‘The Good Doctor’: These Cast Members Hide Their Accents for the Show
The Good Doctor is now in its third season, and the show has quickly become one of the most-watched primetime dramas. Viewers have grown to love the characters — a group of American doctors and surgical residents at a major medical center in San Jose, California. But what viewers might not know is that the show is not actually filmed in the U.S. — and some of its cast members are faking their American accents.
‘The Good Doctor’ takes place at a California hospital
The show’s third season premiered in early fall, and fans are once again falling in love with the plot twists, medical marvels, and character relationships. The show takes place a San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital in San Jose, California, and the characters are a mix of doctors and medical students doing their residencies. The premise of the show follows Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) as he navigates the medical world as an autistic savant. Murphy has an incredible ability to retain medical information, and he often determines various diagnoses and treatments that nobody else in the hospital would have been able to come up with.
The show is actually filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia
Though the show takes place in California, it isn’t filmed in the U.S. Filming takes place in Vancouver, British Columbia, and the outside of the hospital that we see in the episodes is not actually a hospital at all. Rather, it’s the city hall of Surrey, British Columbia — a city southeast of Vancouver. Each episode takes around eight or nine days to film, and the cast is in Vancouver for around eight or nine months total. Highmore serves as the show’s executive producer, and the cast has bonded greatly during the first three seasons of filming.
Freddie Highmore and Antonia Thomas have British accents
Though everyone on the show plays an American character, there’s something most viewers probably didn’t realize: Highmore and Antonia Thomas (who plays surgical resident Claire Browne) both have British accents. They hide their accents for the show, and during an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Thomas said that growing up watching so many Hollywood films helped her perfect her accent. “You’re used to hearing the sound,” Browne said of mastering the accent. “You do a bit of practice in drama school.” Browne did say that her audition was intimidating, since she had to convince producers that she had mastered the accent enough to play the role.
Highmore is not autistic in real life
Highmore not only fakes a British accent during filming, but he also is not autistic in real life. He studied the role greatly before filming began to make sure he could accurately portray someone with autism so as to do justice for the role and the autistic community. And his performance has received rave reviews from many, suggesting that Highmore captures the mannerisms and thought processes nearly perfectly. This season, the show dives into Highmore’s social relationships outside of the hospital, including a potential relationship with a fellow doctor named Carly.
Watch ABC’s The Good Doctor Mondays at 10 p.m.
