CITAZIONE (LaurieLo @ 27/8/2005, 21:53)
beh però il james dean della ns generazione.. nn mi sembra proprio..
soprattutto x la fine che ha fatto.. TIE'
CMq ECCO QUI UNA GUSTOSA INTERVISTINA... la tipa intervistatrice le ha fatte un po' girare a HL...
con calma e a pezzi posterò la traduzione (in seguito..) intanto, x chi mastica l'inglese.. godetevi il tutto...
thanks to: tv guide e devoted..
HL è veramente divertente.. oltre che intelligentissimo..
Bob: ...writer, author, actor, Hugh Laurie from House.
HL: ...ask what you've been watching?
I: I have to say...Can you hear us ok?
Audience: No
Bob: You have to go back out and then come back in.
I: Can you hear us now?
Audience: Yeah.
I: This is the biggest crowd we've ever had in here and it's all for you. Wow.
HL: I'm, I'm gratified beyond belief. I think that It's such a beautiful day. I suggest we should rap this up pretty quickly.
I: You could run for president of the student council right now and win.
HL: You think?
I: Look at all these questions. Alright, well we have so many questions.
HL: Should I have those [question cards]?
I: No. So we're here to talk about you and not just your show, you.
HL: Uh, ok
I: So I know so much of your career began with Mr. Fry, Mr. Stephen Fry.
HL: It did.
I: Alright, for the six of us who don't know who Stephen Fry is maybe you could tell us a little bit about him and how your, uh, your partnership...
HL: He's very tall and has a bent nose and knows a lot of long words. Speaks fluent Greek and for a large part of my career has been an absolute pain in the ass but I'm very fond of him, he's grandfather, not grandfather, godfather to my three children and he's the dearest friend I have on the planet.
I: And you have another project coming up I understand?
HL: We have all kinds of things on the, as it was, we're dreamers, yeah, not planners, but dreamers there's a big difference.
I: I saw the ad you, were looking for a day planner or something?
HL: Yeah, exactly. Yeah
I: Did the friendship start first or the collaboration?
HL: Collaboration. It was coldly, clinically professional.
I: Did you look at each other and go, ah ha?
HL:..No I was introduced ah, sorry bit of name dropping straight away but it's factually true, I was introduced by Emma Thompson.
I: Who?
HL: Emma Thompson, used to be an actress, was in shampoo commercials and she had acted in plays with Stephen at Cambridge University where I was also a student and I had found myself in the position of directing and writing and producing effectively a yearly show for The Footlights dramatic club. And she said well Stephen Fry's your man because, you know, the long words and the fluent Greek. We did the first two acts in Greek, they didn't go so well, and a life long friendship was born.
I: Are you physically, I really don't...
HL: Close?
I: Different or close? Whichever's a more interesting answer.
HL: We're both
I: Tall and lanky?
HL: Tall and lanky. Stephen would be, I think, the first to admit he's less lanky than he was. The horizontal hold on the TV needs a bit of adjustment. He used to be an absolute beanpole but he's, uh, yeah. But he's a man who lives well, why the hell not? We're both tall, he's slightly taller and we used to emphasis a height difference when we were doing a sort of double act. We thought it a tedious picture to have two people of the same height so I would crouch a lot of times and he would
I: It gets better lighting that way.
HL: Yeah, exactly, yeah.
I: And when you worked together and creating what's your process is it, you know, he thinks and you type or rounds.
HL: We take turns. Whenever we get board basically we switch over. One of us would start something, kind of lose it, and this is a writing process rather than an acting process, but we would start something, have a bit of and idea to kick off with and then the other one would sort of chime in, we'd swap seats and take it over and so it went on. And we churned out a ton of this stuff, could never get anyone to perform it so we ended up doing it ourselves, couldn't get the help.
I: Now you're in your early 20s at this point?
HL: Yeah, Yeah. Not at this point [today] I wish.
I: You went to Cambridge University and you were a rower.
HL: I, yeah, I was a rower. Yes in fact that was why I went to the university. My father was an
I: Olympic
HL: Olympic gold medalist.
I: Gold medalist no less. He's the son of a man who's not only a gold medalist but a doctor.
HL: This is true. I suppose it had been in my blood or something, whatever and I wanted to follow in his footsteps. He's a man I admired hugely and I suppose I tried to emulate in all kinds of ways but rowing was one of them. So I went to university, not as a serious academic but, I never had and pretensions in that direction, but I could sort of scrape through the necessary examinations. God knows how. But I really went there to row, to represent the university in rowing and I fell ill at the end of my first year with glandular fever. I don't know what you call it over here. Maybe Americans don't even have it you're so clean. It's a European sickness. What do you call it over here, glandular fever?
Audience: Mono
HL: Mono ,That's it.
I: Ah, the kissing disease.
HL: The kissing disease. Yeah, I was kissing the back of my hand. And so the rowing I had to drop out of that and was looking around for something to do. It certainly wasn't going to be anthropology which was my...
I: That's what you got your degree in right?
HL: Yeah. So I fell into acting.
I: Like a duck to water?
HL: I don't know about that. I enjoy it. I took a huge amount of pleasure from it. From making people laugh that was an enjoyable thing. I felt this is fun, it's a buzz, I felt good, yeah.
I: Cause I noticed that, I did a lot of reading before I got here... You've consistently been billed as a comedic actor do you feel yourself more as a comedic actor?
HL: That's how I cut my teeth, yeah. That's how I started but I don't see necessarily there's such a huge difference between the two. I think acting is acting and if one does anything with any sort of , in any way tries to tell the truth about anything whether it's in a dramatic way or comedic way I think it's all part of the same vine. Why did I choose vine? I don't know, it's an organic thing and coin, two sides of the same coin. I'm meandering now.
I: So you did a movie. Did anybody see "Peter's Friends"? Would you call that the English "Big Chill"?
HL: Uh, I would so love to come back with some snappy answer, guilty, yeah it's a fair cop. Yes it was an attempt...
I: I can't remember. Did you have an American accent in that one?
HL: No, that was determinably English.
I: And your wife lost a baby.
HL: That's right, Imelda Staunton played my wife or rather I played her husband.
I: The amazing Imelda Staunton. We're very fond of her here in America.
HL: Me to. We're very fond of her back there as well.
I: She's sort of a cross continental gal.
HL: That's right.
I: So do you have to think anymore with the accent or is it just second nature to you?
HL: No, no I have to think all the time. You mean as I'm speaking now? No, you can tell that I'm not thinking all the time just now. Yes, I'm thinking all the time and it's agony. It's absolute agony, it's unending. I was hoping that as the weeks and months went by that the paint would subside but it doesn't. I continue to have
I: You know you might want to talk to Gwyneth Paltrow cause she really seems to
HL: I would love to talk to Gwyneth Paltrow but she just never calls back.
I: Well lets talk a little about the show. You've all seen "House"? Yes. You auditioned in the bathroom in Africa.
HL: That's correct yes.
I: While you were doing "The Flight of the Phoenix".
HL: Yeah
I: Did you have a call back or were they just so taken by you and the tape that was it you got the offer.
HL: You'd have to ask them. Because they tell me one thing and I'm incline to believe still that it was still some sort of typing error. I don't know. Because auditions are the biggest single demon in an actors life. It's something I'm absolutely terrible at. I've only ever got three things from a...
I: Don't you walk in there and charm them and you're funny and you've got the role?
HL: No, absolutely not. Thanks for coming in [to audience]. It's just the most awful thing. I've only ever gotten three things and one of those things I don't really count because it was done over the telephone. "Stuart Little" I auditioned for on a cell phone.
I: They just wanted to make sure you could do the American accent?
HL: Exactly right.
I: Really?
HL: I spoke to the director. He faxed two pages of the script to the restaurant I was in in London. I had to go outside under a street light and read this thing over a cell phone. I was going "little high, little low" to passer by who didn't know.
I: Was Geena Davis already cast?
HL: Yes
I: So maybe you got it also because you're as tall as she is? That could be part of it.
HL: I suppose that whittles away at the...process. Maybe yes.
I: I read an interview about "Stuart Little" and you're not your quote un-quote typical American parents in that? You¡¦re a little on the odd side.
HL: I would hope not. No, yes odd...It was a period piece anyway...The flavor that is very different from contemporary films. One of the things that really appealed to me about it was the politeness of it. It's such a polite film and that's such a rare thing now a days.
I: Especially in America.
HL: I didn't say that Americans aren't polite but, American films, or films generally are so obsessed with being edgy.
I: If it were directed by Quentin Tarantino it would have been a very different film.
HL: A very different film. There's an obsession with edge to the point of excluding the middle. It's kind of like a doughnut now, you have no middle. There is no kindness and politeness at the center.
I: Well, Merchant Ivory?
HL: What are they doing now?
I: Did they disappear?
HL: Oh, I don't know, maybe they have a film out this weekend, I'm sorry. In which case missed it. And also, those are period pieces and part of the point of them is they are harking back to a gentler age. Those are contemporary films that celebrate or depict just straightforward banal kindness and good manner is such a rare, it becomes an oddity. In the fact that the Little's refer to each other, they say please and thank you and refer to each other as Mr. and Mrs. Little I just found very endearing and a rare thing.
I: I would have to agree with you.
HL: Good.
I: Now, back to your show. On "House", the leg, the cane, the pain medication. Did that come from you?
HL: All my idea...Not one of them.
I: What is that about? Is more going to be revealed later about that?
HL: Yes. Very soon. Very shortly.
I: Do you know what it is?
HL: I certainly do. I shot it yesterday. I usually don't actually read things until after we've done it. It's a very, very complex and utterly brilliant script. Absolutely terrific.
I: Is it?
HL: Yeah
I: Isn't it ...Have you guys seen it consistently? One of the things I like about "House" better than "E.R.", oh, is that I feel like there's so much more going on between the characters, the principals on the show. You have sort of a medical mystery that you solve every week but there's also relationships between you guys. Especially with you and Robert Sean Leonard¡¦s character that's being developed. And you and Omar Epps have a very interesting sort of adversarial sort of relationship.
HL: They're absolutely brilliantly done. It's almost intimidating actually I find personally, I've always for most of my career, I've generally found bad scripts easier to do than good ones in a way. Because with a bad script you feel, you can't help but add something. You go, ok, so my job now is try and animate, invigorate something that really isn't going anywhere or conceal it's deficiencies in some way. But with a good script you've just not screw it up. It's like if someone tosses you a tennis ball, you catch a tennis ball all the time, if it's a Faberge egg...you know it's so important that I just don't get it wrong.
I: How hands on is David Shore with every episode?
HL: Well the one we're actually shooting at the moment which deals with the disabilities of the leg he's actually written himself so he's on the set the whole time.
I: And are you having a few directors?
HL: Yes
I: Just a few that are being cultivated?
HL: That's right, we're now going to the second season. I suppose we will get some more familiar faces that will come back more often. But we've had a pretty large number, 14, 15 directors. Am I right?
I: Oh, really? That's a lot on an hour show. Cause usually there's like 5 or 6 that sort of do them over and over again. And it's supposed to be in New Jersey
HL: That's right.
I: Which looks like Seattle to me. I keep looking at it saying this looks like Seattle.
HL: I've never been to either place. I wish I had gotten, I really wanted to do that. I wanted something, there was simply no time. I wanted to do the necessary...research.
I: So they don't do any exteriors?
HL: They did a batch...
I: And I love the little soap opera that shows in most of the episodes, your obsession with the soap operas.
HL: Yeah
I: We can go on from there. And the visuals of the going inside the bodies and the diseases. Like the one with the homeless woman, which I just thought that was an amazing episode.
HL: Right. I don't...
I: She died.
HL: She died?
I: Yes. You thought it was a thing on her...then it was meningitis, then it was uh
HL: What the hell was I doing all that time?
I: You were being quirky and cranky.
HL: How annoying is that?
I: And the dialogue? Do you guys ever help tweak the dialogue on the set or are they word Nazis?
HL: Again, it's all me. They sort of come in and so oh, uh, "Patient sick, GO!" Sometimes they're not as specific as that. Sometimes they'll just say, "Doesn't have to be sick."
You know, it's very, very rare. The scripts are so beautifully considered and tight and thought through. There's scarcely a wasted word anywhere and there's really nothing for any of us to do except stand there and read it out. I mean there have been a couple of moments where just a physical object or some peculiarity of the set suggests something but it's very, very rare. We just happen to read it out and try not to screw it up.
I: And why are the doctor who doesn't have to look like a doctor? Everybody else is wearing their appropriate whites and you're not. What's up with that?
HL: I'm part of a long tradition of crazy mavericks.
I: Why did Lisa Edelstein's character hire you?
HL: Well, you're going to find that out.
I: Alright. I'll wait, I'll wait.
HL: And you'll find out pretty soon in the next few weeks I think. There'll be a yeah...
I: It interesting cause watching you on the show I was marveling thinking I don't get any sense that you're thinking about the accent or your voice. It really feels to me that you embody the character, the character embodies you that isn't a issue for you. You're doing it very well.
HL: Why thank you. If Stephen were here, he would immediately go into Latin and say, "Ah.sir.laurie.art.n.s" [Ah Sir Laurie art an ass]. Which mean is, the art is to conceal the art. That is kind of the point of course but it's simply not the case. I'm in agony every second. It's horrible.
I: Good. You're earning your money. I have four questions that were emailed to me in advance. So, I'm going to read these first. Then with no random order I will go from the ones you all have submitted. 1st question.
HL: So the people who email questions, do they not turn up?
I: I don't know. We'll find out.
HL: So why do they preferential treatment, they haven't even bothered to show up? It's the thing that particularly annoys me. You go into a shop, you're in a hotel and you're standing at the desk and the phone rings and the assistant picks up the phone. I'm standing here. I'm pay¡ng they're just on they're on the phone like this. No, no, no I'm kidding. You do whatever you want to.
Bob: Read the names of the email because they're actually already here.
HL: Oh, I apologize.
I: Try not to ever bring upon an Englishman's ire. Alright, Chuck Constant? Alright he's here. What was the...
HL: Why isn't Chuck saying this?
I: It's my job. Get out of here, get out of here. You know I had to work very hard for this job. What was the writing process like for "The Cellar Tapes" and "A Bit of Fry and Laurie"? I think you sort of answered that.
HL: What I want to immediately know is how you even know about "The Cellar Tapes"?
I: It's in your bio material.
HL: It is? Well...
I: That's one of the first things you did right?
HL: Yeah, that was the first show Stephen and I wrote, a review, a sketch show that we wrote while we were at university and took to the Edinburgh. It's really the show that got me, it's why I'm sitting here. It's what got me started. We took the show to the Edinburgh Festival and we were fortunate enough to win a prize there, a prize I think of a case of mineral water. This is back when mineral water was quite exotic. And the other part of the prize that we got to perform for a week in a theatre in London that sat 50 people and that was the thing. The first show we did was supposedly to the National Press. In those days, the National Press was only four people. Now, the print media being what it is you'd probably end up having 800 turning up. Those were, this was a long time ago, that really what got us going. So that show...
I: Alright, so you didn't really answer the question.
HL: So we sit there, typewrite, this is a long time ago...
I: Wait, wait I have a really good one here.
HL: Not that Chuck's wasn't good.
I: You'll see. Dear Hugh, we worked together on "House". You congratulated me and I offered to lick your ears. When?... So, sorry to miss you today, I was just paged. Care to comment on the ear licking? You're married and have three children I believe.
HL: It's warm in here isn't it? Well, I. That's a hand grenade of a question.
I:...Hugh in the hit UK telly series "Jeeves and Wooster" you played Bertie Wooster with that with wonderful upper class twit English accent. Congratulations on your American accent in "House". Have you played Americans before and how did you train your voice for the role?
HL: I haven't played Americans before, apart from the "Stuart Little" films and that was sort of arguable because that wasn't really, none of that was real in a sense. Obviously, we had a mouse for a child, it wasn't real. So, there was a particularity about that voice that I suppose that didn't really approximate to anything contemporary, to a contemporary American voice. So, apart from that I'd never done it before.
I: Do you have a person on the set? A dialectician or anything?
HL: No, I don't. There simply isn't time. The pace at which we have to go means that there is no leisurely, unlike a movie, there's no sitting about in trailers with cappuccinos, you know, discussing the word, cylindrical. Cylindrical. There is none of that. This scene, turn around, that scene, close up, that scene, right, next scene. And we're, people are running between scenes. So there is not time for that kind of process. They've just got to leap in and do it. In terms of training, my training I suppose is, I don't know, watching TV. It's just watching and listening. That's all I can say. That's not, it's not much of an answer is it?
I: No, it's good
Edited by moky78 - 27/8/2005, 22:15
, nn mento mai! MAI! e nn sopporto che mi contino balle! 
Per questo nn mi spiegherò mai come House sia riusciuto a mentire ben 2 volte ad una domanda diretta (a Cuddy, sulla salute della tipa bulimica, e Cam, dicendo che nn gli piace).. 
