While speculation continues as to who will be replacing Peter Capaldi in the lead role of ‘Doctor Who’, Scottish actor Alan Cumming has revealed that he was previously approached for the role – twice – but there was a deal-breaker that could not be overcome.
Alan, now a global star due to his role in TV show ‘The Good Wife’, has often cropped up in discussions about potential new Doctors, but he revealed during an interview for Listowel Writers’ Week in Ireland that he was previously approached to play him.
Although he didn’t say when the conversation happened, it was with “that lovely Welshman”, presumably Russell T Davies, who originally rebooted the show back in 2005, so it sounds as though it was pretty early on, before Matt Smith, and perhaps even before David Tennant inhabited the iconic TV role.
Discussions appeared to be going well, until, as Alan remembered, he was told: “You’ll have to come back to Britain.”
Alan, who has been longtime based in New York where he has made a successful career on Broadway, remembered: “I said, ‘Sure, I still have a flat in London, it’d be perfect.’
But…
“Then he said, ‘It’s eight months of the year in Cardiff…” And I said, ‘What?’
“And I think that might have been what blew it.
“Nothing against Cardiff, but…”
According to Alan, the same thing happened more recently, when he encountered one of the show’s writers Mark Gatiss. Alan revealed:
“He had heard of this [previous discussion], and he said, ‘Would you like to be Doctor Who now?’
“I said, ‘Fine, I’d love to, but they [previously] told me I’d have to go to Cardiff for eight months of the year ‘ and he said, ‘Oh no, you’d still have to do that.’
Alan explained: “I’d do anything for Doctor Who, but I won’t do that.”
Speculation as to who will replace Peter Capaldi at the end of this year continues, with the identity of the 13th Doctor as yet unknown. The most recent name in the frame belongs to ‘The I.T. Crowd’ star Richard Ayoade.
