The Rx For Season Five of “House, MD”
By Scott Huver, Special to Hollywood.com
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Monday, September 15, 2008
Kal Penn (Dr. Lawrence Kutner)
On Kutner’s approach to life and death:
Penn: At the end of the last season, you find out what had happened to Kutner’s parents. When he was six he saw them get murdered, basically, so his view of life and death is maybe a little more grounded in something. He’s mourned something so severe, so something that would happen to Amber is just part of life and death. But he also asked her out after Wilson had already beaten him to it, so he probably had some sort of a private grieving process. When he said goodbye to her it certainly wasn’t this big dramatic, emotional thing for him. He just did what he had to do, kind of smiled at her, and that was it.
On the new team dealing with the stress of working even more closely with House:
Penn: The three fellowship folks, this is our second year in the fellowship. Now you’ll see a little more independence. Clearly House trusts us enough to have hired us, so maybe we don’t check in with him about every little thing. He is our boss, though, so we still have to at the end of the day. The DDX’s operate with maybe a little more sense of authority from our side, instead of just approval. Instead of just asking if this is a good idea we’re just declaring certain tests that we want to try. You’ll see that side, too.