RSL during hiatus

[bironic]

As a consolation prize for those of us who didn't attend the closing performance of Company on Sunday (two days after I went!) where Robert Sean Leonard and his fiancée were in the audience*, here is a four-page interview from Entertainment Weekly about what he's up to during a summer off from filming House, besides not doing any plays: A Summer Away from the House (7/3/07).

*sob

Highlights include:

RSL: I'm the guy who's always telling [House] what he's doing wrong. I feel a little bit like the frustrated wife or something. But these two guys are very mysterious to me, their relationship is very weird. Maybe that's one of the reasons it works. I like Hugh a lot ,and I love what he does on the show. I feel quite peripheral to it sometimes, and that might be another reason it works. I just come in and check things out every few scenes.

EW: Now that you have seven weeks off, what are you going to do?
RSL: I'm going to meet my friend Craig, go to Bed Bath and Beyond. I'm so excited.

RSL: This play Tom Stoppard wrote, Coast of Utopia, I'd seen it in London three years ago, and I just knew I was gonna do it. And when I did House, one of the things I thought about was, damn it, Utopia's gonna happen. At some point Lincoln Center's gonna do it, and I'm gonna be tied [to House]. And that's what happened. I had my Neil Diamond moment of sitting on the beach with a tear in my eye. I went to see it and saw Billy Crudup and Ethan and Martha Plimpton, and for me that was like...it's like when you're watching the Yankees, and Andy Pettitte's shoulder's out, that look in his eye when he's seeing them winning or losing, that's how I felt.

RSL: It's great. You get the New York Times, you get on a bus, you go all the way uptown, cross over, and come all the way back. I love it. I find it really lulling, I don't know why.

Oh, RSL. Never change.

Comments

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

I feel a little bit like the frustrated wife or something. But these two guys are very mysterious to me, their relationship is very weird.

Hee. RSL feels it too. *g*

I love how passionate he is about theatre, and how he simply doesn't care that Wilson appears in like, two seconds in every other episode (even if it makes *me* sad). Thanks for the link!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

LOL ball gag art

You're quite welcome! What I just don't get is how he's always talking about how he wants to save up all the money he's making on House so he can come back to New York and do plays, but he never does them when he's on seven-week vacations during the summer. Grr. It's not as if he's working so hard during filming that he needs the break; he said it himself.

and how he simply doesn't care that Wilson appears in like, two seconds in every other episode (even if it makes *me* sad)

Makes me sad too. He does seem pretty blasé about his role on the show, and that makes me wonder how much effort he's putting into the character. Not that I have any complaints about his performance! It's just -- is he so good that he knows exactly what to do with Wilson and has plenty of time to do whatever else he feels like and is just trying to be humble when he says things like this, or does he not care as much as fans do about Wilson? I'm thinking also of that DVD blooper where he walks into the diagnostics room and throws up his hands because he has no idea what he's supposed to say. Hm.

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

best scene on the show ever

I'm sure he puts in effort, it's just that for him it must be terribly simple, compared to the really complex roles he does on theatre. Simple, and really complex being *his* POV, of course. A lot of theatre actors tend be like that! He is also humble to a fault. *g*

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Is that a bicycle pump?

Yes, good theory! It fits with what he said in the interview about feeling (as we do) that Wilson does seem to be all House-nag lately.

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

What a fascinating article! He really does sound like an ordinary, down-to-earth guy -- it's pretty funny that he finds it funny that he's getting paid to be somebody else and wear a tailored labcoat when in Real Life his brother's a cop and his sister teaches English.

Glad you linked this!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

My pleasure! I really enjoyed reading it. It's pretty rare to have an interview this long with him. That part you pointed out was great. (Why does he keep bringing up Andy Pettitte, one wonders?) I also liked the bit where he talked about wanting to take on a role, tackle a character, when he's seeing a play, but never feeling the same desire when he's at a movie.

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

OMG, that is precious. *g*

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Isn't it, though? :) It needed sharing.

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

RSL interviews are such a rare treat. Thanks for that.

So he spends, like, no money. That would explain about the ... rather interesting clothes he wears when he's not working. Hee.

Gotta love the guy.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Yes, we really do. :) Interviews with him are a treat, and this one was so long! He didn't seem to put his foot in his mouth much, either.

[mer-duff.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting the link! Man, I love that guy. He always says such great things about theatre - though the matinee comment made me laugh aloud.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Hee, yes, and there's another quote on record about him wanting to shoot himself. *shakes head* I also liked his answer earlier about how he doesn't feel anywhere near the pull to do roles in movies that he feels when he's watching plays.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Oh, and -- what made me laugh out loud was his horror when he went to see Mamma Mia. The death of theater. Heh.

[mer-duff.livejournal.com]

Heh - I love the Forbidden Broadway spoof - Mamma Mi-Diocre (~it's high art to a retarded queen). But don't blame Canada! The Mirvishes just brought it over from London.

A bunch of my friends went to see it the last time it was in town, but I refused to go on principle (though if I'd had comps...).

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Ooh. That is a lovely Wilson picture in your icon, there.

I was going to say he can't blame Canada, he went to school there... and then the lines uncrossed in my head and I felt stupid. But apparently not so stupid that I'm not telling you about it.

Never seen Mamma Mia myself, but I've always imagined I'd have RSL's reaction to it. :)

[mer-duff.livejournal.com]

You're more than welcome to snag it if you'd like - it's just a screen cap that I sepia'd in Picassa. But it matched my journal layout (one of these days I'll learn to match my clothing too).

I get quite snobby about jukebox musicals, but my AD saw Jersey Boys in San Francisco recently and she was completely won over, so I'm determined to have a more open mind in the future :)

[jdr1184.livejournal.com]

Great article! I wonder if anyone has a scene from the movie Driven posted. I love the man but I refuse to sit through that movie just to see him, but I'm curious about seeing him as a "wisecracking jerk."

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I don't know if there are any movie clips posted anywhere (though surely there must be), but daasgrrl did an amusing RSL-oriented recap (http://daasgrrl.livejournal.com/15233.html) that may help you decide whether to give it a try, or at least direct you to the best/worst parts.

Glad you liked the article!

[thedeadparrot.livejournal.com]

Bed, Bath & Beyond! Heeeee. He is so awesome.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I love that line so much. :)

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

That was quite an amusing interview. I laughed when RSL confirmed my suspicion that some of the movies he's been in have been purely for the money.

I love his passion for the theater. I felt so sorry for him that he missed being able to be in Utopia; he would have been wonderful. (However, I'm glad he was busy being Wilson!)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I'm only saying this because I live close to Manhattan, but I would've taken a few Wilsonless episodes for RSL to have been in Coast of Utopia. It's not as if he was being used particularly well for a good part of the season!

I laughed when RSL confirmed my suspicion that some of the movies he's been in have been purely for the money.

Oh yes. What confuses me is all this talk of wanting to save up lots of money from TV so he can do theater to his heart's content, and yet on hiatuses he's never in anything. He can't want to relax that badly -- he said he hardly does anything when he's filming.

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

Is the hiatus long enough to do any serious theater work? What with rehearsals and then a longish run, I would think there wouldn't be enough time to do a play.

It's not as if he was being used particularly well for a good part of the season!

Too true.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Is the hiatus long enough to do any serious theater work?

I kind of just figured it was long enough for a limited run (and he's sure to have time between grueling filming sessions [*cough*] for learning his lines) -- say, a month? I'm apparently too lazy to go look anything up, but I'm sure other TV actors have done shows between seasons -- unless I'm only thinking of Hollywood movie stars doing a few weeks' or months' turn on the stage between projects.

[mer-duff.livejournal.com]

Jumping in uninvited - it's plenty of time to do a show at the theatre I work for *g* (and pretty much any regional theatre in Canada). Three weeks rehearsal period is fairly standard up here, plus a 3-4 week run. Of course, the season is generally September-May, so that's not much help to him. He could probably do something at Williamstown, though. But then he wouldn't be in New York.

Thea Gill did a show for us during the hiatus of Queer as Folk - they split the rehearsal time to work around her schedule. And Michael Shanks did a show at our competition during a Stargate break.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Pff. You just want RSL at your theater.

...An accusation which might carry more weight if you didn't openly acknowledge it, huh. Anyway, you're more than welcome to jump in, 'specially with answers. Thanks!

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Bed Bath & Beyond!!! Maybe he and Craig can act out The Registry!

HE IS SUCH A DORK! Love, love, love

[bironic.livejournal.com]

YES! DORK FTW.

Hee. I thought of you & the capslock crowd when he was talking about how he never spends any money and they wear the same clothes and go to the same Chinese place all the time. :D

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

Hee, I got the link in my inbox this morning thanks to evila_elf, and it was delightful. He's so tragically down-to-earth. So, is that pretty much an admission he has no idea what House and Wilson are to each other and he's just winging it? Ah, theatre, laziness and thrift - I'm glad they hit all the high points XD

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Hee, yes, he did seem to cover a bunch of the stuff everyone makes fun of over at the Capslock comm (including the 'shoot himself in the head' thing at the end).

So, is that pretty much an admission he has no idea what House and Wilson are to each other and he's just winging it?

Sure seems like. Sometimes I think it's better not to know what the actors think or say about their roles, because it can be scary how much more we read into it than they do (or how differently we see it). But then there's the consolation that the brilliance we see onscreen may be their subconscious talent at work, and/or that they think way more about it than they let on, or can't or choose not to get into much detail. Yes.

[dangomango.livejournal.com]

It really amuses me that he doesn't understand the House/Wilson relationship either. *g*

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I'm wavering between amusement and horror, myself -- it's funny to think he's as confused as we sometimes are, but I do want him to have lots of insights into his character, which includes Wilson's relationship with House.

[pun.livejournal.com]

But these two guys are very mysterious to me, their relationship is very weird.

Hahaha! Yes, completely inexplicable. What to make of it all?

[bironic.livejournal.com]

*skritches head*

I seem to recall a video interview up on the fox.com website or somewhere, months ago, like a red-carpet interview only not as glamorous, where he was saying he doesn't think that a friendship like House and Wilson's would ever exist. Right before the interviewer mentioned slash or eyesex or something, and RSL was all "no idea what you're saying, not doing it on purpose when we act," etc. Which of course could have been a lie.

[ahab99.livejournal.com]

But these two guys are very mysterious to me, their relationship is very weird.

Ha! "Weird," yes. I wonder, though, how much the actors can go up to the writers and say, "So, um, guys? Can you explain what's supposed to be going on here?" I suppose since he feels so disconnected from his tv work maybe he just doesn't care to put in that effort, but surely there are people who could help him out if he really is so confused. ;)

[poorfrances.livejournal.com]

I am soooo late on this entry, but I've been digging around on your journal after arriving because of your "Don't Ever Change" review (and I friended you! Because we have some mutual friends and interests in common and I see a lot of folks from House fandom around here and it seems so cozy! More exclamation points!!). Anyway, this topic occasionally comes up over at HHOW (and it just did again, so it's fresh on my brain):

He does seem pretty blasé about his role on the show, and that makes me wonder how much effort he's putting into the character.

About your worry of him not analyzing Wilson or wondering how much work he puts in to the character, I'd point you to some of Hugh's interviews, specifically the one at the DGA event for Backstage West from...I want to say about two years ago, near the end of season two. He talked for an extended amount about RSL (in fact the only cast member he talks about) and said really lovely things. Namely, that acting with Robert is his favorite part of the job, that Wilson is his favorite character, etc. And in Hugh's list of reasons why he likes Robert he included that RSL puts so much thought into his character and "thinks so much about what he's doing" as an actor.

I'm someone who's kind of an obsessive interview collector, so that was really lovely to hear. Because if you read a lot of HL interviews, one of things he really values above all else is work. He even said in an interview once that he doesn't enjoy people who goof off on set because "a job is where you work, and laughter should be for something else." So you could tell from his comments that he really respects RSL as an actor, especially to single him out on that score. Because Hugh is well known for being quite obsessive and analytical about the House character. If RSL was coasting or didn't care, Hugh wouldn't have such high praise for him, because that is even one of Hugh's stated pet peeves!

I have no doubt RSL does the show for the money - they all are, in the end - but that and also enjoying it are not mutually exclusive. And I do think a bit of his "I am sooo lazy" thing is just schtick. He works more than two days a week. There's a radio interview somewhere where he actually seriously talks about his schedule and he does put in 12 and 13 hour days and he says it's very tiring. He doesn't work Hugh's schedule and "it's not coal mining" but it's not quite as breezy as he makes it out to be.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

This comment is so heartening. I'd love to believe that RSL is exaggerating when he talks about how little he works and how he loves that. People talk a lot about how it looks like RSL is "phoning it in" with his Wilson scenes, and how Wilson is turning more and more into RSL himself, and you get those DVD bloopers where he's all "I don't even know what play I'm in," but what you've cited here is much more palatable -- and makes more sense, for someone as talented and thoughtful as RSL seems to be to truly put thought into the character he's playing. I definitely want to check out those interviews.

And, hello and welcome! I am glad that someone is still reading these. :)

[poorfrances.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the welcome. :) Oh, I do think he is telling the truth when he talks about being lazy and not wanting a bigger role on the show (he got one, so ha ha!) but more in the sense of, "Wow, I am very boring," which he is. Like I tell people I am very lazy because I don't drink or like to go clubbing, etc. and prefer to stay home and read (I don't identify with him at all, no). Clubbing and shit to me is hard work. But to someone who hates to read or doesn't like computers, I'm not lazy at all. I can't count how many people have told me they don't like to read because "it's like work" or "it's like homework."

He also tends towards the self-deprecating in interviews, calling himself an idiot, that he doesn't know what he's doing and on and on. He actually has done more interviews for articles on Hugh than I think he has where he's the subject himself, and so frequently he says things like that when he's comparing himself to Hugh and how brilliant Hugh is and how hard Hugh works, etc. as well. I find both HL and RSL adorable in all their dorky, depressive, pessimistic interview glory. :)

I definitely want to check out those interviews.

Come to think of it, the closest I can compare Hugh's comments to are the way he talks about Stephen. He talks about Robert being so funny and frighteningly intelligent, who can name just about any book and that Hugh said they were "kindred spirits" from the moment they met.

I do recall a bit of a minor controversy amongst some fans back then because when Hugh was giving interviews around that time, RSL was the only cast member he talked about. He gave general praise to the other actors but some fans I guess thought Hugh and Robert were forming their own little actors' club.