“America is Too Big to Know Itself” | Hugh Laurie on Working in the US vs UK | Edinburgh TV Festival 

My favorite House episode was when Hugh Laurie had to play an American attempting a British accent. Comedy gold.

In a 10 minute sound bite Hugh displayed an incredible range of awareness. From self awareness to societal awareness and much in between. A beautiful mind indeed.

I'm from the Midwest (american), and I can say confidently that if you were to play every clip of Hugh from House for me and my peers, nobody would ever be able to guess that he is from the UK.

As a lifelong American, I can say that his American accent is better than mine. I was shocked to learn he was brittish. House was 100% believable.

My daughter was in 8th grade when she started watching Dr House and from then on she decided to be a doctor and amazingly she now is in medical school!! You inspired so many!

My husband is from Scotland and when he moved to the states in 1998 he said to me Americans don’t realize how big of a country it is. Very interesting hearing Hugh basically say the same thing.

For a time at Cambridge University, the student drama troupe included Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson and Stephen Fry. Must have been amazing.

I have nothing but admiration for Hugh Laurie who is modest but immensely accomplished - he and Stephen Fry represent the best of their generation in intellect and consistent quality of work.

as a brit i always found it bizarre when i was young that many americans didn’t have passports, but this sums it up very well, such a broad and diverse country, you’d never need to leave to experience some of the most beautiful aspects of geography in the world

I am a disabled veteran ( USMC ) after a few back surgeries I ended up with having to use a Cain that for some reason I was really embarrassed about. My wife had discovered the show house around season 4 of the show and introduced me to it. I have a similar sense of humor as house so quickly feel in love with show. I found a carbon fiber Cain with flames and off I went with a completely new attitude being disabled and it honestly helped me through a dark spot in my life… I personally believe that no one could play House better than Hugh Laurie did… ❤

"Too big to know itself." That's one of the best descriptions of my country I've ever heard.

No other show dealt with opioid addiction like House, a truly great show made great by Hugh Laurie and some excellent writing and supporting cast. Everything he touches is better for it.

1:40 he’s totally underselling how brilliant his accent was, i grew up Loving house one of the biggest shocks of my life was finding out house was English like years later

He is absolutely correct. I am from Ireland, I have lived in the US for 18 yrs. America is way too big to know itself. It's not right or wrong, but it just true. Great interview. Grew up watching Fry and Laurie. Have always loved Hugh Laurie.

As an American, I have three things to say about this video: 1) Hugh Laurie’s American accent is just about flawless. 2) The comment about America being too big to know itself is very interesting. I have often told people from other countries visiting the USA that there is no such thing as a typical American; the country is just too big and diverse. 3) Mr. Laurie’s comment about a drama addressing mental health issues makes me think of MASH, a comedy-drama from the 1970’s that takes place in an American Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War. A recurring character on this show was a psychiatrist named Dr. Freedman (Alan Arbus) who occasionally shows up to address a mental health crisis brought about by the trauma of war. The episodes in which Dr. Freedman appeared were among the best in the series…..

I still freak out when I see Bertie Wooster diagnosing people

Obviously Laurie "gets" us in the US -- his accent reflects his deep understanding. His comment on Americans but up and working at 5 am is spot on. Many Europeans think they understand the US but Laurie actually seems to understand.

I once knew a barmaid who was born and raised in Wimbledon by Glaswegian parents. Her accent was an adventure.

One of the most remarkable things I’ve seen was Hugh Laurie’s screen test for House. You can probably find it somewhere here. Someone out of the shot said “action!” And Laurie BECAME House - before uttering a single word. It gave me new respect for acting and for Hugh Laurie in particular.

This guy is not only an incredibly excellent actor... he is also a very lucid intellectual (what he says at 6:00 is golden) and probably a wonderful human being (and this gives you a little faith in humanity)

Let's just get this straight, those of us in America who are not workaholics are NOT keen on waking up early and working all day.

HOUSE was a wonderful show and Hugh Laurie a great actor.

It's utterly bizarre to me that dramas about suicide are not allowed because it's "imitable behavior" and yet we have no such strictures on dramas about MURDER. Think about that for a minute. It's perfectly alright to watch a movie or a show that shows you all the details about how to kill ANYONE ELSE, but not yourself. What does that tell you about our society? How utterly depraved and twisted is this culture that that is even an imaginable circumstance, let alone a fact so ordinary that nobody ever even thinks about it?

I love that Laurie is sharp enough to see the presenter trying to lodge insults about Americans in nearly every question she asks. Not only does he not bite, he genuinely shows admiration. One of my favs of all time.

He's right. America is enormous. I get flack for barely leaving the country, but I've covered more ground just exploring the Rocky Mountains and the southwest deserts than any wanna be Instagram model touring Europe, Cabo, or Malaysia. It's insane how big and geologically diverse the US is, and I haven't even made it to the west coast.

Parents today are so worried about keeping their children, particularly their daughters, "safe" that they don't realize that loneliness and isolation and idleness/stagnation are the greatest dangers there are.

My cousin Susan was the caterer for the show House. She spoke highly of Hugh, said he was a true gentleman. It was a great show 👏. I always thought he was American until watching this!

What an insight. The USA is too big to know itself. In Canada, being a much smaller population and economy, and more at risk of being the prey, we tend to be very aware of our surroundings. It's a national obsession being aware of our southern neighbour and I am constantly shocked at what is common knowledge to us, many people in the USA are not self-aware of. Also, Canadian politics is so boring it's hard not to watch news of theirs more. For those of you who have not been to the USA, there are far more sane people there than what their news suggests.

Europeans have no understanding how big the US and Canada are until they come here. My cousin and I did a summer exchange when we were kids. I stayed with my aunt in France and he came to stay with my family in Ontario Canada. We lived off Lake Huron. My family laughed at his reaction when they took him to the beach (we lived a 15 minute walk away). He was confused and said "I thought we were in central Canada! How can we be at the ocean?" My mom explained, "no this is Lake Huron". He didn't believe her. "But you can't see the other side!" "Taste the water. You'll see it's un-salty. Its all fresh water. That's why they're called the Great Lakes. On the other side is the State of Michigan." I explained to his brother while in France how his entire country can fit in just the southern part of Ontario and that Canada has 5 time zones and that I cannot possibly know a fellow Canadian from Alberta. Everything seemed small to me in France. The meals, the cars, the houses, the distances and the ice cream cones. Even the people are small compared to the average Canadian/American. In Canada when you ask for an ice cream cone, you get these giant scoops compared to what you get in France. I was like; "what's this?" It's amazing how your surroundings can shape your perspective. This is why travelling is a great form of education. It was a great experience for both my cousin and I.

Whoever loves Hugh and has only ever seen him from house, watch him in ' a bit of Fry and Laurie ' and truly appreciate his range as an actor .... Enjoy

What a wonderful interview. Underestimate Hugh Laurie at your peril.

Love this man. He is such a capable performer and brilliant thinker. I was amazed at the difference in his performances between Blackadder and House. Though even with House, his comedic timing sometimes does shine through.

House actually did deal with a suicide in one episode. One of the main doctors was found in his home. I don't know much about the subject, but I thought the show handled the issue pretty respectfully.

He’s so right about Americans not knowing other American accents. I remember visiting California and someone asked me if I was from Texas. I’m from the border of Ohio and Kentucky. The difference between an Appalachian accent and a Texas accent (which is NOT the same as a southern accent) is vast. Or, it is to someone who has either, lol.

This is how you depict a charming, perceptive, intelligent character. You hire an actor naturally possessing all such treats in outstanding quantity.

One of the UK's biggest brains with an acting ability that dwarfs most of us lesser mortals. Thanks for all you've done Hugh! Your performances in Black Adder and Dr House were all absolutely brilliant.

Went for training just outside Chicago one summer. A French coworker was over for the same session. The Thursday before Labor Day, he pulls up in a Mustang convertible. Everyone asks what he's up to....."Going to Vegas!". Someone pulls out early Google maps on a BlackBerry Perl to show him the trip...20hrs driving at 85mph. He thought he could spend a long weekend in Vegas.....after a short road trip....from Chicago. He was utterly dumbfounded to find out the Chicago was as close to Vegas as Paris is to Moscow.

Im an American and your flawless and consistent accent had ME convinced that you were an American. Well done ol chap!

1:45 The first time I heard Hugh’s real voice (after watching the entire series at that) I was SHOCKED. I didn’t know he was actually British. He did an amazing generalized American accent, he didn’t fall into the Transatlantic accent trap when taking on the perfecting his character. He went for a more rugged, very slightly northeastern approach (which fits the location of the show). Perhaps one of the greatest talents of our time.

It's amusing for him to suggest that, since he's definitely wrong. The UK is a lot smaller, so you can narrow down regions to a much smaller scale, and it seems like he's trying to equate states with European countries, which is the wrong way to look at it, but you can 100% identify where people are from based on accents and behavior on a regional scale like determining if someone is from the New England area, East Coast, South, South-West, Mid-West, or the West Coast. He's correct that you can't really "nail down" which state someone is specifically from, but on the whole his idea about the US being too big to "know itself" through its people identifying the various regions is completely wrong, from someone who is an American. He just doesn't get it.

When you see how his facial expressions, his mouth movements, etc. work naturally, you see what a great actor he was in House.

When I first started to watch House MD, I took for granted that Laurie is American. When I learned he isn't, I was super-impressed with how he mastered the accent. 'Hose M.D.' was a great show, especially the early seasons.

Wow. You nailed it. I’m retired now but remember choosing sleep over food because I was soo done after work. When I had children I took a nap after work before starting dinner. It was an exhausting lifestyle. As for those super achievers that could keep up - they were devoid of comfortable friendships. Americans are driven and it isn’t healthy for relationships of any kind. No wonder people think Americans are a Me, Me, Me kind of people. They really aren’t but they can’t seem to get off the merry go ‘round. Quite inhuman and sad.

The UK never understands why we don’t vacation more internationally. Well, like he said, we are huge. Even neighboring states are so different. One state is the size of one Western European country. We have two enormous mountain ranges, ocean side on three sides of white sande, brown sand, pebbled beaches, and rocky beaches, Florida with alligators and iguanas and the Keys islands, swamps, enormous lakes and rivers, giant deserts, badlands, forests, woods, snow skiing in the mountains, water skiing, vacation homes, RVing, Las Vegas, open prairies where you drive an hour without seeing a soul, cowboy ranching country (me), Niagara Falls, Yosemite park, etc. Only thing we dont have is jungles, rain Forrest’s, , Animals? Coyotes, squirrels, bison, moose, grizzly bears, brown bears, black bears, mountain lions, bobcats, wild boar, all sorts of poisonous snakes, wolves, lynx, reindeer, etc.

I'm impressed he's heard of Oregon. We get overlooked a lot.

I have watched the whole thing 3 times in the last 10 years and amazingly each time I see things in a different way from the first time I watched. Incredible acting that can never be matched.

The drama "Six Feet Under" was largely about people bringing about their own deaths and gets at part of what Laurie is speaking about.

Hugh Laurie was on the show "Black Adder" with Rowan Atkinson. I so much wanted for Laurie as "House" to have an episode in which he gets into trouble for arranging for a visiting surgeon from England, played by Atkinson in his Mr. Bean character. The show could be about House trying to cover for Dr. Bean's errors and explaining that it wasn't really a blunder to invite him -- that the English doctor really is a brilliant surgeon.

Imagine working so hard you forget to enjoy life and spend time with friends family all through your life….not just when you retire and die by the time you’re 70

The funny thing is this show has actually saved lives. Since it’s pretty solidly based in real medical science, some real life doctors have watched the show and been able to diagnose and treat patients based on remembering symptoms and diagnostic cues that the program showcased. House was a very powerful cultural phenomenon that is still relevant to this day, and in my opinion the best medical drama ever made.

American here - I hadn't heard of Hugh Laurie before House and was genuinely surprised the first time I heard him speaking in his normal accent.

Hugh Laurie is a tremendous intellect and phenomenal actor

He’s absolutely right about us Americans not having a great ear for accents. We can usually get the general region the accent is from (South, East Coast, Midwest, etc.) but it’s very hard to pinpoint it to a specific area a lot of the time unless you live there. Hollywood being in California also kind of standardizes a lot of our pronunciation and vocabulary.

His American accent is on point. Totally fooled me, and I’m American 🇺🇸

This is a quality interview. Wow! She's a good interviewer and he's a good conversationalist

Hugh has such a wealth of rich ideas and an equally rich vocabulary to articulate it. Fascinating man to listen to and one can see how he and Fry get on so well

Hugh Laurie is a legend ...👍👍👍👍

America is also a very young country, I, as an American, think we haven't truly found ourselves yet. I think we're the nation equivalent of a 15 year old. Edited for typos

When I moved from southern California to southern Oregon, it was an 850 mile drive. That is an adjacent state.

He is correct, the U.S. is actually different countries within its national boarder. That’s O.K., as long everyone realize we can make it work if we talk to each other, accept each other, compromise for a common good.

When I was younger the accents on the east coast would change every 15 to 40 miles. Nowadays it seems not so much.

The 'America is too big to know itself' line applies to politics as well.

It's mobility as well and not only size. People are born in one place and raised in another. They move around. They have parents from two different places. Accents are regional but there is more fluidity in them.

Americans do know where we're from based on how we talk. He dealt entirely with people on the west coast. Our cultural regions are bigger than his country and aren't limited by state borders.

My wife had no idea that Hugh Laurie was English until I showed her some Blackadder. I laughed my butt off and she was absolutely gobsmacked.

He has a good American accent but I could still tell he was British. It's hard to explain but sometimes you can just tell, same with Benedict Cumberbatch and some others. It's usually the younger actors who can do 100% believable "native" American accents, like Tom Holland or Bella Ramsey. Oh, and Idris Elba in The Wire, blew me away when I found out he was British.

"It's important to stand up for truth over sentiment, over feeling." Incredibly apt for today's world where emotions reign supreme.

The American accent was excellent. I only caught one slip. House unironically says "laboratory" with the English pronunciation in one episode. If he'd done it in a Boris Karloff voice or something I'd think House was joking.

If Americans work until their noses bleed, South Koreans work until their hair is pulled out and their limbs are broken off. The United States is nothing compared to South Korea. South Korea is in the process of passing a law that will allow workers to work up to 67 hours a week. Can you feel that 67 hours? How many hours do people in the U.S. legally work in a week?

I swear I thought he was American xD

I bet Hugh was perpetually mad at Jesse Spencer because Jesse got to speak in his natural accent.

"someone have to speak up for truth over sentiment. Truth over feeling". Love it.

Cambridge University delivered another comedy genius! This man made me laugh more during the 80s and 90s than anyone else alive. Thank you good sir!

the thing is,foreign actors and entertainers see 98% of the time, only LA and NYC and then they think they know about America.. i wonder how much time Mr Laurie has spent wandering the woods of Maine or driving the back roads of Alabama or Fishing off the coast of Louisiana? im not saying his observations from his standpoint are incorrect. but its the same as US tourist going only to London and Cheshire, and deciding they can asses the population of the UK after..

I know it's a bit cliché, but still my favourite on-screen Hugh Laurie moment was the last episode of Blackadder Goes Forth. In quick succession he had both one of the funniest lines ever, and also one of the most heartfelt. When they're getting ready to go over the top and he says _"I'm... scared, Sir"_ Always hits me right in the feels. And then right after he holds up that little officers baton and says _"I wouldn't want to face a German machine gun without this!"_ which always makes me laugh.

What a fascinating interviewee and excellent interviewer. Rare!

House is the last tv show that got my time. Doubt there will be another

People always think they know America because they’ve been to NYC AND LA- there is a lot more than that

It’s true how forced we are to be hard working, that’s why America is #1 economy and power house it is. Govt doesn’t give the citizens its props though with benefits!

The answer is "yes." Many Americans were shocked to hear Laurie's accented voice for the first time.

OMG😲😲 I thought he was American. Very skillful Actor!

I think this holds true in particular with first-generation Americans whose parents came from abroad. You have the family and culture you were raised in; you can be raised in a region of America, but then travel a time zone away and feel the least in common with those around you despite being as American as everyone else.

I've had conversations with Brits who say "oh you Americans..." because they don't realize how big the country is and how many there are of us so it sounds odd when people group us all into one bag and apply the same labels.

When we say lack of awareness in Americans it is because of 1) the immense size, and 2) the immense flow of immigrants - Latinos, blacks, latino-black, arabs, eastern Europeans, chinese, Filipinos, Indians etc.who do not even have the intellectual curiosity to know the whole big country. For them, where they came that IS the country. The coasts are where the fill up and no know the 13 original states or vast Middle America - and, never will. It takes 3 generations for them to know the inside of America in the best case scenario.

As an American that loved the show, I thought he was an American until the goodbye extra bits at the end, "He's a Brit!?". His accent was perfect.

Come on. HOUSE was Sherlock Holmes.

Love this fellow's talents and public personality. Only watched him years ago ...

Americans not only loved him and his show but they showed a lot of love to his jazz-ian, if I may say so, album.

as a American, I'm proud to say I avoid work as much as possible

America is indeed a giant country.

The fact that he is able to so fully transform himself for a role is the mark of a fantastic actor.

Europeans and Americans are vastly different, it’s not good or bad, it just is. I love my country (USA) and in spite of its flaws, I would live no where else. I work with many soldiers and most feel the same way and they’ve been everywhere.

Americans have been conditioned by business that work is all that matters. This isn't a compliment, it's a sad look at how we are FORCED to be. You HAVE to work overtime, you HAVE to work weekends, you can't take the time off or sick days you've EARNED, you can't raise your kids, can't get your work done and go home, have to sit and look at the clock until FIVE.... we are perpetual slaves to the rich to keep making them richer so THEY can enjoy ridiculous lives while we struggle to work 2 and 3 jobs just to barely get by.

On the one hand he says America is too big to know itself but on the other hand people constantly berate America's cultural identity because it's American. You can't really debate against that kind of criticism because it's mostly based on envy.

HL is a wonderful talent. I do take issue with the notion that there is anything like an "American accent"---and I think HL was trying to convey that idea. This place is huge and complex with multiple accents within states. For example, in Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh accent/dialect is a foreign language to people in Philly (and come to think of it, to anyone in the US). I suspect our Bros. in UK would say something similar about a "British accent" which, when I was a kid I could easily discern that the Beatles (Liverpool) and members of the Stones (mostly London area, I believe) were not speaking with same accents. In the end actors do their best with an impression of some stereotypical kind of sounds another English-speaking nationality uses.

Brilliant man, would love to see him interviewed by a more accomplished interviewer.

As an American, I agree. We are a big country both metaphorically and literally. I have only been to 5 states and lived in only 2!

I'm STUNNED to find out that Hugh Laurie is British!

We have to work like that to pay for the social safety net that let's 20% of the working age population to stay home in government housing watching day time TV eating snacks all day because they are lazy and don't want to work to improve their lives.

The only exceptions I've found, so far, to the deferral of references to suicide on TV are Dragnet and Adam-12, both produced by Jack Webb. Both shows were followed by announcements that the stories were true (though obviously somewhat fictionalized). Other depictions of suicide that I have found generally turn out to be murders disguised as suicide (very common, that).