“The Good Doctor” star Freddie Highmore's happy to finally be saving people, not killing them

e_freddie_highmore_09252017
e_freddie_highmore_09252017

ABC/Eike Schroter

ABC/Eike Schroter(LOS ANGELES) — The Good Doctor premieres tonight on ABC. The show, from House creator David Shore, is about a wunderkind doctor who sees things a little differently, because he’s autistic. Star Freddie Highmore tells ABC Radio the role is a change from his last one, where he played Norman Bates on the show Bates Motel, a prequel to the legendary horror film Psycho.

“I guess after so many years of killing people it’s nice to save some,” he laughs. “But the characters in my mind are very separate, really, and so in terms of switching from one to the other it hasn’t been too tricky.”

Highmore does say that it’s difficult to get a handle on all the medical lingo that he has to say in his role as pediatric surgeon Dr. Shaun Murphy — since he’s British, and is using an American accent for the show.  But he explains that the most important aspect of the show is accurately portraying a character with autism.

“We all feel a great sense of responsibility,” he tells ABC Radio. “We have all had both sort of collective and individual conversations with experts on autism…and I’ve gone away and done my own individual research in terms of literature and documentaries, and trying to learn as much as possible — about not only what it’s like to live with autism but also the history of it.” 

The Good Doctor airs tonight at 10 pm. ET.

Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.