Scotland’s Daily Record has an pretty good interview with Hugh Laurie. I think he’s promoting the UK broadcasts of House, because he’s mainly talking about the show, and what a mixed bag it is for him to work in Los Angeles while his family stayed in London. Some of the quotes from this story may be old, though. For the first several years of House, Hugh Laurie was in Los Angeles by himself while his wife and three kids stayed in London. There was gossip last year that Hugh had finally bought a house in Los Angeles, and then a few months later that house was burglarized. I think The Daily Record got an interview with Hugh to promote the UK premiere of House, and then added old quotes to the new interview. Hugh says he’s probably screwed up his kids by being away from them for so many months while filming House, but there’s no way to know because “they’re English and they won’t tell me.” Hugh says that even after five seasons and mantle full of awards, he still feels like he’s about to be fired, or the show will be cancelled any second:
AS Hugh Laurie’s Stateside success story House finds a new home in the UK, the actor admits he still feels rootless. Ever since the bumbling Englishman from Blackadder and Fry and Laurie won the part of the grumpy, limping doctor in the US show five years ago, he’s been torn between home and work.
His wife Jo, who he has been married to since 1989, stays in London with their three children, Charlie, 20, Bill, 18, and daughter Rebecca, 15. Meanwhile, Hugh, 49, has an apartment in Los Angeles, where House is filmed.
“It’s a very difficult thing,” Hugh revealed, although he calls them every day in the morning before he goes to work, which is night-time in the UK.
“I constantly marvel at how grown-up my children are, how grown-up they’re being about this.”
“I worry about parenting at this sort of distance, but they are being so generous and so cool about it that – I mean, it might be because they’re English, and they won’t reveal their psychological damage until they’re in their late forties.”
At first Hugh didn’t even want to buy a house when he got the part of House in House because he didn’t want to jinx the show. But five years later and with awards on the mantelpiece, he is at least living in an apartment rather than the hotel he used to stay in.
Smiling he admits: “I’m just convinced that the day we put down a deposit on a house is the day that we get cancelled. It’s just inevitable.”
“In fact, the first season I was in a hotel for the first three months because I was so convinced that we were going to be gone. I didn’t even unpack. I had a half-empty suitcase. I thought it was going to be any day now.”
“I have an apartment now and they visit and I go back when I can. If we get Thanksgiving off in November, I got four days to go back. I go when I can. There’s just a lot of flying.”
Still House has made him a household name in America and award winner with two Golden Globes and a reported $350,000 pay packet per episode.
But it seems he doesn’t know if working in Los Angeles and not seeing his kids every day has been a sacrifice they are happy with. He doesn’t even know if they are happy with the whole new level of fame their dad has.
“I don’t know again because, again, they’re English, and they won’t tell me,” he admits. But I think that they’re okay with it. I mean, my main goal is just to try and not embarrass them. If I can get away with that then it’s okay.”
Hugh auditioned for Dr Gregory House in hotel bathroom in Namibia where he was in Flight of the Phoenix. His American was so convincing the producer didn’t even realise he was English.
“The accent is my biggest sort of struggle in a day because I’ve always got to be thinking about that extra thing which I shouldn’t really have to thinking about. But there you go. I signed on the line, and it’s my fault. I got myself into this position.”
“I keep thinking of the self-destructive element of House – it’s like a guy who’s standing out on the window ledge, and there’s only a certain amount of time that you can stand on the window ledge. You either have to jump or get back into the window. You can’t stand there for 15 years because the audience will be like, ‘Oh, jump! Come on’. It just gets too frustrating.”
[From The Daily Record]
His American accent is wonderful. Although there are times when I wish the producers of House had the foresight to realize the character of Dr. Gregory House would have worked just as well as an Englishman. Then we would have been able to hear Hugh’s natural accent, which is lovely. Although an English accent might have softened Dr. House in the long run. Americans would have given Dr. House’s obscene rantings a shrug and muttered “Well, what do you expect? He’s English.” And I think Hugh is right on about House’s self-destructive tendencies. It’s sort of amazing that the character has been embraced the way he has – Dr. House is one of the most flawed characters on network television today. Perhaps we love him for his flaws? And because Hugh plays him so brilliantly.
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