House bound: Hugh Laurie weary, wary of elf pebbles

by John Crook, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

04/24/05

Hugh Laurie is a huge TV star in his native England, thanks to the runaway success of such comedy hits as Blackadder and Jeeves & Wooster.

But as the star of House, the medical drama series that has turned into a late-blooming hit for Fox and Global on Tuesday nights, the 45-year-old actor has learned a somewhat-belated showbiz lesson: Always read the fine print. "I've never done that before in my life, but this is small print I would have been well advised to read," Laurie says on the crushing work hours he has been putting in as the star of a drama series.

"It has come as a shock," he says. "My wife and I have been talking about where we're going to live and we quickly came to the realization that even if everybody came to live here, it doesn't solve the problem because they still wouldn't see me for more than an hour or so a week."

"It's a tough business, and I'm filled with admiration for those who stick with it for a long time. I'm ready to drop, just bone- weary -- although it's a great bunch of people and terrific fun to do."

From all indications, Laurie can look forward to a lot more "terrific fun" in the months to come.

After a shaky start in November, when generally glowing critical reviews for House still failed to draw an audience, this quirky series about a brilliant yet cranky and misanthropic doctor has suddenly caught fire. It has risen as high as No. 4 in the Nielsen ratings list of top 10 shows on U.S. prime time.

"People don't feel we've been crammed down their throats, so to speak, thrust into their faces," Laurie says of the growing fan base for the show. "We haven't been marketed to death, so the people who have found the show feel that they have discovered it themselves, so they own it to some degree. That's good for both of us."

Laurie modestly deflects credit for the show's success to series creator and executive producer David Shore, a team of strong writers and a first-rate ensemble cast that includes Robert Sean Leonard, Omar Epps and Lisa Edelstein. Nevertheless, it is Laurie's electrifying performance as Dr. Gregory House that clearly drives this unpredictable series.

"Hugh simply came in and read the part far and away better than anyone else did," Shore says. "It's a really tricky, difficult role and he could come off onscreen as just a hateful jerk. Hugh got all the nastiness -- it was all there -- yet, at the same time, you came away liking him. You sympathized with him and wanted to watch him. There was a reality to it, not cartoonish."

Shore firmly felt changing the main character to reflect Laurie's British heritage would prove too distracting for U.S. viewers, so the actor has had to cope with sustaining a credible American accent, too.

"I feel like there is a small elf just throwing pebbles at my face, one at a time, every time I come across a word with the letter R in it," Laurie says, sighing. "It's distracting and painful, and now and then one gets me in the eye."

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