David Tennant talks about filming Good Omens and Doctor Who at the Globe
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David Tennant at Fan Expo Dallas 2024, 9.6.2024
Fan: Two of your most iconic roles, the Doctor and Crowley, they have scenes that span all of history, and I was just wondering, what was your favourite historical era to portray yourself in and why for both characters?
David: Well, both characters got to visit Shakespeare's Globe, and both times we got to film in Shakespeare's Globe, which exists in London - for anyone who wants to know - they rebuilt the theatre that Shakespeare would have performed in with his company of players, it's been rebuilt in the banks of the Thames, close towhere it would have been, and it's been rebuilt in as much historical detail as possible. And it now runs as a theatre. It's got a full cycle of plays. You can go to London tomorrow and se a show there. And as a set to film on it's the most extraordinary thing. It's completely realised. So you stand in this kind of circular place and you look around and you're in Elizabethan England. It's fantastic. So we got to film there on Doctor Who, which was wonderful, and we got to for Good Omens as well. So both those characters were filming those scenes which were supposed to take place in that time in the most extraordinary sense, that could never be... no production would be able to make it in such extraordinary detail. That was a real treat. So that was for both of those characters that would be... for me I'd say that was the most kind of immersive experience anyway.
on a real note that bit near the end of the video was genuinely haunting. hearing somerton talk about how gay writers are erased from history was one thing (with all the irony being that he stepped on the backs of numerous underpaid, underprivileged and uncredited queer writers to build his youtube channel) but when h revealed it wasn't even somerton's quote in the first place? the worst, most crushing sort of irony. how do you lament about the erasure of gay people and gay writers in history... whilst erasing a gay writer and taking his words as your own?
"Have you forgotten sir, we were at war? A fight with an alien race for the very survival of our species. I feel I must remind you that it is an undeniable, and may I say fundamental quality of man, that when faced with extinction, every alternative is preferable."
"When you spend every day fighting a war, you to demonize your attackers. To you, they're evil, they're subhuman. Because if they weren't, what would that make you? What I'm trying to say... is I've been afraid to see you for what you really are. You're our brothers. Our sisters. And the things we've done to one another are unforgivable."
"These guys want to use us, take us away from our families, and send us all over the dad-gum galaxy just to test if their agents are ready for the big fight? Well... guess I'm interested in showin' em exactly what a big fight is all about! So I'm not ordering you to go. I ain't even asking. You do what you gotta do, Private."
came from the same series whose standard fare is lines like:
"What in the hell are you two doing?" / "We're being executed by our own men, sir." / "Cut it out."
"I only drink the blood of my enemies, and the occasional strawberry yoohoo."
"You always said I could sleep when I’m dead, Sarge, and guess what? I am dead. This purgatory is about to become purga-snore-y, yawn!"
...and both categories manage to be a poignant statement about the nature of war and what it does to the people in it.
since its the last day of the midnights era - what are your top three songs from midnights, which music video is your favourite, and what's your favourite midnights performance on the tour?