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By
Suzanne

Interview with Lisa Edelstein and Greg Yaitanes of "House"
on FOX 3/4/11.
FBC PUBLICITY:
The House Conference Call with Lisa Edelstein and Greg Yaitanes
March 4, 2011/3:00 p.m. EST
SPEAKERS
Kim Kurland – FBC Publicity
Lisa Edelstein – Dr. Lisa Cuddy, House
Greg Yaitanes – Executive Producer (and Director of “Bombshells”
episode), House
PRESENTATION
Moderator
Welcome to the House Conference call with Lisa Edelstein and Greg Yaitanes. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode.
Later, we will conduct a question and answer session and instructions
will be given at that time.
I’d now like to turn the conference over to Kim Kurland.
K. Kurland Hi. I just wanted to thank everybody for participating in
this call with Lisa and Greg to talk to about Monday’s episode. It’s a
bit of a departure for the show and we think the episode’s really
fantastic. If anybody has any follow-up question afterwards, feel free
to e-mail me at kim.kurland@fox.com. Thank so much. We can take our
first call.
Moderator We’ll go to the line of Mag Legal with TheVoiceofTV.
M. Legal Shooting a musical number on such a conventional sequence on
House is quite a departure. Could you share some behind the scenes
stories on the challenges and the fun you all had together?
L. Edelstein Well I know for me it was great just to be in different
costumes. We had a lot of fun doing the different styles that we did.
We’ve been on this show for a long time, so it was like having a week
off and just playing around. It was hugely entertaining.
G. Yaitanes Lisa channels a mean Robert Redford. It was actually great
to see how much Hugh and Lisa, especially, just dove into all these
different ideas and genres. It was like they got to do five different
movies all within one week.
M. Legal I just have a follow-up question about the episode that aired
this week actually. The thing with House’s drunken declaration left
Cuddy kind of confused. What do you think it means for Cuddy to have
House drop that on her lap, such a big responsibility for the future of
their relationship?
L. Edelstein I think it was a very complicated moment for her because on
one hand, he was professing his love, and on the other hand, he was
saying it was going to basically destroy him. On top of that, he was
extremely drunk and stood her up that night on something that really was
important to her. So she’s definitely seeing more and more the truth of
what it means to be involved with a man like House and it’s not easy.
Moderator Next, we’ll go to the line of Matt Mitovich with TVLine.com.
M. Mitovich Lisa, I was wondering, let’s just say House and Cuddy don’t
make it. Do you think it will just be a matter of them returning to
their previous dynamic or will it just be too much to put behind them?
L. Edelstein I think that these are two grown-up complicated people who
love what they do. First and foremost, they love what they do. So I
think they will, no matter what, always find a way to continue doing
what is their life. Should the relationship not work, it would, I think,
add a lot of really great texture to how they have to deal with each
other.
M. Mitovich Greg, I was wondering if you’re at liberty to tease what
sort of season finale the show is building toward. We’ve had people
leave. We’ve had romantic tension. Will House go back on the drugs? What
might it be about this May?
G. Yaitanes Those are all good questions you’re asking. They’re all good
questions that are being asked. A lot is going to come to a head in the
finale. That’s about all can I say. It’s like everything you’re talking
about, these are all things that in some form or another are going to
get answered or addressed before the season’s up.
Moderator Next, we’ll go to the line of Diana Daley with TheDeadBolt.com.
D. Daley Both of your thoughts on this, given the dream sequences, what
do you think Cuddy wants from her relationship with House compared to
what she really expects to get from it?
L. Edelstein I think these particular dream sequences are like dreams.
They are more revealing in what they don’t say directly than what they
look like at first glance. It’s not a dream like she’s going into a
fantasy world. They’re actually dream sequences filled with subconscious
information.
G. Yaitanes Every dream is significant of what Cuddy’s going through.
D. Dales Just a follow up, again, both of your thoughts, Dr. Cuddy is so
self-assured and successful in her professional life, but what do you
see as her flaws or perhaps short comings that would allow her to be in
this type of relationship that she’s in with House?
L. Edelstein I think she is so self-sufficient that it’s really hard for
her to find a partner that has the equal amount of power. A man like
House seems like he’s got an equal amount of power because he’s so
brilliant, but actually he’s another child, and those two things are
really easy to confuse at first glance.
Moderator Next, we’ll go to the line of Paulette Cohn with American
Profile.
P. Cohn When you’re around all these illnesses and diseases and stuff,
do you find it hard not to start diagnosing yourself? Do you ever become
a hypochondriac?
L. Edelstein I’ve always loved medicine and I’ve always been good at
retaining that sort of information. So I don’t think this has made me
worse. I actually feel like it gives me more information. I love it. I
always think, medically, you have to be your own—what’s the word I’m
looking for? Shoot, I’m sorry. I can’t remember the word that I’m
looking for. Oh, I know what I was saying—medically you really have to
be your advocate. You have to be able to back up everything that you’re
feeling with some information and protect yourself through the world of
hospitals and doctors’ offices, so the more information the better.
P. Cohn You said you were going to have a lot of different costumes. Can
you talk a little bit about what that’s going to be?
L. Edelstein Well you’ve seen some of the promos online. There’s a
1950’s promo. There’s a western promo. There’s the musical number. It
was a lot of fun. By the way, in the 1950’s scene I am actually wearing
a pointy bra. Those things actually have a pad in the tip that makes it
pointy.
Moderator Next, we’ll go to the line of Kristyn Clarke with
PopCultureMadness.com.
K. Clarke House is known—there are a lot of intense scenes. Are there
plans in the future to maybe to some more episodes like the “Bombshells”
episode to kind of break up that tension?
L. Edelstein I think every year they try to do several episodes that
break format. Greg has directed a number of those. It seems to be your
specialty.
G. Yaitanes The great thing about the show is the show has the
vocabulary, I think truly more than any other show out there. I think
most shows—you’re going to tune in and you’re going to get what you get
every week. That has obviously worked very successfully, but one of the
great things about House is that it very early on from the first season
when we did “Three Stories,” immediately established that this show can
tell stories in very different ways.
It is so rewarding that we can mix it up. A couple weeks ago, we had
House teaching the class of fifth graders for Career Day where we went
back and flashed back to him telling the story of what happened with
House and Cuddy through all these elaborate lies and so forth. So we’ve
done “House’s Head,” and we’ve done “Locked In,” and we’ve done these
episodes that break format every time in a new way. We try as much as we
can not to repeat ourselves, but we’ve established a very wide, wide
vocabulary of ways we can break format.
K. Clarke As a follow up with all that being said, what do you both feel
it is about House that continues to resonate so well with viewers?
G. Yaitanes It’s always such a long answer. There’s so much—
L. Edelstein Everybody in the world has a different reason for wishing
they could say things that most people know not to say. There’s a
release to it when you get to see someone actually get away with it, but
not only that, someone who’s smart and brilliant and you would want in
your life were you in a medical emergency. So it sort of crosses
generation between teenagers who just want to talk back and grownups who
wish they could.
Moderator We’ll go to the line of Henry Hanks with CNN.com.
H. Hanks We’re hearing a lot about this sort of dance sequence,
choreographed, I believe, by Mia Michaels from So You Think You Can
Dance. I’m wondering what that was like to work with her and how much
rehearsal was involved?
G. Yaitanes I was a fan of the show and had met Mia a couple months
prior to getting the script to this episode. The second I had read the
script, which basically said House and Cuddy sing a Housean version of
Get Happy, and there was a couple of story points that happened within
that dance sequence, and I texted Mia to see if she was going to be
around and available. She was, and we made a deal.
What was interesting about this is, that I think is so different than so
many other musicals, is that the arrangement, the choreography, and
everything about it was happening simultaneous to each other. So Mia was
influencing the musical arrangement. The musical arrangement was
influencing the choreography, John Erlich’s work. John Erlich, our
composer, and Mia Michaels were incredibly collaborative, and then once
they kind of got the ball rolling started some pretty intense rehearsal
sessions with Hugh and Lisa.
L. Edelstein We didn’t have so many rehearsals, but they were long and
involved and it was really fun. I’m a big admirer of Mia Michaels, and I
also watched that show religiously. So I was really excited, not just
to—
G. Yaitanes It was like a Mia Michaels fan club here. I don’t think
we’ve had anybody either on the show or around the office in which more
people were lined up to want to meet her and talk to her, and it was
everything you could imagine. She was fantastic. She really directed
that sequence, and that was the thing we wanted. We basically stuck a
straw in her head and sucked out what her idea was. She created that
world that takes place in the choreography; worked on the costuming, set
design. It’s like within the episode I directed, that these two and a
half minutes were directed by Mia.
H. Hanks Do either of you have another favorite dream sequence that you
guys did and why?
G. Yaitanes I love the “Butch and Sundance” sequence. Mostly because if
you take the original film, I mean down to Hugh and Lisa’s choices of
the way that they approached the scene is very much with the same
intention that Newman and Redford went at it. Just from a shot for shot
technical standpoint, we recreated the sets and recreated the staging
and the shot design and all the technical aspects, but I just love
seeing—Lisa playing Redford, I just can’t get over it. Every time I see
it, I just love it. She just does so many great things.
L. Edelstein It was pretty funny. We were shooting guns. They had blanks
of course, but it’s always scary when somebody’s handling a weapon on
the set. It’s dangerous even if it’s blanks, and every time you put the
gun back in your hand they have to check to make sure it’s just blanks
and that there are blanks. It’s a whole process you go through. Still
when we ran out of the building to fire, people ducked. So they really
didn’t trust me that much.
G. Yaitanes We’re laughing. I don’t know if you guys are laughing.
Moderator Next we’ll go to the line—
G. Yaitanes Which is another funny story we have.
Moderator —Barbara Barnett with Blogcritics Magazine.
B. Barnett The story of House over the last six and a half years has
been House’s journey, taking maybe one step forward and two back or five
back, and he’s been on a bit of an upswing this year, taking many steps
forward socially and personally. Are the events of “Bombshells” going to
be a setback for him leading forward to the rest of the season? The same
question for Cuddy.
G. Yaitanes I think here there’s—Cuddy’s going through a health crisis
at this particular time, which with any crisis in your life gives you
pause and you just really have to look at your life very hard and truly
what’s going on in your life. So I think this is a great episode of a
lot of inner reflection.
L. Edelstein It starts with the episode that aired this past week,
referring back to the earlier question about the last scene when House
is drunk. Everything is sort of coming to a head. All the truths about
who these people are, how they relate to each other.
B. Barnett Also, not quite a follow up, but who wrote this episode, out
of curiosity?
G. Yaitanes Liz Friedman and Sarah Hess.
B. Barnett My follow-up question is you had mentioned there were five
dreams during the episode. I know there’s the ‘50s thing and the dance
routine and the Butch Cassidy. What are the other two?
G. Yaitanes We recreated the end of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
the final scene of that. We also did a sitcom, basically a Two and a
Half Men with House and Wilson and an eight-year-old Rachel Cuddy, a Two
and a Half Men style sitcom where we rebuilt a sitcom version of House’s
apartment. So if you’re really like our fan of the show and you’ve
watched the show, there’s a sitcom interpretation of House’s apartment
that we recreated.
L. Edelstein The wardrobe is also hilarious.
G. Yaitanes Yes. There’s that, and then we also did a horror film.
Moderator Next, we’ll go to the line of Bill Brioux with The Canadian
Press.
B. Brioux I ran into David Shore at the TCA in January. I was talking to
him and I mentioned, I said, “Man, that was a pretty steamy season
premiere, especially for network television.” I said, “Cuddy was naked
for half the show,” and all Shore said was, “You’re welcome.” I was just
wondering what was that like shooting that?
L. Edelstein I heard I won best butt crack on television recently. It’s
true. I did it you guys. I made it. I wish I got an award, the actual
award. What would it look like?
G. Yaitanes Exactly. What would it look like?
B. Brioux Was it intimidating to shoot or was it a closed set? What was
that—?
L. Edelstein Of course it’s a closed set. It’s always weird to shoot
when you’re really basically not wearing anything.
G. Yaitanes You were actually not wearing anything?
L. Edelstein I was actually not wearing—well, I had a tiny little nude
G-string on that’s easy to edit out if anything shows, but other than
that—I mean you’re in a robe and then pretty much, I’d be in a robe.
We’d rehearse it in the robe, and then right before we’d start shooting
I’d yell, “private moment,” and all the guys would just turn around,
including Hugh, which was even funnier since he was in the scene with
me, and then I would climb into position.
G. Yaitanes You and Hugh, like each of you—it was so great that you guys
had so much history because each of you had—I felt relaxed, the other
one. We kept a very minimal set and also we’ve all been around each
other so long, it was a very respectful—
L. Edelstein Yes. I love these guys I’ve been working with for so long.
I did feel completely taken care of. I had no worries. I didn’t feel
like anybody was perving out. Hugh refuses to look anywhere that isn’t
scripted so he was very careful.
B. Brioux Let me ask then, what’s more fun shooting sex scenes opposite
Laurie or song and dance?
L. Edelstein Well each one has its own stresses, but I had a great time
doing both. The song and dance—Mia Michael’s choreographing, getting the
opportunity to dance for Mia Michaels, as little as I did, it was
incredible. I was a dancer when I was a kid and to kind of, in a minor
way, live out that dream was a really satisfying experience.
Moderator Next, we’ll go to the line of Jamie Steinberg with Starry
Constellation.
J. Steinberg I was wondering what are your most memorable moments you
had from filming your dream sequences?
L. Edelstein I would say it was doing the dance with Mia. That was
really exciting. Just being choreographed, moving through space in that
kind of way, being around all those incredibly talented young dancers
who were so enthusiastic and full of life was really something. It was
really something.
G. Yaitanes For me, it was very much about the fact that these were five
genres I had never directed before. So it was the excitement of all
within one particular episode to do five different genres. However, my
career has gone, I have not done any of these things before. So it was
great and challenging for me to make sure that they all seemed authentic
and everything because everyone required a different style of acting, a
different style of lensing, a whole different approach. So it was like
making five films within the film.
L. Edelstein I really loved doing the—
G. Yaitanes Then also having to wrap it around a very unique episode of
House.
L. Edelstein I really loved doing the 1950’s one too. That was really
fun. It was hilarious. Such a different way of acting, it’s true. But
the actually story line of the show is really powerful. I’m really
excited for it.
J. Steinberg How did you prepare for doing the dance? Did you have to
change your diet? What were the rehearsals of the dancing schedule like
for you two?
L. Edelstein We don’t get any notice. It’s not like, “In two months,
you’re going to be dancing.” It’s no Black Swan. I didn’t have a year to
go train.
G. Yaitanes It all happened very quickly.
L. Edelstein It was just sort of like, “Guess what? Next week Mia
Michaels is going choreograph a super, fantastic dance sequence.” Then I
got together with Mia. We had the first rehearsal for about four hours,
and then I think the next time I saw her was on stage. We had one dress
rehearsal and the following day we shot. So I really had maybe five
hours.
Moderator Next, we’ll go to the line of Matt Mitovich with TVLine.com.
M. Mitovich Lisa, I was wondering if you could tell us the circumstances
of Candace Bergen’s next visit? Are things at all warmer and fuzzier
between the two?
L. Edelstein No. No, definitely not. Cuddy and her mother are still at
each other’s throats.
M. Mitovich Anything else you can say about the story there?
L. Edelstein I wouldn’t want to ruin it, but Candace is hilarious and
it’s going to be a lot of fun.
G. Yaitanes We have a great cast for that episode.
L. Edelstein Who else is in that episode? Do you remember?
G. Yaitanes Donal Logue and—
L. Edelstein Oh I love Donal Logue.
G. Yaitanes David Carver? David from Damages—the last name’s escaping
me.
L. Edelstein It’s really exciting because I’m not in any scenes with
Donal, but I’ve known him for a really long time, and he’s such a good
actor.
M. Mitovich Greg, just to understand, in the sitcom segment you’ve got
House, the rehab drug user, playing the Charlie Sheen role?
G. Yaitanes I don’t know quite the word if the word’s … or whatever it
was, but it’s very—we shot this back in December so it is interesting
how everything ended up playing itself out.
L. Edelstein Maybe it’s our fault.
G. Yaitanes Maybe it’s our fault.
L. Edelstein Like a butterfly flapped his wings and Charlie Sheen went
off the deep end.
G. Yaitanes That will be like top headline of everything, “Lisa
Edelstein slams Charlie Sheen.”
L. Edelstein No. Actually, it’s very upsetting to me. Please don’t quote
me saying something mean.
G. Yaitanes It’s too late. It’s too late. I’m twittering it now.
Moderator Next, we’ll go to the line of Jim Halterman with
JimHalterman.com.
J. Halterman Greg, so talk to me a little bit on a creative side. So
much attention goes to House and Cuddy and their storyline, has that
challenged to keep the rest of the cast kind of on the canvas of the
show?
G. Yaitanes Another great thing about the show is I feel like everybody
gets opportunities to step up and right now the House and Cuddy
relationship is in the foreground of that. I think somebody commented
once, like there was some award where all of our cast was sitting at the
same table as each other, and truly everybody’s still, in season seven,
is so supportive. I’ve gone back to shows that have found success within
their first season and nobody’s talking to each other and they’ve all
split off into camps. It is a genuine, supportive, creative environment
that really stems from Hugh and from Lisa and everybody is there to
build each other up. Right now House and Cuddy are in the foreground,
other times Chase has been in the foreground, Peter’s had some great
story lines. Everybody’s—
L. Edelstein I’ve spent a good number of years saying, “No you don’t.”
J. Halterman Lisa, any plans for your hiatus?
L. Edelstein I’m going to be traveling.
J. Halterman Anywhere you want to share?
L. Edelstein Nope because I don’t want anybody meeting me there that I
haven’t invited.
Moderator Next, we’ll go to the line of Marie Lindberg with USA Weekend.
M. Lindberg House has openly expressed his love, but that is making him
a bad doctor. Do you still think Cuddy is good for House? He’s come so
far emotionally.
L. Edelstein Wait, say that again. Can you repeat your question?
M. Lindberg Do you still think Cuddy is good for House even though he’s
admitting to becoming a worse doctor over her?
L. Edelstein Well I think that is the big question isn’t it? Although I
don’t think that Cuddy’s considerations in regards to their relationship
ultimately comes down to whether or not it makes him a better or a worse
doctor. I think ultimately those kinds of decisions come down to does
this person enhance my life or not.
M. Lindberg Lisa, you look amazing, as always. How do you stay in such
great shape? I have got to ask.
L. Edelstein I just try and eat really healthy food, and I do Yoga and I
swim and I hike. I just try to live a healthy life style. It’s not that
complicated.
Moderator We’ll go to the line of Mag Legal with TheVoiceofTV.
M. Legal Lisa, how do you feel about working with Robert more lately
because we haven’t seen many Cuddy and Wilson scenes in the beginning of
the season?
L. Edelstein You mean do I want to work with Robert more or—
M. Legal Well you kind of are and we are all happy about this. So I was
wondering—
L. Edelstein I love working with Robert. He’s so funny and he’s so
talented and he likes to work fast. So we have a good time working
together.
Moderator There are no further questions.
K. Kurland I think that we can end it there then if nobody has any
further questions.
L. Edelstein Great.
G. Yaitanes Very good. Thanks everybody.
K. Kurland Thank you everyone for participating. We really appreciate
it. Again, if anybody has anything that they want to follow up on, you
can send me an e-mail. It’s Kim.Kurland@Fox.com. Don’t forget, the show
airs Monday at 8:00 p.m. on Fox.
L. Edelstein Thank you.
G. Yaitanes Thanks, everybody.
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