I find Hugh Laurie’s character on “House” arrogant and annoying, but my husband loves the guy and I don’t think he would be mortified if I told you that Laurie as Dr. House is his man crush. Laurie always comes off as candid and smart in his interviews, and when I heard him give his Golden Globe acceptance speech in that fancy British accent I realized what all the fuss was about.
Laurie, 48, gave a recent interview to the Radio Times in which he says that he thinks that he doesn’t have a lot of opportunities as an actor in his native England now that he’s experienced such success overseas. He also said that he feels self-conscious about his American accent and doesn’t like to watch his scenes. As his pill-popping character, he admits trying Vicodin to see what it was like, but it doesn’t sound like he’s taking it everyday.
On his American Accent for the show
“I don’t watch regularly. I avert my eyes when my children have it on. I hate seeing myself, but it’s even worse hearing my American accent … I had no idea I sound so retarded, a dull monotone, full of clunking mistakes.”
On Vicodin
“I wouldn’t recommend it — we have to be careful. But then again … if you’re not in pain it gives a floaty, pleasurable feeling.”
Laurie said that his family will move to the US if “House” continues to be a success, but that he never quite gets the feeling that things are settled in his life:
“I have this vague feeling that the moment I’m comfortable with my place in the world there’ll be retribution. That’s one reason I didn’t want my family to live here. The moment we put down roots the whole thing will be called off.” [Quotes from People.com]
He has previously spoken about the difficulty of being away from his wife and three children for extended periods of time, and has talked about experiencing bouts of depression and anxiety. In October of last year he said in an interview that he couldn’t relax because he was working 14 hour days and couldn’t stop thinking about work enough to sleep. He said that he would constantly worry if he did a scene right or would often think about whether his very successful show would be a failure.
Laurie has been married to Jo Green, who works as a theater administrator, since 1989. They have two sons and a daughter, all in their teens, and in 2005 Laurie said his children didn’t want to stay in Los Angeles when they were there for a month.
“They’ve just been out here for a month… My kids were pretty sniffy about Los Angeles. It’s not quite snobby, they just need to be convinced.
“My eldest son continues to be that way. He’s very English… My daughter’s up for it. She’s now decided Los Angeles is a good thing and my middle son, who’s 14, sort of could go either way.”
[From Contact Music]
Laurie’s family has since moved back to England and while the guy is a huge success over here he’s not able to enjoy it and has said he doesn’t like being apart from his loved ones.
In July, 2006 Hugh Laurie got a raise to what was thought to be $300,000 an episode. In the 2006-2007 season there were 24 episodes, and so far 12 episodes have run for the fourth season from 2007-2008. That means the guy has made $10.8 million working on “House” in the last two years. And if it’s a few less million than that, it’s still a lot of money. That sounds like success to me.
Hugh Laurie is shown at the airport on 3/9/08.
Me thinks I don’t like his wife. In most relationships the woman has the ultimate say and if she were to tell her kids to stop fricking sniffling about it, we’re moving to the US because that is where daddy works, I seriously doubt Laurie would protest too vividly. But I don’t think she is so inclinded whether for her own selfishness or for this new idea that children cannot be inconvenienced.
The man needs his family and I’m getting a bitchy vibe from her seemingly reluctance to give up some things to make that happen for him.
Of course this is just my perception. Who knows what goes on behind closed doors?
He was hilarious in sense and sensibility when he told that silly wife of his with such deadpan delivery “I wish you would be quiet” or something of the sort.
You really have to have done a drug to act how it effects you. But he plays a drug addict. It’s not the same to take some drugs as it is to be addicted to drugs. So, not much bang for his buck there.
I love the show! Laurie has a great American accent, and even if he’s ‘off’ on a few words, I never notice because I think he’s so nice looking and I love hearing his true accent. I’ve always had a fascination with the British accent.
Sounds as if he is a perfectionist, and yes I think it would help him a lot to have at least his wife here. I understand that she does have a life of her own too, but if she cannot step up to the plate, eventually someone will. Even his daughter and son being there without her would help.
Oh I get a bad vibe from this. I consider pills to be some of the most dangerous drugs in terms of their sneakiness. They don’t seem so bad and you really don’t realize that you’ve gone too far until you’ve gone too far.
Careful Hugh.
I love him to bits.
But he’ll always be George, to me.
Are you people serious about his wife? Maybe she loves her job as much as he loves his and doesn’t want to give it up. That doesn’t make her a bad person.
I wouldn’t want my 3 teenagers in LA either. I think leaving the family in the UK is good parenting. Plus he doesn;t say if HE likes LA. My dad works in a different city & comes home on the weekends. He hates it,. but thats where is job is
His kids could be the best behaved teenagers in the world & I know they could just as soon get into trouble in the UK, but I don’t know that I’d risk my kids hanging out with Paris & her ilk
I’m not saying she should move them to LA but there is no where nearby that is acceptable? Where he could see his kids and wife on the weekend?
My sister really loves House. I am yet to sit down and catch a full episode. The little I have watched, I think he is a superb actor.
Eh, who knows. I’m fresh out of ideas 🙂
I like Hugh Laurie, but I hate House. I agree with you Celebitchy, he’s arrogant and annoying. I can’t imagine a hospital keeping him on staff even if he is a genius.
Headache, I generally agree with you on almost everything, but in this case I am completely with Mary Ann and Bodhi on this one. The children grew up in England; their friends, family and schools are all there.
I cannot for the life of me see how his wife – who may be able to have a career in LA, but has built it up steadily in Britain – is the evil one in not wanting to uproot her family, taking the ground from beneath their feet and possibly winding up like some of those other celeb-spawn basket cases. It sounds like the daughter is already aching to meet the hep-crowd in LA (Paris LiLo and the like).
(Headache, I’m sure you already know this, I’m not “attacking you”, but in the tradition of a good spirited debate, I have to take the opposing view :-)… *ON GUARD*
And Bodhi hit the nail on the head where she said that he doesn’t sound like he particularly likes LA either.
But either way, I am absolutely delighted that Hugh is doing well, and able to show off his serious acting ability, as opposed to being typecast as a bumbling comedy character or the less obviously intelligent partner to Stephen Fry, which had happened prior to “House”
Actually on the subject of the lovely Mr. Laurie (who will always be Bertie Wooster to me 😉 ) – do ye mind if I just ask the Americans on the board what they think of foreign actors coming over and doing generic American accents? Do they usually get it right, or is it absolutely cringeworthy?
Being Irish, I find that in films or programmes Irish accents sound desperately fake – but when many British or Americans do the “Oirish” accent it makes me want to pull all their hair out.
(the only American actors who managed a decent Irish accent were Jared Leto, Kate Hudson and Johnny Depp in Chocolate. Brad Pitt should be bitch-slapped from here to the North Pole if he dares trying a settled Irish or traveller accent again).
Meh, kids are flexible. Yeah moving sucks, this military brat knows it well but it sucks even more when daddy is struggling with depression half a world away and you never get to see him.
I guess I’m just not one of those mothers who lives my entire life for my kids and I didn’t get married to raise my children alone.
Mairead said: “…the lovely Mr. Laurie (who will always be Bertie Wooster to me)”
I bought Jeeves and Wooster on dvd for my father in law! It’s good to know he’s bound to love it. 😀
I love his upperclass twit characters (Bertie Wooster, Prince George). I don’t like House as a result.
Mairead – agreed about the Irish accents. my own fake Irish is not great, but decent enough to fool fellow Americans into buying me a drink (learned that trick from a gentleman from, i believe, Tralee. works every time) or to escape people with clipboards on the street.
a lot of British actors have so-so American accents when they go for generic (stephen fry’s a good example). Laurie has a real ear for accents though, and he’s doing a very specific accent that only sounds generic because it’s what every newscaster wants to have. especially impressive with jesse spencer twanging his way around the set…
I’m with miss luigi. He’s always going to be Prince George, Bertie Wooster and a host of characters from A Little Bit of Fry & Laurie. I have the boxed set of house and just can’t get into it. I keep expecting either Baldrick or Stephen Fry to appear.
Re cod Irish accents, mairead, the worst one ever is Tom Cruise in Far & Away. I actually found Brad Pitt’s gypsy/traveller hybrid in Snatch really funny.
I didn’t think it was his wife that didn’t want to move anyway, I thought it was that he was worried they would uproot the whole family and then the show would get cancelled or something. Maybe I need to read the article again. Either way, I can see both sides of the argument. She might have a job she loves, which would mean that she was NOT living her “entire life for her children” so much as making them deal with it so that both parents could make their jobs work, headache – exactly what you wanted her to do, right? On the other hand, I do see your point about wanting to keep your family together, and if he’s making more money, then why not just move? I just don’t like judging the choices that other people have made for their families, for the most part.
hellcat, I would probably feel different if the man wasn’t stuggling with depression or if I didn’t have a deployed husband I would move with in a heartbeat if I was allowed to so I concede the point.
Oh, wow. I’m sorry about your husband, that must be really rough. Best wishes.