Doctor Who casting
Doing a bit of research on exactly how casting works in the new Who. Jon pointed out an interview with casting director Andy Pryor in DWM 376. From his remarks, it's clear that the series producers are involved at all stages of casting: it's a back-and-forth of suggestions between Pryor, RTD, Phil Collinson, and Julie Gardner. IIUC, the casting of smaller roles is generally done by audition. (I was interested to learn that Billie Piper won the part of Rose on the strength of her audition.)
For your interest, a couple of quotes from the interview:
"It's incredibly important to reflect the world that we live in, but we'd never cast anybody from an ethnic background if they weren't up to the part, because that'd be insulting to them, and to the audience, and to the show. But it's partly set in contemporary London, and partly on other worlds, on a futuristic Earth; I remain truer to reality when it comes to the historical stuff, because it would look slightly odd - tokenistic - if you cast an actor unbelieveably. But walk around London on any day of the week, look at the proportion of non-white faces that you see, and then watch TV drama and see what the proportion is - I don't think that it matches up. The scripts never specified that Mickey was a black character, but I knew that there was that choice, and Noel had the gravitas to make it work. Similarly, Freema is the first black actress to be cast as the companion, but that played no part at all in her getting the role. It was just that she was so fantastic, and we all loved her."
"Around the time that we were shooting [Army of Ghosts], Russell was thinking about the next assistant. We'd had our eye on Freema ever since she auditioned for the part of Sally in The Christmas Invasion, and he was watching the rushes, thought she was great, and we thought that we could make this work... I felt that we shold cast somebody who was relatively unknown in the audience's eyes [rather than following Billie with another 'big name']."
Still on casting, Den of Geek reports that the next special, Waters of Mars, includes Chook Sibtain (whom you may remember from the Sarah Jane Adventures) and Gemma Chan.
For your interest, a couple of quotes from the interview:
"It's incredibly important to reflect the world that we live in, but we'd never cast anybody from an ethnic background if they weren't up to the part, because that'd be insulting to them, and to the audience, and to the show. But it's partly set in contemporary London, and partly on other worlds, on a futuristic Earth; I remain truer to reality when it comes to the historical stuff, because it would look slightly odd - tokenistic - if you cast an actor unbelieveably. But walk around London on any day of the week, look at the proportion of non-white faces that you see, and then watch TV drama and see what the proportion is - I don't think that it matches up. The scripts never specified that Mickey was a black character, but I knew that there was that choice, and Noel had the gravitas to make it work. Similarly, Freema is the first black actress to be cast as the companion, but that played no part at all in her getting the role. It was just that she was so fantastic, and we all loved her."
"Around the time that we were shooting [Army of Ghosts], Russell was thinking about the next assistant. We'd had our eye on Freema ever since she auditioned for the part of Sally in The Christmas Invasion, and he was watching the rushes, thought she was great, and we thought that we could make this work... I felt that we shold cast somebody who was relatively unknown in the audience's eyes [rather than following Billie with another 'big name']."
Still on casting, Den of Geek reports that the next special, Waters of Mars, includes Chook Sibtain (whom you may remember from the Sarah Jane Adventures) and Gemma Chan.