Christine Eckhardt (CE): Why did you and your colleagues get involved with NAMI, in particular? Why mental health, as opposed to the numerous other illness types covered on the show?
Hugh Laurie (HL): We had been casting round for a while to find the right charity, but without success. We were about to stick a pin in one of our office runners to see which body-part we should address, when our medical supremo, Dr. David Foster (formerly an instructor at Harvard Medical School), suggested that mental illness was an often-neglected condition and therefore a solid candidate. It also seemed to chime with the show itself. There is, I think, a psychiatric—as well as psychologic—aspect to the world of House. I wouldn't presume to know what it is, but I do feel it's there.

CE: When creating new episodes of House, MD, how much consideration is given to promoting awareness of certain diseases?
HL: I am not one of the writers of the show, but I suspect the answer is 'none'. Our first responsibility is to create an engaging and entertaining TV show, and if we sacrifice that to other interests, then we risk ending up with a show that can't promote awareness of anything at all, including itself. Having said that, certain obscure diseases are bound to catch the attention of the writers, for the simple reason that obscure often equals intriguing—but I think we'd have to call that an accidental benefit.

CE: Hoping to get a better feel for Gregory House—the man hidden beneath all the wit, sarcasm, and intellect—we consulted a psychoanalyst regarding your character. Here's an excerpt from his detailed analysis:

HL: The above analysis seems sound, if a little unmusical. I believe it's also an anagram of the first two paragraphs of Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Personally, I am reluctant to analyse House. Although some say an actor has a duty to understand the character he plays, I would argue that people usually don't understand themselves. House most likely doesn't either, and I ought not to play him as if I do. People are surprising—to others, to themselves, even to psychoanalysts—and House should be given the same space.

CE: How do you manage to effuse such braininess while playing House? Is it a special way of being "in character" or does it just come naturally?
HL: It certainly does not come naturally. For the first 20 years of my career, I made a comfortable living playing morons. That came naturally. If I effuse braininess as House, it is only because I am allowed to effuse a brainy script. I also wear brainy clothes, have my hair brainily styled, and walk with a certain kind of brainy awkwardness. And eat a lot of oily fish.

CE: Ever find yourself thinking like Gregory House off the set (perhaps, even with an American accent)?
HL: I used to think a little like House before I knew he existed. When I first read the script, he seemed very familiar to me. The difference was that my House-like thoughts remained unsaid. Consequently, I remained unpunched in the mouth.

CE: Is there anyone you'd like to thank for the "braininess" you possess today?
HL: I would like to thank my colleague and friend Stephen Fry, whose IQ runs into the mid-700s. Better than that, he has a memory that would tear down the walls of Jericho.