House is Right

A Conference Call Interview with Olivia Wilde (Part 2)

by Lynn on January 23rd, 2008

Here’s the continuation of the conference call interview with Olivia Wilde that I was lucky enough to get to take part in:

What about the episode, Frozen. What was the most interesting aspect of that one?

Olivia: I respect Mira Sorvino immensely as an actress and I was really excited when I heard she was coming to do the show. A lot of big actors want to come on House to do a show as guest stars and they’re not necessarily so open to that. They pick people who are right for the roles, whether they’re unknowns or famous. She really wanted to do it, and was perfect. They were happy to welcome her and we were all really excited to meet her. And the interesting thing about it, without giving anything away, there’s a new technique of filming in that episode. There’s a new in which we’re going to see House and there’s anew sort of vehicle for the plot to move along. I’m being vague, but it’s a really interesting episode of House. He’s forced to diagnose without the usual tools that he has. He’s forced to work a little harder and it’s a whole new way of working for him. He’s forced to confront a lot of his own fears about confronting the patient personally. It’s a really, really good one.

Can you tell me about your upcoming film credits for Six?

Olivia: Yeah, we just came back from Sundance, it was fabulous.

It says that it was shot in the first person. How was that accomplished?
(follow the jump to continue reading!)

Olivia: there was one camera. It was an HD camera. My husband, who is also the director, shot most of it. He spent most of the time behind the camera. Occasionally, other characters pick it up. It meant that we had to stretch ourselves beyond being actors and learn to film as well. It was really exciting and it’s inspired me to do it again. The film is really interesting, it’s an unorthodox way of filming and we had an amazing premiere at Sundance. Now we heading to the Santa Barbara Film Festival so people should be seeing that soon.

Who do you play in Year One?

Olivia: Princess Ananna, the princess of Sodom & Gomorrah.

Unless I’ve missed it, we have not found out your character’s real name yet have we?

Olivia: No. You’ve not.

Do you have any idea if we will any time soon?

Olivia: I thought they were going to reveal it a while ago. I think it’s great that the producers have made this dramatic choice not to reveal it when they had planned to. They’ve actually tried to hide it. It’s disappeared from the call sheets, and from around set. I think they’re not putting too much value on the secrecy of a name, but they like the fact that it’s established a sort of inside joke between House and Thirteen. He could easily look at her file and see her name but he chooses to keep it up. I think they’ve form a relationship. She has, from the beginning just called him House as they all do. It’s almost like the formality of “Dr. This” and “Dr. That” has been taken away. So using thirteen as her name when he knows her pretty intimately at this point, is a way of acknowledging the joke of her keeping everything tightly a secret. It’s sort of a tongue-in-cheek way of saying “You can keep it in, but I’m going to find out everything.” And the rest of the team uses it as a joke. They could find out her name, if they really wanted to.

It is very House-like. Do you know it yet?

Olivia: I do. Yes. I love it. I have no idea how long it will take for everyone to find out.

The next question is about the trading of the Secret Santa gifts in the next episode. Can you tell us anything?

Olivia: It’s a shock to everyone that House would want to partake in a Secret Santa. But, of course, he proceeds in a very House-like way. And he’s going to change the rules of the game. You know, House is the Grinch. So, to imagine him taking part in a Christmas game is all too delicious. I really laughed my way through the script. It’s one of the most brilliant ones. It’s also quite heartbreaking, as they always are. It’s a really interesting episode as well because the competition is now over and he no longer has the same power over the characters as he has up until this point. The dynamic has changed. House reacts to that and it has something to do with how he proceeds in the game. He doesn’t like to give up games. He likes to always be playing one game or another.

What types of things did you as an actor do to prepare yourself to play Thirteen?

Olivia: It’s interesting is so different from me. I mean, I will meet someone for five minutes on the street and give them my social security numbers. I have to stop doing that. I’m learning from Thirteen. It’s actually better to keep things closer. Thirteen is an observer. She would rather be quiet in a situation and watch and learn from everything around her. It’s something I started doing more. As an actor, I’m a total ham and an attention hog, so when I started playing this role, I tried to sort of sit back and watch more. It started to rub off more and more on me. One of my beloved cast mates said that to me a few days ago. “You’re so Thirteen right now! C’mon, we’re out to dinner. You’re still Thirteen!” She doesn’t let people get to her and I think that’s something to be admired. I’ve learned from her by understanding the way she operates. I’ve tried to explore that in my own personal life and see what I learn from and bring that to the set.

Go back to part one —–Continue reading the interview here.

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Photo source: FOX.com.

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