Highmore plays autistic surgeon Dr. Shaun Murphy, whose romance with Dr. Carly Lever evolves throughout the ABC series' third season.
Freddie Highmore is dishing on all things romance as the third season of ABC’s The Good Doctor continues!
Highmore plays Dr. Shaun Murphy, a young surgeon with autism and savant syndrome, who nervously went on a first date with Dr. Carly Lever (played by Jasika Nicole) in the season premiere. Although he managed to send a bottle of wine hurling through the air, dislocate a fellow diner's shoulder and describe the whole night as "exhausting," Shaun scored a goodnight kiss and the romantic arc will continue to play out in coming episodes.
“We get to tease out a little bit more of his romantic life throughout the season,” Highmore shared during a recent interview with ET’s Lauren Zima. “It’s really lovely to get to focus in on that emotion, thematically, especially because I find people who have autism are often stereotyped as being devoid of emotion or not having a fuller range of emotions, which is complete nonsense. So to get to show Shaun falling in love and what that means, in both a dreadful and amazing way, is great.”
However, Highmore noted that any romance that is brewing between Shaun and Carly, who also enjoyed a late-night walk in episode two, will likely continue at a slow pace.
“Things are taken step-by-step on this show, little-by-little,” he said. “One of the joys of David Shore's writing is that he doesn’t rush through nuanced little beats and I think small moments are genuinely meaningful and huge. We get to dwell on those instead of rushing through, which is nice.”
Highmore teased that three underlying vibes of season three are romance, hope and responsibility.
As for actors whom he would love to have a cameo on the show, there is one, in particular, he has his eye on.
“I'd love to get Vera Farmiga,” he said. “We got to spend so long together on Bates Motel and filming in Vancouver with a lot of the same crew and camera guys, so it would feel like a little reunion if we could convince her to come out. That would be a dream.”
In the meantime, the 27-year-old London native is still coming to terms with the “bizarre” notion that the cast and crew are in the midst of working on the show's third season.
Admittedly, it’s only in rare moments like having ET’s cameras and lights shining down on him that he realizes just how impactful his work on the series has been.
“I still find that being in Vancouver is somewhat of a bubble -- we go into our little hospital set every day and tell these stories,” he explains. “It’s only really ever moments like this where you realize that it’s part of something bigger. The rest of the time it feels like we're telling these small, little, meaningful stories.”
The Good Doctor airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. See more on the series below.
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