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Canwest News Service
For the better part of six seasons, Robert Sean Leonard has played Dr. James Wilson on the medical drama House – Dr. Watson to Hugh Laurie's Sherlock Holmes.
Leonard plays the sidekick, the sounding board and occasionally the stooge to prime time television's most irritable, eccentric and brilliant physician, and Leonard is perfectly content to play the foil.
Until now. This Monday (Nov. 30), Leonard has an episode to himself – a medical conundrum in which Dr. Wilson treats an old friend and former patient, played by Joshua Malina. Dr. House believes Wilson's friend is suffering from the early onset of a rare form of cancer; Wilson, an oncologist by specialty, prefers to take a more optimistic long view.
"Wilson is not any different in this episode," Leonard said (in a recent conference call with reporters). "You see my assistant, who you've never met. You see the oncology floor; you see where I work. My office next to House's is just my office; there's a whole other floor in oncology where I work. I have my own patients, my own staff, my own day that doesn't include House. You basically follow Wilson around for a few days and see what his life is like."
The case hits home for him, though.
"Josh Molina, this great guy who played Will bailey on The West Wing, is the patient, an old friend of mine who gets into trouble, and I have some moral decisions to make throughout the show. So, yes, it's a personal case for me."
In future episodes, Wilson will go apartment hunting alongside House. Part of House's agreement with the psychiatric facility he was released from at the outset of the season is that he not live alone, that there always be someone to keep an eye on him. That someone has turned out to be Wilson. Once again, Wilson's Watson is inextricably tied to House's Holmes.
What viewers have seen of Wilson's office so far is basically movie posters from the classics – "I enjoy that topic very much," Leonard said – and signs of Wilson's penchant for neatness.
Some fans have noted the poster of Ordinary People, seemingly incongruous alongside the posters from Orson Welles' Touch of Evil and Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo.
"Ordinary People is my favourite movie," Leonard explained. "Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore. Robert Redford's directorial debut. If I walked into an oncologist's office and Ordinary People was on the wall, I'd feel good. I'd like that. I'd like the guy who had that on his wall."
It says a lot about Wilson that he would have that poster on his office wall, Leonard believes.
"That movie, to me, is a fascinating study of human frailty and familial relations and human interaction, and the complexity and difficulty of facing what's going on inside you and admitting it and letting it inform your relations with other people. I think if you deal with death every day, and people who get news of their own death – it's not plastic surgery."
Leonard would be reluctant to have a friend like House in his own life, the actor admitted.
"Maybe when I was 20, but at 40, no. I think House is an incredibly intriguing guy. The character is incredibly funny. He is, I imagine, great fun to be around. He's extremely smart, self-deprecating, sarcastic – what's not to like? The only thing is, he's self-involved. He often has his own agenda. He gets you into trouble and screws you over sometimes. When you're 20, I don't think that it matters so much. At 40, I don't know. I have a wife and a daughter and two dogs, and I hardly have time for people I like. So I don't know if, myself, I would hang out with him very much."
Wilson, on the other hand, would be hard to get a read on in real life, Leonard said.
"Wilson is a very strange man. People seem to overlook him. They seem to think he's this normal, teddy bear of a guy. He's very strange, though. He has three ex-wives. He lives alone – well, now he lives with House. He deals with death every day. He has a schizophrenic homeless brother. God only knows what his parents are like. I just think he's a really strange, dark guy. That's my take on him."
Unlike Dr. Wilson, Leonard is no workaholic, though he does take the job seriously. When he talks about the joys of being lazy, though, it's hard to escape the feeling that he's indulging in some House-ian disingenuity.
"When I read (the pilot script) for House, I was also considering Numb3rs, " Leonard explained. "I read Numb3rs and I thought, `This is way too many scenes. It's way too hard and I'm not interested.' Then I read for Wilson on House. The guy was in about three scenes, so I thought this is perfect. I'm the Carlton the Doorman of my show. I'm not the most ambitious guy. I like playing the best friend. It's good to be the lead of a show for a week, but I wouldn't want it to be more. I like my role the way it is."
Leonard's average day, he says, "involves me not going to the set, which is why I like the role so much."
TV hours are long, though the work isn't that difficult, Leonard suggested.
"You learn your lines the night before, usually. You're shooting one page at a time, so it's not like you're doing King Lear; the lines aren't the problem. The thing is, in theatre, I'm used to pretty much just walking on and getting it done. I'm pretty lazy, and I like the hours in theatre. You get to the theatre at 7:30 p.m. and you're home by 11, and for me that's nice. That's a good day.
"Hugh Laurie is on that set 15 hours a day. I'm there about one or two days a week, usually, though lately it's been more because our characters are living together. So you see me a lot more than you used to.
"When I do work, I get up at four o'clock and am in the makeup chair by six, and hopefully we're finished by 6 p.m., though usually it's a little later than that. It's a 12- to 14-hour day, with a lot of filming. I'm used to working on the stage, so it can be a long, tedious day for me. I have a daughter and my wife and my dogs, and I like reading. Having said that, I'm massively overpaid and over praised, so it couldn't be a better gig."
The House episode Wilson airs Monday (Nov. 30) on Global and Fox at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
astrachan@canwest.com
blog: www.canada.com/tv guy
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My goodness me! A google alert from my home town of Kelowna.
How nice to see. I’m saving this in my favourites to read daily.
Thanks for posting this item about Robert Sean Leonard.
I run a w/s for Hugh Laurie and have done since the program’s(House) inception, so drop by sometime.
Maureen
Please continue discussion on the forum: link