INTERVIEW: Lisa Edelstein Talks About What's in Store for 'House'

I’m thrilled to report that I got to take part in a conference call interview with none other than Lisa Edelstein herself, aka Cuddy! She’s a delightfully cheerful and charming person and her warmth comes across loud and clear on the phone. I think the only thing more exciting would have been to be in the same room with her as she answered the questions.

She had a lot to say about what we can expect in the two-part season four finale of House, and also in the beginning of season five. She also gives us a lot of insight into the character of Cuddy and that of House. Here’s what was discussed:

Question: So, as the season began, knowing that there was a whole group of new doctors coming in, did you have concerns as to how Cuddy was going to fit in with the sort of remixed version of the show?

Lisa Edelstein: I felt the least affected. I think both Wilson and I felt the least affected by that. Certainly you wonder how they’re going to manage to give any of us anything to do with so many characters on a show, but they seem to have managed. It’s really the same structure where you have the inner workings of the case and then the B and C stories of what’s happening amongst the personalities of the main characters, and it’s been great. It’s a wonderful new group of people, and they have shown up with lots of excitement and eagerness, and they have great attitudes. So it’s been a wonderful experience.

Q: Do you sense movement in Cuddy’s character in recent seasons? Do you sort of see a place that she’s going from here?

L. Edelstein: I do. I really think that her character has been filled out and that her relationship with House has become a beautiful, complicated, adult relationship filled with all kinds of subliminal messages. And it’s fun to play, and even when they don’t write it, I put it in.

Q: How much of that subliminal stuff is you and how much is the writers?
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[Photo: courtesy of newscom.com]

L. Edelstein: I think it goes both ways. I think writers like to see how people bring their words to life, and it’s always surprising. Always, no matter what, whether it’s good or bad, it’s always surprising because a whole human being is coming to that piece of writing. And certainly there’s inspiration that comes out of that, but it’s also David Shore and what’s going on in his mind and where he would like to see things going.

Q: Given your time on this show with all the lingo you’ve picked up, the demeanor you’ve picked up, if we were to dress you up as a doctor and disguise you, but drop you into a hospital, how long do you think it would be before you would be found out?

L. Edelstein: I think I could go half a day. You know what, I’ve always been a smarty-pants, and the only thing that goes wrong now is that people know that I play a doctor on TV and so they quickly call me out on the fact that I really think I am a doctor. But before, I used to get away with it much longer.

Q: And what would trip you up finally? What would be the thing that would make somebody say, “Are you sure you’re a doctor?”

L. Edelstein: If somebody had a heart attack. It would be bad because even though I say, “Clear!” really well, I don’t really know what else to do.

Q: Now we know Cuddy, in the finale, is in House’s head. What is Cuddy doing in his head, and what will it mean for the future of their relationship?

L. Edelstein: Well, it is very interesting what happens in the first half of the finale in terms of learning about how House sees people and kind of getting the world from his point of view directly. And he’s suffering from a brain injury, so he’s trying to remember what he saw before this accident, and in doing so, he’s using the people around him in his imagination to kind of help him dig through his memory and bring things up. And so when Cuddy enters into that fantasy, he decides he might as well have her strip, so we’ll see what happens.

Q: Now we know there’s a cliffhanger coming in regards to one of House’s relationships. Is it Cuddy or is it someone else?

L. Edelstein: Oh, I can’t tell you that. It’s a cliffhanger.

Q: Well, okay … but will there be any kind of change in their complicated, beautiful, adult relationship?

L. Edelstein: I think so. You know, I don’t know when, but I think it definitely has a life of its own and more will be revealed.

Q: Since it’s been awhile since the first season of House, what do you think of the fact that you’ve finally been able to play the same role for several years and it may keep going for several more? Is it freeing, is it challenging, is it weird? Is it all those things?

L. Edelstein: I love it. I’m loving the experience because it only gets more interesting. You know, it’s scary when you sign onto a pilot of a series because, as much as you want the series to go, you also want it to be a character that you’d be interested in playing for a long time. What ends up happening, well, on a show like this that’s so well-written, what ends up happening is that it just becomes more interesting because the layers and layers and layers that are added on and the complex relationships that start to reveal themselves. It’s great to play. I’m having such a good time.

Q: Being on a show where you can see all the different ways that a human being can get sick, does it ever mess with your mind?

L. Edelstein: It does. When anybody I know has any symptoms at all, I have a thousand things that run through my head. A friend of mine has a rash that won’t go away, and I’m asking her if she had her immune system tested to make sure it’s not an auto-immune problem. It definitely gives you more information than you definitely want most of the time, but most of it goes in and out of our heads because we have to compile so much stuff per episode. We have to let it go.

Q: If you could write the show or you could direct where the show’s going to go, do you think Cuddy would have a romantic relationship with House or Wilson, or would you prefer she find someone new?

L. Edelstein: I still think there’s more to explore with House. I don’t think her and Wilson are attracted to each other, but I think they have a common bond in terms of their weird relationships with House. But I do think there’s more to explore in regards to her relationship with House.

Q: Just talking more about the relationship with House, I’ve always had a theory that she loves House and all of the games she has to play to keep him in line. What do you think of that theory?

L. Edelstein: I think that theory is right on the money. I think that she very much loves House and also lives vicariously through him because she’s a very smart woman who is very successful as a doctor and has a great job and a wonderful position, but also has had less and less to do with the actual practicing of medicine as the years have gone by, so I think she’s excited by what he does and how he does it and deeply frustrated by him at the same time. But as all intense people are, they’re incredibly interesting and compelling, and she definitely falls victim to that.

Q: And I read that, in the two-parter, in the fantasy sequences, you actually have to work a stripper pole. How did you prepare for that?

L. Edelstein: I called Sheila Kelley, who has a company called S Factor. She’s actually the wife of Richard Schiff, who I’ve worked with a bunch of times on The West Wing and on Relativity, and she did a movie a long time ago about strippers and realized that stripping was a great way to stay in shape and also a great way for women to kind of explore their sexual power. And so I went to her, and she helped me choreograph this routine. It was a very interesting experience.

Q: Was it good exercise and empowering?

L. Edelstein: Yes, in a way I could say yes, yes. I didn’t really need it for the exercise because I would show up there having just done two hours of yoga, but in terms of learning about how to be sexy without doing it for somebody else, I think that’s the trick is that you stand within your own skin and your own power and you do it for your own enjoyment.

Q: My question was regarding the rumors about a potential spin-off, and I was wondering if you had heard about any of that.

L. Edelstein: Only in rumor. I’ve heard the same rumors, but I haven’t heard anything directly.

Q: And are you guys working on the next season already?

L. Edelstein: Yes. We just started.

Q: And there’s mention of a potential, another private investigator character being introduced. Have you come into contact with that at all?

L. Edelstein: No, no. I’ve only read it, just like you, on the Internet.

Q: Now, you already probably know the answer to this because you said you worked on the first new episode. In TV Guide, we have a section, the week after your finale, we have something called “Burning Questions,” and I was going to ask you what burning question would you like to ask the producer after you did the finale. Was there anything hanging that you would love to say, or something that happened, “Why did you do this?” or “What’s going to happen?”

L. Edelstein: No, it doesn’t apply this year because we had to go right into season five, but usually we know nothing until we return. It’s a very exciting day when you finally get the first episode’s script. But this year, there is no surprise. I have no burning questions. We started, like, the minute we were done with season four, we were on season five.

Q: Well, then, can you just tell us, do you think we will have some burning questions like, “Oh my God, what’s going to happen?”

L. Edelstein: What will your questions be? I think your main question will be, “What will become of House and Wilson’s friendship?”

Read the rest of this wonderful interview!

tv, Television, house tv, House, Omar Epps, jesse spencer, robert sean leonard, Lisa Edelstein, Anne Dudek, hugh laurie, Olivia Wilde, Kal Penn, Peter Jacobson