It is no question that the doctor Hugh Laurie plays on the medical drama House is almost always dark and brooding (despite, of course, the constant humor and biting comebacks). Never the type to smile and carry a smiling disposition, House as the character is frankly very complex and one can tell he has a very dark past.
For some, therefore, it came as no surprise that the actor behind House is in fact in a long-drawn battle with depression. The star of House recently opened up about this and mentioned that that being depressed is “selfish.”
“I was a pain to have around, I was miserable and self-absorbed,” says Laurie, 49. “It is selfish to be depressed and not try to do anything about it.”
He went on to detail his long bout with depression. He said it started bothering him when he was still a teenager, yet it was only in 1997 that he sought professional help and agreed to go on therapy, right after an extra-marital affair.
And it was actually his family – wife, Jo, children Charlie, 19; Bill, 17; and Rebecca, 14 – which finally encouraged him to seek help.
Laurie, recently named one of the sexiest doctors on television, revealed that his mother Patricia also suffered from intermittent mood swings.
“She would spend days, weeks, even months, nursing some grievance,” he said. “She was contemptuous of the goal of happiness.”
As to how he has used the whole depression in playing such a complex and gloomy character like House, he said he actually uses the role to feed on his sadness. A friend, Joely Richardson, said the Laurie she sees has two sides to him: one “who dances around and cracks jokes, tangos all over the place” and “the other side: tortured, dark.”
-Glenn L. Diaz, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Now Magazine
(Image Courtesy of Now Magazine)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
