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Freddie Highmore on season 6 of 'The Good Doctor'
LOS ANGELES — You could say that we have seen Freddie Highmore's amazing development and growth from a shy 12-year-old to a confident 30-year-old actor-writer-director-producer.
We still remember our first interviews with the charming and polite English actor when he did his breakthrough performance as the troubled Peter Llewelyn Davies in Marc Forster's semi-autobiographical film "Finding Neverland" (2004) to his portrayal of Charlie Bucket in Tim Burton's musical fantasy film "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2005), to his playing the iconic role of Norman Bates in the drama-thriller series "Bates Motel" (2013) and now to his current lead role as Dr. Shaun Murphy, an autistic savant in the drama series "The Good Doctor."
We visited the set of "The Good Doctor" in Vancouver, Canada recently and was able to interview the talented and gracious Highmore.
Executive producer Shawn Williamson, who gave us a tour of the set, revealed that the series is the best show he has ever worked in because of Highmore and his charisma as a leader.
Now on its sixth season, the series also stars Paige Spara (Lea Dilallo), Fiona Gubelmann (Dr. Morgan Reznik), Noah Galvin (Dr. Asher Wolke), Bria Samone Henderson (Dr. Jordan Allen), Hill Harper (Dr. Marcus Andrews), and Christina Chang (Dr. Audrey Lim).
In this season, Dr. Shaun Murphy, a surgeon with autism and savant syndrome, continues to use his extraordinary medical gifts at St. Bonaventure Hospital's surgical unit. Following their long-awaited wedding festivities, and his promotion to Surgical Attending, Shaun and Lea's relationship is immediately put to the test and they must learn to navigate life together as a married couple. Meanwhile, the team is dealing with changes at the hospital, and in their personal lives, that will present new emotional and interpersonal challenges for them.
David Shore and Liz Friedman are executive producers and co-showrunners while Daniel Dae Kim and Freddie Highmore are among the executive producers.
Below is our interview with Highmore.
What makes you continue doing this role? What challenges you?
First of all, I just feel so lucky to be able to continue playing this character. I think the primary reason that we're all able to do it is that people still watch the show and seem to enjoy it, and seem to connect to my character, Shaun, and all of the other characters on the show. And so as long as people are still interested to see more of the stories that we are trying to tell, then I guess I just feel very lucky to be able to continue to play him.
What do you admire about your character the most?
I love playing Shaun. I feel like I admire his optimism, his positivity, his relentless desire to try and find solutions and to solve problems, his work ethic. But yes, perhaps more than anything, just the way that he believes people are inherently good, believes in humanity, and is a very hopeful character.
Your role portrays you as having photographic memory. I believe in person; you do also have one.
Oh really? I wish I did.
You have to memorize all those lines and medical terms.
There's a lot of medical jargon. Yes. I wish I had as good a memory as Shaun did, in terms of being able to recall them out of the blue. It certainly takes a lot of time of sitting there at home and trying to wrap my tongue around various Latin phrases. But yeah, I've learned kind of no real medicine in a practically useful sense, over the course of this show, but I have learned how to say the words correctly. So at least that's one step on the way.
How do you see the arc of your character in Season 6, now that you're also married?
Yes. I think that's what's really exciting about this year Shaun and Lea are, of course, now married and they're moving forward. The issues that they're dealing with only get bigger now, as time goes on. Discussion about starting a family, when the right time for that might be, whether they'd be able to do so. It's been great, along with Paige, obviously, who plays Lea, just to find these different levels to their relationship.
How is it working with Paige Spara?
She's wonderful. She is so full of life and energy and positivity. She just brings that, of course, to her character of Lea. Just the way that she is on set - full of ideas, always alive and engaged in the moment, trying to find new ways of playing the scene and of portraying their relationship. So, I feel very lucky to be working with her.
She mentioned to me that off camera, you guys turn into like 12-year-olds again.
Oh really? Yes, now that you've spoken to her, she's definitely very playful and energetic.
Have you also met the boy who portrays your younger version of Shaun, Graham Verchere?
Yes.
Why do you think he got the role? What were his qualities that make him perfect as the young Shaun?
Yeah, that's a really interesting question. Obviously, he was in the pilot, so he's been with us from the very beginning. I remember early on, just him being there and watching, and obviously the two of us trying to make sure that there was a consistency between Shaun in the present day and the backstory.
He's incredibly diligent and a lovely guy, as well. We unfortunately haven't maybe seen as much of young Shaun as he's gotten older. But looking back over the course of these six seasons, he was obviously such an instrumental part in setting up who this character was and understanding where he came from.
You wear different hats in this show. You're an actor, executive producer, and sometimes even director.
Yes.
So how do you juggle all those things? And which one do you enjoy doing the most?
I have to admit that the primary reason that I'm involved in the show is of course to play the part of Shaun. But obviously I've always had a desire to be involved in the wider process, and I've been really lucky on this show to get to write, direct and be involved as a producer, and contributing on so many different levels.
David Shore, initially, and now also Liz Friedman, have both been very supportive of that and have been great to work with.
Do you see yourself behind the cameras more?
Yes, I'd love to do more both writing and directing in the future. I'm getting to direct an episode this year as well, on the show, so that will be fun and something I'm looking forward to.
How do you see the show promoting autism to the public?
I think that's always been the aspect of the show we've wanted to get right, more than anything, is portraying autism as authentically as possible and as best we could. I hope that, especially looking back now, having done so many episodes and seasons, if in some small way Shaun as a character or the way that we've represented autism on screen has contributed to conversations, to understanding around autism, then that would be the thing that I'm most proud of.
"The Good Doctor," Season 6, is now available in the Philippines on Prime Video.
—MGP, GMA Integrated News
