Going Behind the Curtain on House M.D.

0:00 House is a guy who has emotions,

0:02 has feelings, cares about, amazingly good at reading people, right?

0:10 We had this role of house which sort of every

0:13 role sort of revolved around and had so much

0:15 interaction with this character that we had to really hit

0:18 that character perfectly or the series would not have worked.

0:22 We read so many people for this part.

0:24 When auditioning, I can remember thinking I feel as if I know who this guy is,

0:29 the character of House,

0:30 but I also feel like I know who this guy David Shaw is,

0:33 the mind behind the mind, as it were.

0:35 I have tenure.

0:38 Don't you got to grab my cane, stop me from leaving?

0:41 Hugh Lori went on tape and I watched it.

0:42 He had the right kind of voice and he

0:44 had a good razor stubble going and I thought,

0:46 "This this this guy feels like house." And thank goodness he's

0:49 an American so he can pronounce all this this tough medical jargon.

0:53 Thyrotoxic periodic paralysis.

0:55 I have no idea what that is.

0:56 Gluccoins andphilopathy.

1:00 Stop.

1:00 If I knew what was wrong, I would tell you.

1:04 Rolling.

1:19 Everybody lies.

1:23 If lying to a patient saved their life, would you do it?

1:28 No.

1:28 That's a lie.

1:30 Everyone lies, but there's an exception to every rule.

1:32 Actually, there isn't.

1:33 It's kind of what makes it a rule.

1:35 Interior ICU day.

1:36 He's revived, alive, but very weak.

1:38 Stacy's beside herself with worry.

1:40 If this were any other patient, what would you tell them to do?

1:44 I would say, is there a choice?

1:46 Not a chance.

1:46 You'd browbe them until they made the choice you knew was right.

1:49 We've got to let him cut the leg off.

1:52 It's my leg.

1:54 It's my life.

1:59 How many canes have we lost, do you think?

2:01 Lost or broken?

2:02 I would say probably just slightly less than 100.

2:16 Well, first of all, he was not always walking around with a cane.

2:19 In fact, we pictured him in a wheelchair.

2:23 But a wheelchair is not the best idea because of the obvious limitations.

2:32 So then we briefly considered a scar and then a cane.

2:40 Knowing that it was a cane and knowing that I wanted

2:43 someone who could walk down those halls and hold the center,

2:46 you know, height became important and physicality became important.

2:50 The truth is he's hiding because he's handicapped.

2:53 That was where it all sort of started from.

2:56 What's the point of putting together a team if you're not going to use them?

3:00 You've got three overqualified doctors working for you getting bored.

3:06 I don't need a team.

3:08 You were bouncing ideas off a janitor.

3:10 Come on.

3:10 Got to earn that fiber.

3:12 The thing that I find interesting about House is as a character is is

3:16 his uh distance and his apathy and his um removal from any kind of uh connection

3:25 house.

3:25 You play a guitar you got in ninth grade.

3:29 Eight.

3:29 You're living in the same apartment for 15 years.

3:31 You drive a 10-year-old car.

3:32 You are not good with change.

3:34 That used to be true, but I changed.

3:36 You're fired.

3:39 What?

3:39 Because I I yelled at you?

3:41 It's time for a change.

3:43 As an audience member,

3:44 we know these characters and to see them placed

3:46 in their individual situations and their their quirks and their, you know,

3:52 their personalities come through.

3:53 Have you even interviewed anybody?

3:55 You test drive a car before you buy it.

3:56 You have sex before you get married.

3:58 I can't hire a team based on a 10-minute interview.

4:01 What if I don't like having sex with them?

4:04 I love it.

4:05 I think I enjoy the humor of our writers.

4:07 I mean, they are so clever and just

4:09 what we get away with sometimes just it's hilarious.

4:19 Every ship has its engine room.

4:21 Every restaurant has its kitchen.

4:25 And every TV show has people I don't know what they do.

4:30 What do you do in here?

4:31 They make the trains run on time.

4:33 Yeah.

4:33 They're they're followed.

4:35 Every rule is followed.

4:37 You have to um you know be inventive to make it work.

4:41 Like when we did the Coast Guard rescue at sea.

4:45 Unbelievable.

4:44 One of our people thought that we had to bring

4:46 in a a real helicopter over the tank in Pakoma, but that was a process getting

4:51 spoiling the magic.

4:52 See,

4:55 that's more invoices than I've even seen in my life,

4:57 never mind gone through for a single show.

5:02 It says production designer.

5:04 What it means is uh genius behind sets like these are people like them.

5:15 What do you think was your biggest uh the biggest challenge?

5:18 Mayfield was probably the most fun.

5:19 I think

5:20 you sort of built a wing of a hospital or more than a wing actually.

5:24 Right.

5:24 We did a whole world.

5:25 We did the exterior.

5:26 We did the interior.

5:27 That was fun.

5:28 Broken.

5:30 Scene 53.

5:31 Interior er waiting room night.

5:33 Start on house as he sits in a chair alone

5:36 staring into space holding freedom master's blood speckled jackets offcreen.

5:42 He's lucky

5:42 to be alive.

5:46 You don't care about anything else.

5:50 I'm transferring you to Winsow Psychiatric.

5:52 You'll have better luck pulling the wool over their eyes.

5:54 I'm done.

5:57 Don't.

6:01 I need help.

6:02 We're all worried my hero house is, you know,

6:05 in trouble and he's going to a psychiatric hospital.

6:08 And you should also welcome Greg to the floor.

6:11 Don't worry about the name just passing through.

6:13 I love Broken.

6:14 I think it gave the whole not just the season, but the whole six years.

6:18 It gave that a sort of shape and a meaning and uh a kind of truth.

6:23 I I uh Yes.

6:25 Yeah.

6:26 I got a truth.

6:27 Want to break any hearts?

6:29 Can we go outside?

6:30 We built an entire mental facility.

6:33 Okay.

6:33 He's the claustrophobic one, right?

6:35 We constructed a slave ship.

6:37 As the show got more successful, it seemed like we built a lot more.

6:42 We've provided work for really thousands of people

6:44 in the seven years that I've been here.

6:48 It's made a lot of people very happy.

6:59 And ho, the sets were good.

7:03 This is Jesse's last time he ever wears this.

7:06 It is the last time.

7:07 This was this me.

7:09 Jesse was 12 and now he's 19.

7:11 You look great, Peter.

7:13 Don't let the fans tell you you don't.

7:16 The difference is that I actually look like a doctor.

7:17 So, whose blood is it really?

7:19 It's mostly food coloring.

7:20 and native

7:21 food coloring and uh corn syrup.

7:24 How long do you think you work for house?

7:27 As long as he lets me.

7:29 All our instruments are basically real, but you can see we have tons and tons.

7:34 Yeah.

7:35 Yeah.

7:35 Yeah.

7:36 Come out.

7:38 It's like God, it's endless.

7:40 Great.

7:40 Peter, you happy?

7:42 Yep.

7:42 I'm good.

7:42 All right.

7:43 Got it.

7:43 I'm going to miss surgery and Jeffrey Colon.

7:46 This is your last surgery.

7:47 This is my last surgery.

7:48 Slow the heart down so it doesn't damn think it's too fast.

7:53 Only smell can fix this work.

8:02 Omar in my opinion on the show he

8:04 has taken the worst having the exploding colon.

8:08 Why is that?

8:09 Because he's such a tense character.

8:11 Maybe a little more pressure.

8:13 Not too much.

8:15 If it is the end, then we Yeah, like a high five.