How Hugh Laurie Really Feels About House Today

To anyone watching from the outside, Hugh Laurie had a great time on "House." The Fox medical drama ran for eight seasons from 2004 to 2012, and during that time, Laurie was reportedly earning $400,000 per episode making him the highest-paid actor ever in a TV drama. At the height of its popularity, "House" was the most-watched TV show in the world and made Laurie, already a well-established actor, a star. It helped that the series was also really good. "House" had some of the best episodes of television in history, ranging from cerebral and reflective to the hilarious and downright harrowing, like the time Kal Penn's Lawrence Kutner left "House."

With all that in mind, you'd expect Laurie to look back with nothing but fondness for the eight seasons he spent portraying Dr. Gregory House. And for the most part that seems to be the case, although the British star has made some comments that cast doubt on just how enjoyable the experience was for him. On the whole, Laurie has remained incredibly positive, but playing a tortured genius for eight years certainly has its draw-backs. The question is, were those downsides enough to sour Laurie on his former series?

At the very least, a recent development suggests Laurie isn't all that enthused by the idea of talking about his time on "House." Dr. Mikhail Varshavski hosted "ER" and "The Pitt" star Noah Wyle on his "Doctor Mike" podcast, where he revealed that he'd previously reached out to Laurie to discuss "House." Evidently, he didn't get the most courteous response. "His staff was like, 'Oh this is a good fit. We're gonna reach out to him and see what he thinks,'" explained Varshavski, before reading out the surprising follow-up response he received: "He is not interested in opportunities like this, and frankly doesn't care about the audience or reliving the show." This "direct and honest" reply, as Varshavski put it, is surprising simply because Laurie has otherwise seemed very positive about "House," especially in the years since it wrapped up.

A clue as to why Hugh Laurie might not be all that excited to chat "House" comes from a 2012 interview he did with the Los Angeles Times, wherein the actor remained very complimentary of his time on the show but wasn't shy about sharing the difficulties he faced. Asked about being in every scene and whether that took a physical toll on him, Laurie said, "I was and it did," adding, 'It was a very consuming part, and I worked very hard to get it right. It's a necessary trick of television that characters can't really change. In film, because you know where the ending is, characters can change, but in television, you substitute revelation for change, and that can be hard to pull off."

So hard that Laurie doesn't want to talk about it any more? Perhaps, but it hardly seemed as if he was truly sick of playing one of the greatest detectives in TV history at the time. Rather, he seemed very proud of the work he did on "House," telling the LA Times, "I don't feel he was my character; he's not like me, or I'm not like him, but I do love him. I think it's part of an actor's responsibility to love the character you play, and I found him endlessly unpredictable and funny and self-loathing and unhappy. I was attracted to and moved by his unhappiness."

You can find multiple other examples of Laurie talking positively about "House" over the years, making his refusal to discuss the series with Dr. Mikhail Varshavski all the more perplexing. During an appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" (via UPI) host Stephen Colbert asked Laurie to name his favorite role, with the actor replying, "I think it would have to be House [...] I think House was probably, I felt like, the most thrilling adventure that I'd ever been on as an actor. I just thought it was an amazing experience. I was so lucky; so lucky."

Elsewhere, the actor spoke to The Guardian, telling the outlet, "I did think that 'House' was something I didn't have to apologize for. It was something I was really proud of and it was sort of ... whether you liked it or not, it was undeniable."

Why Hugh Laurie wouldn't want to discuss his biggest show years after it ended remains somewhat of a mystery. Back in 2012, the actor did speak to The Telegraph ahead of the series' finale, telling the outlet that he had grown tired of the work. "There are very few things in life that are so deliciously enjoyable that you want to do them for 16 hours a day, every day — including sex and fine dining," he said. "We are on such a conveyer belt, and it can get overwhelming." In comments he has since seemed to disown, Laurie added:

"It's not the playing the character over and over again [that can get a bit much], it's the coming to work over and over again. You know, we have done 170 episodes now, I think. That's about 50-60 feature films-worth. You want a break, you really do."

But following the publication of the piece, Laurie released a statement claiming he had been taken out of context. According to the actor (via the Los Angeles Times):

"Some newspapers, obviously dissatisfied by the statement we released last week, have suggested that 'the truth' — a modern journalistic shorthand for 'not even remotely the truth but it's creepy enough so let's go with it' — behind our joint decision [to end the show] was that I was sick of going to work. The evidence for this was a remark I made five years ago about a different subject. Let me say unequivocally that I love my job and work harder at it than most journalists work at theirs."

Much like with his apparent aversion to discussing "House" with Dr. Mikhail Varshavski, not much of this makes any sense, but you can see why Laurie might have been a bit weary of the series by its eighth season. As the Telegraph's Jane Mulkerrins noted in her piece, Laurie decided not to move his wife and three children to Los Angeles after "House" became a hit in 2004 and so had spent nine months away from them every year since. That would be tough for anybody. That said, the success of "House" did cost Hugh Laurie his role in Bryan Singer's "Superman Returns," so maybe that's why he sometimes seems a bit upset (but I doubt it).