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Dr. Who Series Star Quits
TinheadNed writes "The day after the BBC confirmed there will be a second Doctor Who series next year, as well as a Christmas special, new Dr Who actor Christopher Eccleston has revealed he will not continue in the role, for fears of being typecast. Billie Piper, who plays his assistant Rose, will probably continue in her role."
Now they'll have to come up with some sort of complicated plot device to explain why the Doctor looks different next season! ...oh, wait.
That green slime had it coming.
You play one eccentric, British Time Lord, and central casting want you to play them all.
Unfortunately, I am not Wil Wheaton
Read "I Am Not Spock" by Leonard Nimoy sometime if you want to know the answer.
The bottom line is that too many people see *Spock* (or in this case, the Doctor) after a while, and not Nimoy (or Eccelston).
Nimoy played Tave (sp?) in Fiddler on the Roof, and had a number of other successful roles in film and theatre, but how many people here (or anywhere) would know that?
But show anyone a picture of them, and they don't say "Nimoy!" they say "Spock!".
Yes, it can be a help to your career (as for Nimoy, he could play the one character forever and anywhere), but a lot of serious actors want to show that they have talent and depth, and being typecast largely prevents that.
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... that he would have considered the typecasting possibility earlier ...
could it be that he could not agree with the Beeb as to how much he would be paid for a second season?
He had nothing to fear about a second season typecasting him. he was typecase at 17:05 last saturday when he poked his head around a door and said "hello, I'm the doctor"...
A friend of mine was in London on Saturday, when he came back in to work on Tuesday he said, "guess who I saw in london on Saturday?, Doctor Who", not Chris Eccleston, Dr Who... jobs already done...
This is not always necessarily true...
For example, I really liked Jean-Luc Picard's role as Professor X in the X-men movies.
Dr Who actor Christopher Eccleston has revealed he will not continue in the role, for fears of being typecast.
Now everyone will just remember him as "that jerk who quit Dr. Who after one season because he was afraid of being typecast".
Read "I Am Not Spock" by Leonard Nimoy sometime if you want to know the answer.
Read his later book "I Am Spock" and you'll find he's recanted a lot of his thinking on the matter.
Trolling is a art,
javax.media.bbc.BadTypecastException: actor does not want to be typecast.
--Rob
Towards the Singularity.
And of course if you want to complete the full Leonard Nimoy cycle, you must read "I Am Also Scotty"