled hemorrhage wrong on the white board.
He said that he was the kind of actor that had a very clear idea of how he wanted a scene to go and then tried to do it that way. That scenes had a shape. Not like Omar Epps who could do a scene four or five different ways, all of them interesting and truthful and wonderful. He said he never watched the show because he really didn't like seeing himself and it was difficult for him to hear himself too.
He wanted to spend some time in an American hospital as research for the part, but there wasn't time. He started shooting almost immediately.
He signed on for the pilot knowing that the chances of its getting picked up were a long shot-not because it wasn't excellently written, but because a pilot's chances are always a long shot. - Here Tony Potts chimmed in and said that an actor had a better chance of playing in the NBA than having his/her pilot picked up. (and Potts wasn't joking)
Hugh mentioned that he had written a pilot and that it was made but not picked up.
He also said that he was happy with Fox because he felt that being on Fox enabled House to gain an audience. If it was on CBS and didn't immediately perform it would be replaced by "five or six more CSIs"
Potts said, "yeah, CSI Kansas City, and Potts also mentioned that having American Idol as a lead in was good for the show.
Hugh also said that David Shore wanted the character to be like Sherlock Holmes and that Arthur Conan Doyle based Holmes on a doctor who was his teacher and was able to figure out things about his patients. I didn't know that Conan Doyle was a doctor.
He talked about music and his love for it. If he had his druthers he would be playing in a jazz trio in a hotel lobby. But that said, he went further and said that he was lucky enough to have played with professional musicans and they are among the unhappiest people he has ever met. They've worked all their lives and have this great talent and it doesn't seem to bring them happiness.
I'm doing my best to remember accurately. But these comment (about the musicians) although they may seem a trifle harsh in print, when spoken seemed candid and not at all unkind.
Like I said earlier the guy is warm and extremely likeable.
You may have noticed by now that the questions and his responses were mostly about show biz, nothing shippy.
Well I think that's about it. Driving to Baltimore tomorrow so I'll say goodnight.
He said that he was afraid of too much backstory for House. That he wanted House to remain mysterious and for just a little information to be known about him. Like "getting a glimpse through a partially opened door." He felt that if too much was revealed about the character it would be like "throwing open the door and flipping on the light" and that the character would lose his mystery. But he trusts the writers and knows how carefully they make their decisions.
Also they do have medical consultants, but sometimes medical accuracy is sacrificed for making the story work.
If I remember correctly they shoot an episode in eight days.
Oh and I can't believe I didn't mention the fact that he's British and speaks with a British accent. But I figured everybody knows this.
Somebody asked him if they tried doing House as a Brit with the accent and he said "yeah for about 12 seconds." That the character was written as an American.
He didn' t work with a dialect coach on the American accent.
Somebody asked him how he made all the medical lingo sound so good. He said that all of the cast members stumbled over the medical jargon from time to time, nobody more than anybody else. And that somebody spelled hemorrhage wrong on the white board.
He said that he was the kind of actor that had a very clear idea of how he wanted a scene to go and then tried to do it that way. That scenes had a shape. Not like Omar Epps who could do a scene four or five different ways, all of them interesting and truthful and wonderful. He said he never watched the show because he really didn't like seeing himself and it was difficult for him to hear himself too.
He wanted to spend some time in an American hospital as research for the part, but there wasn't time. He started shooting almost immediately.
He signed on for the pilot knowing that the chances of its getting picked up were a long shot-not because it wasn't excellently written, but because a pilot's chances are always a long shot. - Here Tony Potts chimmed in and said that an actor had a better chance of playing in the NBA than having his/her pilot picked up. (and Potts wasn't joking)
Hugh mentioned that he had written a pilot and that it was made but not picked up.
He also said that he was happy with Fox because he felt that being on Fox enabled House to gain an audience. If it was on CBS and didn't immediately perform it would be replaced by "five or six more CSIs"
Potts said, "yeah, CSI Kansas City, and Potts also mentioned that having American Idol as a lead in was good for the show.
Hugh also said that David Shore wanted the character to be like Sherlock Holmes and that Arthur Conan Doyle based Holmes on a doctor who was his teacher and was able to figure out things about his patients. I didn't know that Conan Doyle was a doctor.
He talked about music and his love for it. If he had his druthers he would be playing in a jazz trio in a hotel lobby. But that said, he went further and said that he was lucky enough to have played with professional musicans and they are among the unhappiest people he has ever met. They've worked all their lives and have this great talent and it doesn't seem to bring them happiness.
I'm doing my best to remember accurately. But these comment (about the musicians) although they may seem a trifle harsh in print, when spoken seemed candid and not at all unkind.
Like I said earlier the guy is warm and extremely likeable.
You may have noticed by now that the questions and his responses were mostly about show biz, nothing shippy.
Well I think that's about it. Driving to Baltimore tomorrow so I'll say goodnight.