HollywoodNews.com: Amber Tamblyn is joining the cast of House for a limited run as a new doctor on the diagnosis team. Meredith M. Masters is a fresh young medical student, so expect a lot of friction with House’s veteran unorthodox methods. The TV and film legend discussed her role on House with the media in a conference call, as well as her poetry projects and personal reflections on her time in the industry. House airs Monday nights on Fox. Q: What sort of medical research did you do to join the cast of House? AT: I didn’t do any medical research. I did episode by episode research. If something was involved in small pox, I would look that up. If there was a specific word I didn’t know, which is about 90% of the words, I’d look that up and see what it meant. As far as the onset training when you’re trying to draw blood or IVs, they have an incredible nurse who’s been there for many, many years. There’s a woman named Bobbin [Bergstrom] who was a nurse for many years then retired to come be on the show and help us learn how to do anything we’re doing on that episode. If we’re giving someone a traich[eotomy], if we’re taking blood, anything we do she shows us how to do it and makes sure it’s the right way. That’s the training. There was no reading anything beforehand. Q: What are your impressions of Martha M. Masters? AT: Ah, big question. The part of Martha Masters was originally just an idea. David Shore and Katie Jacobs came to me and say, “We want to write a character for you. Are you interested?” I said yes and it wasn’t until I signed on to do a bunch of episodes that I got to read a script. The character is based on somebody that I know very well who’s real name is Martha Meredith Masters. My friend Meredith is similar to this character but this character is a very exaggerated version of her. She is in med school and she often makes jokes that I don’t understand that are about Euler’s number or something that I and most people in the room don’t know what she’s talking about. She can be a little socially awkward sometimes which is what the character Masters is like on the show. I feel fortunate to have at least [...]
