"House" Calling
Posted January 12th, 2006 by RD Heldenfels
Playboy magazine will have a "20 Questions" session with "House's" Hugh Laurie in its February issue (on sale tomorrow). Here are some excerpts the magazine sent along:
On being a Clint Eastwood fan: “I grew up in the shadow of Dirty Harry. Yes, I can’t deny it. House has elements of Dirty Harry in the medical world. There was that line ‘That’s the one thing about Harry: He doesn’t play favorites. Harry hates everybody.’”
On which American makes the worst attempt at an English accent: “I suppose at the top of every Englishman’s list would be Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. That would have to be construed as a virtual act of war. I think every Englishman assumed that the only justification for hiring someone that unsuitable to play a cockney chimney sweep was that he could dance like the wind. Sure enough, he did; the chimney-sweep sequence is magnificent. Years later I learned that Van Dyke had never danced before that movie.”**
On why so many characters on House have convulsions and what gives him real life convulsions: “Convulsions are cinematic, whereas strokes are silent, deadly assassins that simply result in, well, basically nothing. I’m going to stand up for the convulsion. Too much politeness gives me convulsions. I think of myself as a reasonably polite person. I say please and thank you; I try to be on time and dress appropriately for the occasion—you know, the basics. But too much politeness makes me jittery- oppressive politeness, people springing to their feet every time someone comes in, people over apologizing. I start to twitch.”
**Laurie's history is off here. Van Dyke not only danced on "The Dick Van Dyke Show," he starred in "Bye Bye Birdie" — all before "Mary Poppins."
