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However, Wilde has chosen to spend her time on the other side of the lens. As Dr. Remy “Thirteen” Hadley on Fox’s hit medical drama House, Wilde plays an emotional stonewall foil to Hugh Laurie’s no-holds-barred Dr. Gregory House. Over the past two years, fans have seen the junior MD save lives just as her own has spiraled out of control. When Thirteen tested positive for Huntington’s disease, her bisexual trysts and her rebellion—including several drug experimentations and other reckless acts—have made for some serious edge-of-the-couch television viewing.

But when it comes to film, Wilde’s latest project is a 180-degree turn from her primetime role. As Princess Inanna in The Year One, the actress trades tragedy for comedy, starring opposite famed funnymen Jack Black, Michael Cera, David Cross, Paul Rudd, and Hank Azaria. At press time the stars are quite tightlipped about the film’s premise, but with director Harold Ramis and producer Judd Apatow also attached, The Year One promises laughs of incredible proportions.

CAPITOL FILE: You were raised in DC; are there any favorite places that you go back to visit?
OLIVIA WILDE: I don’t go back enough! I was raised in Georgetown, and every time I go back I’m just floored by how beautiful it is—the cobblestone streets, the beautiful trees.... It was a wonderful place to grow up because of the freedom I was given. I was able to walk around Georgetown with my friends when I was 12, and I remember we would go and buy pink hair dye at Commander Salamander or candy at CVS and then go to Dumbarton Oaks. We also had wonderful schools. I went to Georgetown Day School [up until the eighth grade, before leaving for Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts], which is a fantastic school where I was hoping the little Obamas would go!

CF: Did growing up in DC make you more interested in politics?
OW: I think everyone grew up with a sense of political awareness that was really healthy. It left everyone well equipped for what we didn’t know would come—the dark ages under the Bush presidency. I think there’s a huge similarity between Los Angeles and DC, because each city is built for one industry, and everyone there talks about that constantly. Here, you can’t throw a rock without hitting a producer, and there it’s a congressman.

CF: When was the last time you were in DC?
OW: I was back for the 2008 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner—that was a lot of fun. It’s funny when the Hollywood and DC worlds collide. I remember looking across the dining room and seeing Pamela Anderson and the girls from The Hills chatting with Karl Rove and I was like, Oh my God, I don’t know if I’m in hell or if this is a strange Fellini movie.

CF: You really got involved in the recent presidential campaign.
OW: I think the tremendous support from the Hollywood community for President Obama was really kind of invigorating for [LA]. People came together as a community over something that had nothing to do with themselves or movies or television. People may scoff and say, “Why are actors telling people whom to vote for?” And I completely understand where they’re coming from. But for me it wasn’t about being on television that qualified me to tell these college students in Missouri whom to vote for; it was about the fact that certain students might find me recognizable, giving me the opportunity to talk to them about their own power as citizens. I really feel that the actors I met on the campaign trail will have friendships that will outlast all the silliness and the kind of temporary nature of [Hollywood].

CF: Tell me more about your work with 18 in ’08.
OW: 18 in ’08 is all about empowering young people to vote. It’s nonpartisan, and I got involved after filmmaker David Burstein contacted me. He was a student at Haverford College and made this wonderful film about the power of the youth vote in America, the history of it, and the importance of it in the 2008 [presidential] election. He asked me to be on the advisory board and to film a PSA, which I did, along with actors such as Peter Sarsgaard and Maggie Gyllenhaal. I’m a huge believer in the power of documentaries, and I think this one was great because it was made by someone young speaking to fellow young people, educating them about the history of their voting rights. [The fact that] 18-year-olds have only had the right to vote since 1972 seemed to be news to a lot of young people.

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CF: How did volunteering during the campaign affect you personally?
OW: I had been working to help organizations in other countries, whether it was Doctors Without Borders or the wonderful organization Power Up Gambia, which is building solarpowered medical clinics in Gambia. And I’m still involved with those things, but after working on this election, I’m like, I care about my own country! After eight years of feeling really cynical and unpatriotic, Obama has inspired me to take care of the people in America. I’m on the board of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California. It’s an incredible organization—the ACLU is one of the foundations encouraging and helping Obama to close [the prison in] Guantanamo and to revamp the justice system, to really undo all the damage that’s been done over the past eight years.

CF: And the “Support Obama” video on Funnyordie.com?
OW: Oh God, they’re so wonderful! Talk about smart political activists. I had a blast filming The Year One, which was produced by Judd Apatow. The producers knew I was politically active and trying to be socially responsible, so they were like, “Hey, let’s mix that with a Funnyordie.com video about an Ohio State girl!” We shot it in about 10 minutes and put it up. I think it’s great; they’ve really found a way to grab hold of the medium of online content and make it inspiring and freeing to a lot of young artists who think they can’t make anything because they don’t work through a studio.

CF: Let’s talk about The Year One. What attracted you to the project?
OW: It was one of the funniest scripts I’ve ever read. And the combination of the old- school humor of [director] Harold Ramis with the new-school humor of Judd Apatow was like the perfect storm. They’d already cast Jack Black and Michael Cera, who are both incredible talents and also hilarious, and I knew they were bringing in a lot of the Apatow family to play some of the smaller roles, so I wanted to be among that company.

CF: Can you tell us more about your character, Princess Inanna?
OW: I can’t, because the description of her character gives away so much about the movie! But I will say that the movie is sort of like a road trip through ancient times, and there are so many bizarre characters in the movie that people will recognize from history. I just had so much fun being one of them.

CF: Was it nice to do a comedy as compared to a drama series?
OW: Yes! Oh my God, even going to dinner with the cast after work was fun—like, to the point where you can’t breathe, you’re choking on your Indian food kind of fun. One of the reasons I became an actress was because of Saturday Night Live. Comedy was always the thing I wanted to do but I also have a lot of fun playing dramatic roles, and if you look at people like Cate Blanchett and the goddess Meryl Streep, I think there’s a way to do both. When The Year One came up it was the perfect fit and perfect time because it had been written long before the writers’ strike, magically making the film fit perfectly into the gaping hole the strike left in the House shooting schedule.

CF: Besides being entertaining, the weird diseases they cure on House are just mesmerizing.
OW: Once a week the writers bring to the set a packet of strange medical mysteries that are compiled by their research assistant. To me, each one is more amazing than the next, but they’ve seen so many incredible mysteries at this point that they’re like, “Oh yeah, this is sort of like the other one where she had the hairball in her stomach, and that’s kind of like the one who got decapitated, but it turns out it was epilepsy and it came from moldy bread.” They work very hard to find these tricky diseases that can be one thing and maybe another, could be fatal, probably fatal, then you get brought back to life, and then ta-da!—House can save you in act four.

CF: Your character is bisexual, has Huntington’s disease, and has all these complicated emotional scenes. That must be fascinating for you as an actress.
OW: During the episodes in which a sick patient took a few people hostage it was really interesting, because the whole time Thirteen is kind of the martyr; she’s found this easy and quick way out of this very difficult life she has ahead of her, and in the meantime she can save everybody’s life. When she gets to the point where taking all these drugs could kill her, that’s when she makes the decision to live. And as an actress, that was probably one of the most interesting moments I’ve ever been given the chance to play.

CF: Between that episode and the Huntington’s, are you afraid of your character randomly being killed?
OW: I’ve got the sword hanging over my head. At any point, if I ask for too much money they could go, “Whoosh, there goes Thirteen.” Or she stepped in front of a car. It’s just so easy to kill me, I really have to behave.

CF: The show just got nominated for a Best Ensemble SAG Award and Golden Globe and People’s Choice Awards. What was that experience like?
OW: The whole nature of the SAG Awards is people within the union honoring one another, and in such a competitive line of work, actors don’t often say nice things about other actors. Being honored as an ensemble is something new for the show and something really exciting, and it brings us together as a cast. Already there’s wonderful camaraderie—everyone is low-key, very humble, and very friendly, and I think the rest of the cast is properly deferential to the incredible talents of Hugh Laurie. I’ve only been on the show for two years, but one of the things that really surprises me is despite the fact that House is a hit show and has been for years, [the cast and crew don’t] operate like it’s one. It’s as if they’re always the underdog. They’re really shooting for quality. I think it says something that we were the only network [drama] nominated for a Golden Globe. Everyone is really excited about this season and happy that we get to go to parties and give ourselves pats on the back. But when people have been working as hard as the writers and producers on House, it’s well deserved. ★