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Actor Noel Clarke accused of harrassment

inflatabledalek said:
Oddly today is the third anniversary of me seeing Eccleston talk in Manchester.

He was entirely honest that he regrets doing blockbusters and he thinks he's terrible in them because his hadn't gotten his mind into the right place.

"My agent kept pushing me to do those roles. He'd say "You'll get lots of money, and afterwards you can use your raised profile to get the roles you really want to do".

Then what happens is your agent gets most of the money, you don't get the roles you really want, but you are stuck with having been in G.I. Joe".

He said a large part of doing The Leftovers was wanting to show Americans he could actually act. And he had a great time on that show.

As for Clarke terrible stuff and show's no lessons have been learnt from Saville a decade later. In particular that people still don't feel able to report problems.

And though Barrowman isn't on the same scale (he's even arguably unlucky that video of Clarke praising his cock out antics went viral after a former co-star of Clarke's retweeted it as otherwise I don't think he'd have become as focused on), the boys will be boys lol it's all a joke don't be so serious culture that stops anyone not liking it feeling they can say so culture is the same that enables abusers like Clarke.

There was an old quote from Freema doing the rounds where she talks about how anyone new on Torchwood (including her) would be freaked out by the penis waggling whilst all the old hands were non plussed.

Raising the question of why it was thought the right thing to do was persuade anyone new to the set it was all OK and good fun rather than just ask Barrowman not to do it.
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To point out chronology, Clarke hasn't been in Who since the Savile expose. More down to the change of showrunner and his now-aborted profile I suspect, but...
 
The really gross thing is that Clarke opened his defense with, "In a 20-year career, I have put inclusivity and diversity at the forefront of my work and never had a complaint made against me."

So he starts off by bringing up diversity, basically using every BAME person in the UK film industry he's ever worked with as a human shield against allegations.

It's the same thing Kevin Spacey did when he was revealed to be a sexual predator; when the evidence was overwhelmingly against him, he came out of the closet and used his homosexuality as an excuse / defense in the hopes that the LGBTQ+ community would rally around him as "yet another persecuted gay man." Clarke is obviously hoping for the same thing: That people of color will see this as a successful black actor being targeted because he's black, and speak out in support of him. It's a deeply, deeply cynical ploy.
 
Kevin Spacey's a pervy asshole, brought up in a weird abusive home, but I'm not fully sold on many of the worst allegations either (was he legally convicted?). Enough smoke to destroy his career mind you.

Lonemagpie said:
And I'm pretty sure that's what Clarke's mates are tryimg tp avoid, by guiding the attention to Barrowman at the BBC's Saville history....
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Noel Clarke a couple of years back recounted a story about John Barrowman getting his "weapon" out in front of cameras and a audience.
 
TedShatner10 said:
Noel Clarke a couple of years back recounted a story about John Barrowman getting his "weapon" out in front of cameras and a audience.
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Yeah, and the videos sudden appearance all over Twitter when Clarke was accused by a couple of dozen people is exactly what I mean.
 
Another guardian article this one talks explicitly about the Dr Who set.

This is interesting:

A Doctor Who actor, who asked to remain anonymous, has told the Guardian she was also sexually harassed by Clarke in the early seasons of the show.
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If we assume this actor was in more than one episode and across seasons that's a very limited pool of women?

More stuff about Barrowman too.

Clarke = Monster
Barrowman = Dick
 
Starkers said:
If we assume this actor was in more than one episode and across seasons that's a very limited pool of women?
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They might have used "early seasons of the show" as a general descriptor of when he was on not necessarily to imply that the actor in question appeared in more than one season.
 
Notable that they're pointing out that none of the victims were considering Barrowman threatening or predatory, but discomforting, and that it was dealt with (after the Guardian blew the whistle themselves) in 2008 - it all comes across as them knowing it's an attempted disraction from the predatory behaviour even as they have to mention it.
 
No big surprise to be honest as the BBC seems to have been a nice safe place for them all to hang out(no pun intended) for decades before Savile put them all under a microscope.
 
Lonemagpie said:
Yeah, and the videos sudden appearance all over Twitter when Clarke was accused by a couple of dozen people is exactly what I mean.
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That's getting a bit paranoid and I can recall Barrowman's inappropriate behaviour described on a DW fan/writer blog all the way back in 200-&-fucking-9, so it was widely circulated rumours and stories, and it took the nastier rumours to surface about Noel Clarke in the past few weeks, drawing attention back on to Barrowman's dirty laundry.

Anyway, is anybody here part of the judiciary, forensics, and legal trade? We can say what we want about Noel Clarke's alleged misconduct and he's most likely a self-important, insensitive dick at best, but we've entered a scary post mid 2000s era where millions have turned into a hive mind of being judges and juries, ruining people on the spot; when will we make the next step as executioners?
 
Barrowman's behaviour was never acceptable but there's a big difference between having the sense of humour of a three year old and aggressive sexual harassment.

I've met enough me nlike Noel Clarke in my life to know that in his head because he believes he's god's gift to women he can easily rationalise himself as the victim in this situation.
 
Starkers said:
Another guardian article this one talks explicitly about the Dr Who set.

This is interesting:



If we assume this actor was in more than one episode and across seasons that's a very limited pool of women?
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Damn. I wondered if that might have happened during Doctor Who, too. I'm glad they came forward to confirm such speculation but I hate that they also had to deal with his disgusting behavior.
 
TedShatner10 said:
That's getting a bit paranoid and I can recall Barrowman's inappropriate behaviour described on a DW fan/writer blog all the way back in 200-&-fucking-9, so it was widely circulated rumours and stories, and it took the nastier rumours to surface about Noel Clarke in the past few weeks, drawing attention back on to Barrowman's dirty laundry.
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No, the Guardian did a full expose of it in 2008 with his stuff, just as they did last week with Clarke's, so not it wasn't just rumours. It's that media forgets over 13 years.
 
Lonemagpie said:
No, the Guardian did a full expose of it in 2008 with his stuff, just as they did last week with Clarke's, so not it wasn't just rumours. It's that media forgets over 13 years.
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Oh, so Barrowman was already "exposed" in the media many, many years ago, though Noel Clarke somehow kept under the radar all this time.

I think Clarke's bad behaviour or lewd comments on NuWho may have happened when he guest starred in the last few episodes (he built up immunity), if he acted like that in his first couple of seasons (when more of a regular) Eccleston and others would've bad mouthed him a very long time ago.
 
Maybe others but probably not Eccleston. I don't think he has ever stated who it was he had bad blood with on the set (even though there's plenty of speculation regarding that). Eccleston strikes me as very professional wouldn't bad mouth anyone to the press, even those who acted horribly.
 
Chris Eccelston didn't intentionallg bad mouth anybody, but in this VERY old article, John Barrowman claimed Chris Eccleston was "grumpy" (Eccleston also felt the production was stressful, overstreched and chaotic for the opening season, with one producer in particular being very arrogant/unprofessional towards cast, crew, and extras, etc). Nothing hinted about Noel Clarke in S1/2. He got into a shouting match with RTD over Cardiff's early NuWho facilities being inadequate.

I've got a gut feeling Noel Clarke got worse around Kidulthood.
 
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The Clarke talking about Barrowman video had been on Twitter a couple of years. As far as I can tell it becoming so prominent was kickstarted by his season 1 Bulletproof (and only season 1) costar Christina Chong retweeting it as an example against him. It's clear from her other tweets she was not part of a distract from Clarke conspiracy (I think her point wasn't even about the anecdote but how visibly uncomfortable he's making the two women on stage by not shutting up about it).

The main defence of Barrowman, that everyone thought it was good fun and no one ever complained, has now been finally shot down by the reveal enough people did complain at the time for a formal disciplinary to happen.

Will buy the no one took it as more than a joke gone to far idea if some of the people who actually complained back it up.
 
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