Actor Freddie Highmore talks about playing DR Shaun Murphy in Good Doctor Season 4 on SonyLIV.

Q. What kind of research to do, to play a role with autism? Did you see anyone who has autism, and did you have any meeting? 

A. I think it was incredibly important, probably the most important thing of all when researching this part, was making sure that we portrayed autism as authentically as possible. I think, in terms of that research, we have a consultant who's on board the show full time. There are people in my life that I know who have autism. And documentaries, you know, books, pieces of literature that David Shore and I would share back and forth as we tried to come up with this character of Shaun. And at the same time, we were aware that Shaun was never gonna be able to represent everyone who is on the spectrum. He is his own individual, and we're telling his own individual story, and so we kind of focused on that as well. 

Q. With the COVID episodes, what were the sorts of, conversations, you and the, cast and the writers had about, what were you trying to con- 

A. You cut out briefly at the end of your question. But I think I got enough general sense to give you some kind of answer. In terms of what we were trying to achieve from the first two episodes of this season with regard to telling the story of our doctors going through the pandemic. The most important thing for all of us was really to pay tribute to the real life health care professionals, and front-line workers who have been going through some incredibly tough times that is hard to imagine. We only play doctors on television. We only pretend to do it, and it really has put that into perspective their true genuine heroism.  And so it would've felt wrong to not, make reference and use this opportunity to pay tribute to them. And hopefully we're doing it, as well, in a hopeful way. I think that, yes, it's been an incredibly traumatic time for everyone. But, at the same time, as the show has always done, it kind of seeks to find, even in moments of sadness, these little moments of hope and of optimism, and, I think everyone in the world who's been going through this, this last year has learned to appreciate, or find these silver linings in life. You know, there's small gatherings with friends, or things that we might've previously taken for granted, and I think that our doctors and our show seeks to find that at the same time at the start of season Four. And then beyond that, we won't be focusing on the Coronavirus, that the show will move past that being the sole focus for the majority of the season, which also felt, right. And so, that's the plan. 

Q. My question is regarding Season Four. What do you think was Melendez to Shaun? Are there any seasons for Shaun to recapture the relationship with Melendez in this season like Clair did? 

A. You never know. I feel like the unexpected return of Dr. Melendez in these first two episodes felt right emotionally. It felt right for Claire especially and what she's going through. And so it's hard to predict the future. But I think it shows that there is an opportunity for Melendez to still be a part of the show, whether it is on screen, or whether it's simply his presence that will continue to be felt around the hospital. 

Q. So every season we are very excited to watch the drama in Japan, and, can you tell me, every time you have a script, how are you enjoying? And, how are you enjoying this season? 

A. Yeah, well, this season it's new for me. Because I have to use the iPad now. I was very used to my, hard copy script. I really enjoyed, like, getting the script. And, sort of flipping through it and writing my notes on it. And, now I've become all modern, especially because one of the many protocols that we have on set is, trying to limit the amount of paper that is shared, and, people handing things to each other,  and so, that is the result of that. So, yes, I'm still as excited as ever to read the script, even if it now takes a different form in my hand, which seems somewhat less exciting when you have all the scripts in one thing, rather than like a huge pile of them, which always felt nice. But, it continues to be exciting, and it continues to be challenging as a show, and I think the character of Shaun is always evolving, which makes him a joy to play. I think, people's misconceptions, perhaps, about autism is that, people who have autism can't change, or can't learn, and grow over time, and, of course, that's not true. And I think that's one of the really exciting things of getting to play Shaun is seeing him come in, as a naive, young doctor at his first day, first real day at work at a hospital, and then taking him through this wonderful journey. And in Season Four, what's exciting is we get to see him for the first time be responsible for other people. We've got lots of new ultimately gonna be four new residents who are coming in, whom Shaun is responsible for and has to be a boss. And that's gonna be a struggle for him. He is great in terms of his medical wisdom and knowledge that he can impart is amazing, but he'll certainly struggle when it comes to the more personal side of that role of being a boss. 

Q. Um, so you touched on it a little bit before, but, um, I'm-I'm curious to know how-how has the pandemic affected you personally. How has it affected you good and bad? 

A. Um, I'd say, I feel very lucky to have remained safe, and healthy. I think a lot  of us are-similar to what I was saying about the show, in these moments, I think, has made us all very aware of the ways in which we're fortunate and aware of things that we might previously have taken for granted. I was in the UK we had just finished filming, I guess, when the world just seemed to change, and did change.  And, so, I was back in the UK for most of the time, with my family. 

Q. So, you have spent a lot of time in the water. And, it must been so hard to film that scene. So,  could you tell us a little bit of that behind the scenes story if there is any? 

A. Yeah, it was definitely a different type of episode. Suddenly-or couple of episodes, getting thrown into the-into an earthquake. It did feel different to what we were used to. In terms of the water itself, of course it was a little bit trickier to film than usual. But, I wish there was some sort of like, crazy story as to how it was really difficult. It was actually very well handled. So, it wasn't like we were there shivering in the cold. And they'd recycle it, and refresh the water and keep it clean. And, so, in a funny way, it was exciting to get to do something a little bit different, and have these wonderful, and quiet personal scenes with a  wonderful actress. It was nice of them to keep the water so warm.