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Cast and crew on an unlikely hit - Radio Times, March 2007 |
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Benjamin Svetkey shares the gen he gleaned on a visit to the set of US medical drama series House.
The makers on casting Hugh Laurie
"I was a huge fan of his comedy. But I never thought he'd be right for
this role."
DAVID SHORE, SERIES CREATOR
"I was like, 'Now this is the sort of strong American actor I'm looking for!' I had no idea who he was at all. I just thought he was great."
BRYAN SINGER, DIRECTOR
Hugh Laurie on…
getting hooked by the role
"You could tell straightaway that [the show] was different. Even from the few pages I saw, I thought, 'This is good stuff.' Besides, at the time, I was thinking, 'It's a pilot, that's all. Maybe ten or 12 days' work.' I didn't assume it would go any further. Most times they don't."
"I actually never wanted to make an American TV show. But when you're sent good material, you follow it, whether it's American TV, Latvian TV or a travelling circus in Iceland."
"[House] was all there on [the] pages they faxed me. I could hear him in my head - the rhythm of his speech; what he was hiding behind the meanness and sarcasm. I could see him very clearly in my head from
the start."
getting into character
"I looked all over for the perfect [cane]. I finally found it in a shop in London. It was made out of some sort of rare Malaysian wood and had these beautiful ivory rings and a gorgeous horn handle. Very politically incorrect, but it called to me like Excalibur. The minute I saw it, I thought, 'This is the one. This is House's cane.'"
mastering the accent
"I haven't identified a single word that's pronounced the same in America as it is in England. Lately, I've even been having problems with words like 'boy'. Having to constantly listen to yourself and check your accent makes it harder to immerse yourself in the scene. I moan about it a lot."
an unlikely hero
"I couldn't believe House was the main character. The tradition on American TV is that the hero is always morally good - which also means he's always good-looking, since good looks and moral rectitude go together in Hollywood. This character wasn't any of those things. I couldn't believe anybody would put him in the middle of a one-hour drama."
the workload
"It does sometimes seem a bit more than I bargained for. I didn't read the contract before signing - big mistake. But it's not coal mining. That's what people always say, isn't it? They're absolutely right to be sceptical that acting is hard. Still, any job is hard if you care how it turns out, and easy if you don't. I could go out and do brain surgery, if I didn't
care if the guy lived or died."
"I show up every week and do eight scenes. Hugh does, like, 40. I would shoot myself if I were him."
ROBERT SEAN LEONARD, ACTOR
**
Now take a look at our full House guide.
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