The hit Fox series House returns for Season 8 on Monday, October 3 at 9 PM ET with Episode 8.1: Twenty Vicodin. Actress Odette Annable, who plays Dr. Jessica Adams, and series creator/executive producerDavid Shore recently held a conference call to discuss the new season. Here’s what they had to say below.

Odette, we know that your character has some feelings for House but how is it working withHugh Laurie?

Odette Annable: Hugh is fantastic. I couldn’t help but to be nervous at first really for the whole thing but to be working with Hugh and just to get to know him as an actor and as a person and he really blew me away. I mean, he might be one of my favorite actors that I’ve ever worked with. He’s so generous and so talented and so easy to work with so it’s been a pleasure so far.

Can we expect to see you around for the full season?

Odette Annable: I’m around for most of the season, yes, and I guess that will be determined later how many episodes I will actually be in but yes you’ll see me stick around for a little while.

We’ve seen House angry, hurt and depressed but never so overwhelmingly sad as in this season opener and the sense of sadness seems to have taken a lot of the fire out of him. Can you discuss House’s mindset in this episode and if he’ll be emotionally better further into the season?

David Shore: Yes. I didn’t think of him as being overwhelmingly sad in this. We threw him into a different environment and different environments call for different reactions. He’s got it more or less under control but unlike in any other situation he does have to behave himself. He’s in prison and that’s a challenge for House and so playing with that challenge was challenging. I did not think he was overwhelmingly sad. I thought there were clearly issues there but going forward we want to-we’re going to get him back into the hospital quickly, and we are going to get back to kind of the fun at the root of the show. • Continue Reading?