Interview

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Everyone knows Hugh Laurie as the gruff, witty physician Dr. Gregory House on the Fox TV series House M.D. But there's much more to the 49-year-old actor. For example, like his father, Laurie was a champion rower. He also attended the prestigious Cambridge University, making a splash in its Footlights drama society. He got his first whiff of fame in the mid-'80s, when he formed a comedy team with his good friend and fellow actor, Stephen Fry. He has also written a mystery novel, The Gun Seller, which has undergone multiple printings, and is working on a second book-The Paper Soldier. Here, he talks with fellow Cambridge alum Emma Thompson.

EMMA THOMPSON: I suppose we ought to confess to Interview magazine that we did go out with each other for a short while.

HUGH LAURIE: We stepped out, yes.

ET: Yes. What people don't know is that you were, in fact, twice the size you are now in those days.

HL: I was larger. It is true.

ET: You were enormous. You were like a fucking giant. You trained the entire time and ate six steaks at every sitting, because of all the protein the rowers have to eat.

HL: I ate people at that time, I do remember. This is a rather grizzly detail-

ET: That rowing thing was very, very powerful. Okay, so you were head boy at Eton.

HL: No, I was captain of my house. To be a head boy, you have to be very clever, you have to be a scholar, and I was never a scholar in any shape or form.

ET: Maybe you weren't a scholar, but you are very, very clever. I've always said about the two of you, you and Stephen [Fry]: Stephen is very-very-very clever, but I think you're more of a lateral thinker.

HL: Stephen's memory is absolutely prodigious. I believe that Stephen has never forgotten anything he's ever read.

ET: I agree.

HL: That's certainly how it feels, anyway. I have resolved to pick one novel and just read it over and over again for the rest of my life, because I cannot remember anything anymore.

ET: Do you know how many people you've slept with?

HL: No, I do not!

ET: Well, see, I do. Why don't you know?

HL: You know how many people I've slept with?

ET: No! [laughs] I could hazard a guess. But I mean, no. I know how many people I've slept with. Sometimes I amuse myself-when I'm having difficulty sleeping I will go through it.

HL: Yes.