Amber Tamblyn Talks About Joining HOUSE

Amber Tamblyn begins her multi-episode arc on HOUSE Monday, November 8, playing Martha M. Masters, a third year medical student and Cuddy’s choice to fill in for the absent Thirteen on House’s diagnostic team.

Amber is probably best known for her starring roles in the television series Joan of Arcadia and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants films. She also starred in ABC’s short-lived quirky police drama The Unusuals and will next be seen in the movie 127 Hours, opening November 6.

Hot Celebrity Tv was there when Amber ignored a cold to answer questions about how Martha Masters came about, jumping onto an established show, 127 Hours, and her poetry.

On being approached to join House

Amber said that David Shore approached her about joining the show, saying he wanted to write a character specifically for her. Amber had never seen House, so her first reaction was “I don’t want to do a medical show. That’s not fun.” Her friends explained to her it’s not just a medical show, so she watched the DVDs and was impressed. She’s a huge fan of Hugh Laurie and she liked, and was very flattered by, the idea of, having David write a character just for her. After watching some of the show, she thought the way you learn about the characters through how they’re tested on the job was very smart and interesting, so she agreed to a role before even seeing a script because at that point, Martha was still just an idea.

On the Martha Masters character

According to Amber, Martha is actually based on her real-life friend Meredith, a medical student Amber called “incredibly brilliant but sometimes socially awkward.” She said that Meredith actually had to sign a release because so much of the Martha character springs from her. Meredith and David haven’t yet met, but Amber joked that he “writes her so well that when they do meet a giant black hole will open in the sky.”

In Martha, Amber said, “We’ll see someone who has been so much in academia and the pursuit of knowledge that she never progressed or matured in a social sense.” She said it’s possible Martha has Asperger’s, surprisingly adding, “I know Hugh’s character does.” We will watch Martha learn things, often the hard way.

When asked what she liked most about Martha, Amber answered, “I love that she is so filled with non-sequiturs. When Martha isn’t talking about medical things, she uses really bad metaphors. I love how incredibly awkward she is.” It sounds like Martha will use bad metaphors even when discussing medicine, though, because Amber described an upcoming scene where Martha uses her period as a metaphor to convince someone to donate her kidney to her sister.

When asked how she would compare herself to the Martha character, Amber replied that she couldn’t because Martha is so much an homage to her friend Meredith. She said, “I’m dumb and instinctual where Meredith is hyper-intelligent but not at all instinctual” and the same is true of Martha.

When asked about Martha-Wilson interaction, Amber said the only time she has been on-screen with Robert Sean Leonard was to once pull House out of Wilson’s office. They haven’t shared any actual scenes. Martha mostly interacts with House, Taub, Foreman, and Chase. She has scenes with Cuddy in her first episode, but not again until one she shot just the other day.

On the House-Martha relationship

Amber called the House-Martha interaction “absolutely delicious” and said, “Both characters annoy and fascinate each other.”

On the central conflict between House and Martha, Amber thinks the two of them want to get at the same thing–the truth–but have two distinct ways of doing so. She explained, “Martha believes in truth-telling almost to a fault while House believes that lying is okay as long as it gets you to the truth.”

On jumping into an established show

When asked about the challenges of joining a show versus launching one like Joan of Arcadia or The Unusuals, Amber first joked, “I’m not sure The Unusuals ever launched. It was seen by like two people. My poor beloved Unusuals.” Then she apologized for not having a funny or crazy story about someone being mean to her on the House set and said, “I just fell right into it naturally. We all just sort of clicked right away.

On Amber’s first day, they shot sitting around the table, brainstorming diagnoses scenes and said that was a lot of fun and a good way for her to get to know her cast mates and vice versa. She called it “almost too easy,” saying that House is a “well-oiled machine. They really have it down to a science in terms of running a show.”

Amber called the set fun and happy. She explained that she likes working with large groups of guys, partly because she “talks like a dude,” cussing all the time. She is also learning a lot about health from Lisa Edelstein, and said she loves that Omar Epps is always bringing food to the cast and crew

On 127 Hours

Amber plays a hiker in 127 Hours, the Danny Boyle-directed film based on the true story of hiker Aron Ralston’s (James Franco) horrific ordeal after his right arm is trapped by a boulder, as one of two hikers Ralston meets just before his accident. She called her role “small but important” and considers it comic relief and “dopamine in a film about a man who cuts off his arm.” She raved about James Franco’s performance in the movie.

Amber also noted that Danny Boyle and Hugh Laurie are very similar in that “they are both powerhouses but humble and interested in what they are doing.”

On her poetry

With two volumes of poetry already published, Amber said that the only professional goal she is sure about is writing a third. “Writing helped me get through my teenage years,” she explained. “The industry was becoming sexualized and you were supposed to look and act a certain way.” That was something seventeen year old Amber had a hard time dealing with and she used writing to help her through it because it was a way to get the anger and frustration out without being too public. Her poetry now is a way to talk about the side of the industry most people don’t see, but in a funny way. “Writing poems is the best, safest medium for me.”

Amber went on a book tour with her mother last year and her mom brought a guitar, so it ended up being a kind of band/comedy duo performance. She said it’s a “fun, exhilarating experience performing on stage” and laughed about the reaction from fans who only knew her as an actress, saying she pictured them thinking “Why is that girl from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants using the F word so much?”

Amber will be performing her poetry at GiRL FeST in Hawaii next week.

Be sure to watch House on FOX Monday nights at 8pm/7 central

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