Hugh Laurie hits back at journalist over ‘House’ criticism: “I look forward to your first novel”
Hugh Laurie has got into a social media spat with a journalist who criticised his medical drama House, which elicited a thorough response from the Golden Globe winner.
Laurie starred in the Fox medical drama from 2004 to 2012, playing the lead role of Dr Gregory House, for which he won a series of awards and acclaim for his performance in the hit show.
Now, all these years later, House has been brought back into the spotlight after a post from freelance journalist Janet Murray on X on June 6th: “Late to the party, but I’ve started watching Season 1 of House. Same narrative every episode: Patient has mysterious illness. Hugh Laurie (House) gets diagnosis wrong. Patient nearly dies.”
She continued: “Hugh Laurie gets diagnosis wrong again. Gets threatened with being fired. Patient nearly dies again. Hugh Laurie has last minute leftfield idea. Gets diagnosis right. Doesn’t get fired. Eight seasons of this?”
Despite the seemingly light-hearted jibe, Laurie himself clearly took offence to the post, as he subsequently responded a day later by saying: “Thanks for your critique, Janet. We actually tried a couple of episodes where House (Hugh Laurie) (please put the brackets in the right place) gets it right first time, but they were only 6 minutes long.”
The actor added: “NBC weren’t happy. Then we tried some where House never gets it right and the patient dies. The audience wasn’t happy.”
Despite this, Laurie went on to point out the apparent narrow-mindedness in Murray’s view, as he said: “One could apply your trenchant analysis to other art forms: JS Bach wrote 30 Goldberg variations on the same chord structure; Frida Kahlo painted 50 portraits of herself; Henry Moore, what??”
He then ultimately signed off by noting, “The point is, or was, variations on a theme; if all you see is hospital, medical blah blah, then it wasn’t meant for you. Nonetheless, I look forward to your first novel!”
Out of all the roles he has ever played, Laurie seems to have a fierce protectiveness over his part in House, as he previously cited it as his favourite-ever job in 2020. “I think House was probably, I felt like, the most thrilling adventure that I’d ever been on as an actor,” he said at the time. “I just thought it was an amazing experience, I was so lucky; so lucky.”
He was even luckier in the sense of how his stint on the show began, with him filming his audition for House from inside his bathroom.
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.