Exclusive Interview: David Shore

He’s a brilliant diagnostician, armed with a keen intellect, Machiavellian instincts, brutal honesty and oh, yes, an addiction to Vicodin. He’s Dr. Gregory House, the complex protagonist of House, created by David Shore. The series, as intellectual and multilayered as the eponymous doctor, examines human behavior and motivations even more than medical mysteries.

WS: Going back to when you first came up with the idea for the show, you created this doctor, Gregory House, and then this tremendously talented actor Hugh Laurie auditioned. What has he brought to the role?
SHORE: I knew the character was really complicated and offered a lot of opportunities. What Hugh allowed us to do was just that. And I honestly am not sure any other actor could have. Through the whole auditioning process, I was starting to lament whether I could even pull this off. This character is so complicated, so full of contradictions and subtleties and then Hugh came in and I went, ‘Wow! That’s the guy.’ And everyone went, “That’s the guy.” It was really one of those wonderful moments. I know the character would’ve been different had it been anyone else. And I also know this is what the character should be. So I thank Hugh for that. It’s a wonderful thing because Hugh also thinks of the character the same way I do and is excited about the same things I am with the character. So it’s a wonderful partnership to be able to work with an actor who can just heighten what you do on the page.

WS: As House has progressed season after season, what has been the greatest creative challenge: finding new patients and new obscure medical conditions or advancing the story lines and the relationships between the main characters?
SHORE: The medical conditions are really tricky and require a lot of research, but they are sort of the bricks and mortar of it. The real heart of the show consists of the issues that our characters face and we try to embody those issues in the patients. And that takes off in themes we are going to be dealing with that week. Keeping those fresh has been the most challenging thing.

WS: Do you map out an entire season in advance or do you take each episode one by one?
SHORE: It’s a bit of both. We map out generally half a season for the character arcs before the season starts, and then halfway through the season we usually sit down and talk about it again. So we map out the big character arcs and then the individual writers do their research and come up with a medical idea that has to be teamed with a patient idea and with what the issue is for that episode. Then I and the other executive producers, Russel Friend, Garrett Lerner and Tommy Moran, we’ll work with the individual writers to develop the story and also figure out where that particular issue fits best into the arc we’re working on thematically, and what opportunity [it allows us to explore] within that arc. That’s really the way it works.

WS: Is House going to have to face up to his brokenness and vulnerabilities now that he is in a relationship with Lisa Cuddy?
SHORE: Yes and no. One of the themes of this show is people don’t change—it’s something House has said many times—but people want to change. Life is in the striving. And last year [after rehab and therapy] did House change? Maybe a little; not a lot. I don’t want him to change a lot, personally. It’s about him wanting to become a happier person and that’s what the show has always been about: can he achieve happiness? How can he achieve it? Can he stay clean and sober and with rehab and therapy? Can he do it? And there were many decisions he made last year that he wouldn’t have made if not for the influence of [his therapist] Dr. Nolan. We are going to see the same thing with Cuddy this year. But it’s baby steps and it’s tricky. It’s two steps forward, one step backward, or often one step forward and two steps backward. It’s all about striving.

WS: House has an amazing relationship with Dr. James Wilson. Is there a chemistry that sometimes happens between actors that you can’t imagine when you’re writing the scenes?
SHORE: There is chemistry and Hugh Laurie [House] and Robert Sean Leonard [Wilson] are so good together. It’s the same thing with Hugh [House] and Lisa Edelstein [Cuddy]. The two of them together—it’s so interesting it just pops off the screen. You could write anything for them and it’s going to be wrought with sexual tension by the time you shoot it.

But Robert and Hugh are fantastic. It’s one of the things I’m actually most proud of in this show. On TV there’s a bit of a dearth of exploration of male friendship and it’s really interesting—two guys who are friends and actually care about each other and aren’t just friends for the sake of trying to find a girl. They’re not just wingmen, they’re actually friends living life and trying to figure it out.

WS: The show often deals with really serious issues of right and wrong, telling the truth, proper or unacceptable behavior. Is there a moral compass among the writers? How do you decide what is right or wrong or what the characters should do or not do?
SHORE: We try to make these characters as real as possible and hopefully the writers and producers are as real as possible. There is no individual moral compass. I think an individual moral compass would be boring. The great thing about these questions is they are difficult questions. We never end an episode with, Ah, okay that’s the right answer. The pursuit of truth is really the challenge. Constantly striving to find the right answer to any given issue is what excites me.

WS: Those serious issues that make viewers really think are often interspersed with incredible humor. Is that difficult to do?
SHORE: Yes, it’s tricky, but I do think it’s real. That’s another thing I’m very proud of, the comedy. To me, making people think is what this show is [about]. Ultimately these characters aren’t real, as much as we strive to make them seem real, but the issues they deal with are actually real. That’s what I find exciting and interesting. The comedy is just fun, but it’s also real. People have a sense of humor even in dark times. It also says something of our characters, and by the way, you asked what Hugh brings and, boy, that is really something invaluable. There are very few actors who can walk into a scene dealing with death and dying, make a smart-assed joke in the middle of that scene, have it be funny, and not lose the dramatic import of the scene. And Hugh pulls that off.

WS: All good stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. Do you already have in mind—whenever the last season comes—how you want the show to end?
SHORE: When I conceived of this, it would have been just too arrogant of me to be thinking, How do I want this to be ending in season eight? At that point I would’ve been thrilled to get eight episodes out of it! Yes, all good stories have a beginning, middle and end, but lives don’t. Chronologically they have a beginning, a middle and an end. But they don’t structurally have a beginning, middle and end. I view this as being House’s life. I’ve got some ideas of how I want to wrap it up, but that’s not the most important thing to me. It’s the day-to-day aspects of his life, the pursuit of happiness and the pursuit of truth on a day-to-day basis that excites me.

WS: Do you ever think about what you might want to do after House?
SHORE: Relax! Yes, I do think about it. I’ve got a few ideas, but this show has been perfect for me for all the reasons we’ve talked about. It has allowed me to be funny. It has allowed me to explore [relationships] and philosophical issues. What more could a writer ask for?