Freddie Highmore is talking about the end of The Good Doctor.
The 31-year-old actor spoke to People about wrapping up the show after seven seasons on ABC, and saying goodbye to his role as Shaun Murphy.
“It’s funny looking back at the seven years, and I think it’s going to be so hard to say goodbye to this. We’ve gone through so much together,” he began.
“COVID came in the middle of filming, and so I think that especially forced us to bond together. We were the only people that any of us were seeing outside of an immediate family for a good couple of years, and so I think when you go through those things with people, it obviously brings you closer.”
As for series finale, airing Tuesday (May 21), he calls it a “satisfying” ending.
“It’s going to be a surprising ending but also an ending that I think is all good finales do: remind us of the beginning and tie together this journey that Shaun and all of our characters have been on. It will feel like in some ways we’ve come full circle, but at the same time see our characters off into the future.”
He also spoke to his performance, and portraying autism in a realistic way.
“That’s been the thing that’s most, and has always been, most important to me in playing the role. If there is anything I hope the show has done, I hope that in some small, tiny little way, it has helped challenge stereotypes, change people’s perceptions about autism. That would be the thing that certainly makes me most proud, and that was always our aim and intention.”
Freddie also spoke to saying goodbye to the character.
“He is so hopeful and optimistic. I feel that’s what people have over the years connected with about him, that he sees a good in people, that he reminds you, that even when we’re different — we’re all actually more the same than different — and I think hopefully he’s imbued me with, hopefully he’s made me a better person.”
As far as what’s next? “I honestly have no idea. It probably won’t sink in that it’s all over until they take a sledgehammer to the set. Seven years is a long time, and it’s also just hard right now to think about the end. … In some ways, it probably won’t sink in really until it is finally all over and they start taking a sledgehammer to the set.”
