Chris Eccleston

[ivymutant]

On a forum elsewhere it came up about Eccleston refusing to be in the 50th show, and someone replied that they hated actors like that, who acted like it was beneath them, and was probably just bitter than 10 provided so popular compared to him.

However I remember his stated reason for leaving was not wanting to be type cast, and there were rumours

Comments

[lycoris]

I found this interview here which says it was less the backstage people and more the higher-ups that he really hated. I've read something like that from a different source too (although I can't source it ciurrently - other things I've found all use this as their source) So I think it was partly that he didn't want to be type cast (although deciding to be the Doctor was a pretty daft mood, you don't get to shake that off by leaving after a season!) but partly because of issues. (also, I have read that filming that year was a mess because nobody knew what they were doing but Eccleston got pretty angry at how the actors were treated - he doesn't mention it there but I remember that because I believed it!)

There was an article somewhere where John Barrowman said he liked working with Tennant better than Eccleston but it was pretty harmless, just a "Oh, David was really fun, Chris was pretty serious." kind of thing.

So yeah. That's what I know and I don't think he refused the 50th anniversary out of any bitterness because Ten was more popular - but perhaps lingering bitterness over the BBC may have played a part.