Homina, Homina, Homina: Hugh Laurie

I read about a study (maybe someone posted a link here, if not I saw it somewhere) that playing video games makes pain patients feel less pain. Absolutely. Plus all his other "playing" falls into the distraction category -- juggling, playing with the big ball, twirling his cane, creating the big domino thingie with the cd cases, etc. The one thing I haven't seen is the use of laughter to control pain. There are some recent studies that demonstrate quite clearly that laughing is a pain control mechanism. I'd love to see the show do something with that.

Great insights sherlock. It makes me wonder how much research Hugh did before playing this role. We know he's a perfectionist, so I suspect he did do some studying up.

Wow, Sherlock, thanks for the insight. I've always thought Hugh played House brilliantly, obviously, we all do. But to think all the little itty bitty details that he's made part of the character, the small habits and constant distractions, its all a build on his character's coping with pain. If you didn't think Hugh was an amazing actor before, that little tidbit cannot deny his unbelievable attention to detail and perfectionism that makes him the incredible character actor that he is. It also makes you wonder even further how much the pain of his leg defines who House is as a person. Though according to Stacy, he was pretty much the same person before the leg, but somehow I think there's much more to it than that.

Great insights sherlock. It makes me wonder how much research Hugh did before playing this role. We know he's a perfectionist, so I suspect he did do some studying up. That's exactly what I've wondered. Either that, or he just has phenomenal instincts.

Or he knows someone with chronic pain or David Foster, their resident physician, gave him some tips or David Shore did research or... a combination of everything.

sherlockjr great insight. Very interesting. And if I may say (again) I still love your icon. I'm going on a search for that screencap and desktop it or something.

Excellent post sherlock. I would never have connected his need to be constantly in motion as a pain distraction mechanism. I've always felt that along with everything else he does so well, Hugh plays pain so brilliantly. Some of my favorite House moments are those scenes with no dialogue where he's trying to cope with the pain - his first scenes in Skin Deep and Who's Your Daddy?, his final scene in Honeymoon. Either that, or he just has phenomenal instincts. I'm going to go with that theory.

Some of my favorite House moments are those scenes with no dialogue where he's trying to cope with the pain - his first scenes in Skin Deep and Who's Your Daddy?, his final scene in Honeymoon. Some of my faves as well. And since I've seen many episodes many times there are times when he just flinches opening a door or standing or just moving even when his "pain" isn't hi-lited in an episode. And now to think that him playing with the ball, juggling etc could all be part of it is even more interesting.

Excellent post sherlock. I would never have connected his need to be constantly in motion as a pain distraction mechanism. I'm quite sure that's at least part of why he plays House that way. The other is that studies have shown that part of the creative process (and certainly what House does is creative) is to separate the conscious mind from the problem at hand. For example, the great film director Buster Keaton would often stop filming when he hit a stumbling block -- he would get his crew into a game of baseball until the solution to a given filming problem came to him. Then the game would stop and shooting would begin again. And, as we know, House often gets the answer, not when he's staring at the symptoms on the whiteboard, but when he's removed himself from the situation and is having an unrelated conversation or doing something quite different from focusing on finding the answer. So I think what HL does as an actor is he uses House's "playing" as both a distraction from pain and as the way to allow his subconscious mind to solve a problem that his conscious mind hasn't been able to grasp.

Or he knows someone with chronic pain or David Foster, their resident physician, gave him some tips or David Shore did research or... a combination of everything. Recall the interviews from the first season when he said that in discussions with Bryan Fuller, they developed a shorthand as to how to play the pain issues -- a "two Vicodin" scene or "one Vicodin" scene etc. IIRC, the shorthand was Fuller's system, based on his own medical issues and Vicodin usage.

Recall the interviews from the first season when he said that in discussions with Bryan Fuller, they developed a shorthand as to how to play the pain issues -- a "two Vicodin" scene or "one Vicodin" scene etc. IIRC, the shorthand was Fuller's system, based on his own medical issues and Vicodin usage. I thought that was Bryan Singer. Who's Bryan Fuller?

Recall the interviews from the first season when he said that in discussions with Bryan Fuller, they developed a shorthand as to how to play the pain issues -- a "two Vicodin" scene or "one Vicodin" scene etc. IIRC, the shorthand was Fuller's system, based on his own medical issues and Vicodin usage. I thought that was Bryan Singer. Who's Bryan Fuller? Sorry. Yes. Bryan Singer. I've been reading stuff on Brian Fuller lately (he's the creator of the canceled and lamented "Pushing Daisies" and also was a key writer in the first season of "Heroes" who is being brought back to hopefully resurrect that show) and I intermingled the names.

Oh, no worries. I just thought I had names confused. :wink: ETA: I wonder if anyone can save Heroes...

The one thing I haven't seen is the use of laughter to control pain. There are some recent studies that demonstrate quite clearly that laughing is a pain control mechanism. I'd love to see the show do something with that. Thank you Sherlockjr for all the informative speculations on the pain. And yes, we have heard of the American studies on the effective usage of laughter for the pain problems, and I'd like to see it in the show. House makes me laugh so much, now he needs laughter. :D (but not by some medication...:D）

The one thing I haven't seen is the use of laughter to control pain. There are some recent studies that demonstrate quite clearly that laughing is a pain control mechanism. I'd love to see the show do something with that. Thank you Sherlockjr for all the informative speculations on the pain. And yes, we have heard of the American studies on the effective usage of laughter for the pain problems, and I'd like to see it in the show. House makes me laugh so much, now he needs laughter. :D (but not by some medication...:D） If you want more information about some of these studies, check out http://www.rxlaughter.org/. Ironically, long before any of my own back/neck pain started, I got involved with this group -- I'm vice president of the organization's entertainment industry advisory board. So, yes, I'd really like to see House the show explore the use of laughter to treat House the character's pain issues. If handled well, it could be a really great episode... and it would give Hugh Laurie a chance to show yet again his great range as an actor. Vicodin time. Or maybe a shot of W.C. Fields... a character I've long thought is not unlike Gregory House in some ways.

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