Olivia Wilde says this 'House' is a very very very fine 'House'

Nine episodes into the show's fourth season, Olivia Wilde has a regular role on FOX's House. She has secrets and storylines and romantic possibilities. One thing she doesn't have is a name.

"You know it's funny," Wilde tells reporters on a recent conference call. "I thought they were going to reveal it awhile ago, and I think it's great that the producers made this dramatic choice not to reveal it when they had planned to. And they actually tried to hide it, it disappeared from the call sheets. It disappeared from around the set. I think they're not putting too much value on the secrecy of a name, but they like the fact that it is established this sort of inside joke between House and Thirteen. He could easily look at her file and see her name, but he chooses to keep it up."

Wilde says she knows her characters name and, "I love it."

Show-off.

It's nice that producers told Wilde Thirteen's real name, because for several months, she was just one of a dozen actors working on a per-episode basis wondering which doctors would get added to House's team and therefore which actors would get to stick around one of TV's highest rated shows.

"It meant that we never took it for granted, which was great," Wilde says. "We never knew if our characters were a short-term arc or if we would be there for awhile. And so it sort of made it more of mystery and kind of kept us on our toes, which I think is a really good thing.  And I think it's why the performances turned out as well as we all feel they did is because there was no chance to get lazy, no time for laziness. It was all finding out each week, whether we'd be there the next week.  And it was pretty exciting and pretty stressful and what it did was just make us really enjoy every minute of it."

Every minute of it? Surely turning a slew of recognizable young actors into contract players must have created a little on-set competition?

"[W]e decided very early on that the only way to deal with the competitiveness that was obviously in the air was to joke about it constantly," the veteran of The O.C. and Skin says. "The great thing is that everyone had a very kind of relaxed and secure personality, and so there wasn't any cattiness. I'm being completely honest when I say that. We were shocked ourselves. We were sure that there would be some sort of disappointment and kind of jealousy, but there wasn't because everyone just had a great sense of humor about it. And we all understood that being on one episode of House is a huge break for any actor. So once we had done one, it was like, no one can complain, really. This is all good for all of us and we trusted the creative producers of the show to pick the people that worked best for the show."

After an extended break that allowed FOX to space out its last remaining pre-strike episodes, House returns on Tuesday (Jan. 29) night with an oddly timed Christmas episode, followed by the show's post-Super Bowl episode on Sunday.

Other highlights from Wilde's chat with the press:

On Thirteen's myriad other secrets (not including that whole name thing): [S]he doesn't have one secret, I would say Thirteen is kind of a bowl of secrets. I think that they're slowly revealing bits and bits about her; soon we'll learn a little bit more. But the big one that was dropped about her past, how she may or may not have Huntington's, that was something I found out a little earlier than everyone else, because I needed to know why she was so guarded. I went to David Shore and said, 'I know you guys keep everything secret. You're so tight-lipped and I respect that. But I need to know early on, what she's comfortable with and what strikes a cord with her.' And he trusted me and told me and I didn't tell a soul, even though it was difficult. But that was good; it was getting me in character.

On the idea that sexual tension exists between Thirteen and House: You know it's funny. I've seen some reviews where people were sort of speculating that there is tension, romantic tension between Thirteen and House. And I never, ever picked up on that myself. I think they have a mutual respect and they enjoy sparring with each other. They both are very, very stubborn and have very strong personalities, but I don't know. Of course, I know very little, because we find out things almost as soon as the audience does.  But I think that anything is possible with her, because she is unpredictable as a person. But at this point what I see between them is not a romantic connection; it is sort of a mutual respect between two very unorthodox and stubborn doctors.

On House treating viewers to a Christmas episode more than a month after-the-fact: I think the producers wanted to be able to save some episodes to air in 2008, and because of the strike, it was something that a lot of shows had to do. And it's a great episode and I think they wanted to make sure people got to see it. Of course, we have our big Super Bowl episode after that. So they have saved some really fabulous episodes for the next couple weeks, and that one is particularly interesting. And I think the fact that it is Christmas is sort of odd and funny, but sort of in the kind of vein of House humor. It's something that House would do, throw Christmas late.

A little more on the Christmas episode: I think it's a shock to everyone that House would want to partake in a  Secret Santa, but of course, he proceeds in a very House-like way, and of course, he's going to change the rules of the game... [Y]ou know House is the Grinch. So to imagine him partaking in a Christmas game is just all too delicious. I really laughed my way through the script.  I think it's one of the most brilliant ones, and also quite heartbreaking as they always are in a way. But it's a really interesting episode as well, because the competition is now over and he doesn't have the same power over the characters as he has had up until this point. So now that we aren't trying to compete against each other and get rid of each other and get a one-up on each other, the dynamic has changed and House is reacting to that. That has something to do with how he proceeds in the game, the Secret Santa game. He doesn't like giving up games. 

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