Hard-Working Freddie Highmore Dishes on The ‘Trick’ Behind The Long-Running Success of THE GOOD DOCTOR

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede   Freddie Highmore was presented with one straightforward question, followed by a conditional second straightforward question: Since his highly successful and long-running series THE GOOD DOCTOR is both the specific story of his lead character, Dr. Shaun Murphy, and also a full-fledged medical show, is it really two shows in one? And if so, does that, in fact, make Freddie Highmore the hardest-working actor in show business? “I guess I can’t really use those words myself … but by all means, please do go ahead and write them,” said Highmore with a smile. Done! THE GOOD DOCTOR is in its sixth season, with new episodes airing Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on CTV, CTV.ca, and the CTV app. Highmore’s Dr. Shaun Murphy – a highly skilled surgeon who is on the autism spectrum – has already been dealing with a lot, not only as a newly married man, but also because of a surgical decision he made under extreme pressure that severely impacted Dr. Audrey Lim, played by Christina Chang. “It’s funny you mentioned two shows, because I’ve always felt like, from Shaun’s perspective, what the show is about is this guy who has autism and how he’s learning to navigate the world, and navigate the hospital, and grow as a person in this environment, which is, of course, the medical-story genre,” said Highmore, who is also an executive producer on THE GOOD DOCTOR. “But when you look back, I feel like what’s really most meaningful isn’t a case of the week. It’s not whether someone is going to live, or die, or be healed. It’s more about the way that the characters are changed by those experiences.” In other words, Highmore doesn’t believe THE GOOD DOCTOR is necessarily a combination of two types of shows, but rather, its own unique third thing. “It’s kind of this perfect … I think the genre is this wonderful excuse to be able to get into even more depth, to get to explore all of the characters that are on it,” he said. “So yes, in some ways it is two shows in one, but I think the trick is, it feels like it’s a show about medicine, but actually it’s a show about everything that is happening other than the medicine.” Case in point, the aftermath of the previously mentioned situation with Dr. Lim. “I think for a long time this season, Shaun will be in denial about the realities of what happened,” Highmore said. “That’s a very human journey, and a really interesting one to explore, especially through the lens of someone who has autism and who is experiencing that feeling of denial, and of shutting down emotions, in a different way. It’s certainly not something that can be tied up neatly in a bow and moved on from.” On a lighter note, after so much time playing a doctor, Highmore’s knowledge of health and medicine must be much higher, right? “I mean, you’d think so … but now I’m starting to feel like I just haven’t learned as much as I should have,” Highmore said. “I’m very good at the jargon, you know, what parts of the body certain Latin words refer to. But in terms of practical use, if someone is in pain or is injured, I can reel off a long stream of medical words, but I just don’t know if that’s really that useful, unfortunately.” But at least in terms of his own comfort level, does Highmore worry more about health issues now than he used to, or does he worry less? “I think I worry less,” he said. “It’s just like, ‘oh, this seems pretty minor compared to what someone is going through with whatever extreme case of the week we’re dealing with on the show.’ So a minor scratch in comparison to the life-or-death cases at the hospital feels like, ‘oh, I’m doing pretty fine, I’m doing okay.’ ”   billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv