argh so close yet so far!!

[prof_pangaea]

paterson joseph has confirmed he *was* under consideration for the eleventh doctor after all. i'm unsurprised, obviously. i think anyone who was paying attention to the way the media was spinning the rumours at the time had plenty of reason to believe they were true.

BE: You mentioned “Doctor Who” a minute ago. How much truth was there to the rumor that you were under consideration to play the Doctor?

PJ: (Hesitates for a very long time) Uh…a lot.

BE: Really? I wasn’t sure, because you never know about these things.

PJ: Yeah, a lot. But I can say no more.


still no word on the logistics of how we ended up with matt smith instead -- how far along negotiations with jospeh got, who withdrew (or whether it was mutual), etc. at least we know the bbc was willing to consider a black actor in the role, even though we didn't end up with one; and piers wenger, moff and co. didn't have a plan to try and cast a tall, lanky, big-haired white boy from the very beginning.

yeah, i am looking forward to s5 and smith and gillan and everything, but i cannot lie, i'm still missing our chance at paterson!eleven and a non-white doctor. :( here's hoping for twelve.

Comments

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Well, dammit, I'd been hoping I was tinfoiling to believe that rumor. I hope it wasn't higher-up intervention or fear of the possible audience reaction that ruled him out, but, maybe that's just naive.

[prof-pangaea.livejournal.com]

yeah, i would really, really like to know what actually went down and why. i mean, maybe joseph was like, "i'm not willing to do this much work for the pay you're offering," and the bbc were like, "um, we're in a budget crisis so instead of offering you slightly more money we will just find an unknown and pay him a quarter of what we would have paid you and save ourselves money *and* time." that would be entirely fair and unshady. the fact that casting then took no additional effort to find an actor of colour still sucks, but it sucks less than if someone was like, "yeah... so we're not going to risk fucking up our biggest moneymaker by hiring a black guy."

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

It's entirely possible that there's a non-skeevy explanation, and also we have no way of knowing how many actors were auditioned/seriously considered and how many of them were of color (or just how far "consideration" of PJ playing the part actually went in reality). At the same time, though, yeah, it would've been cool to have a non-white Doctor as more than just a theoretical exercise, and it would suck--though hardly be unprecedented thinking--if either Team Cardiff or the Beeb decided they "needed" another white guy of a certain age bracket.

[drho.livejournal.com]

There could be perfectly legitimate reasons for a non-disclosure agreement, but it's too bad that he can't say how far he went in the audition process.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd be interested to know if he were on the actual short-short list or just in the "Hey, what do you guys think of...?" rounds of competition.

[prof-pangaea.livejournal.com]

the article at least definitely makes it sound like it was beyond "hey what do you think of...?" other than that we don't know.

[biichan.livejournal.com]

*theorizes* Maybe he didn't want to commit to the role for as long as the Beeb wanted? Because I know with Matt he's there for three years minimum, with the Beeb possibly extending his contract to five depending.

[prof-pangaea.livejournal.com]

I know with Matt he's there for three years minimum

nope. i'm pretty sure he's got a contract that specifies one year for certain, which can be renewed for one or two further years (i forget which) after the first year is up. dunno if that's so the beeb can replace him if he's not popular enough or if it's so he can renegotiate for a higher salary if he ends up being very popular. (or mebbe both).

[biichan.livejournal.com]

Oh. Huh. I guess I heard wrong.