If someone like Nighy is famous for being a good actor, is it really stunt casting?
Amusing IMDB rumor for the Christmas special
- Thread starter The Nth Doctor
- Start date
In that case is Michael Gambon stunt casting?
Stunt casting implies that you cast someone solely because they are popular with your target audience. Now, i'm not really "down" with the kids anymore, i don't know a lot about hippity hop and Snoopy Snoopy Dog Dog, but i am fairly certain that most kids don't hang around the playgrounds discussing how cool Michael Gambon and Bill Nighy are.
James Corden you could maybe argue was stunt casting. But then it could also have been part of his contract with the BBC which apparently stipulates the annoying tit has to be all over the schedule during the World Cup.
Or it could have been that he's a quite good comic actor able to portray the part they wanted portraying? Again we need to differentiate between the actor and the part. I don't like what I've seen of Corden as a person, but he was a good choice for that part in the lodger. Conversly I've no great love for Peter Kay, and then he was rubbish in Dr Who. I wasn't a great fan of Tate pre-Donna either. Moving away from Who, as a huge Quantum Leap fan I was really jazzed that Bakula was going to be in Enterprise, but in actuality he was horribly miscast.
I am a hypocrite, because I was one of those vociferous anti-Craig fools when he was announced as Bond, but that situation did teach me a valuable lesson, wait until you see the person in action before you dis them. (which is why I was quite chilled about the whole Matt Smith casting)
So Katherine Jenkins might be rubbish, she might be good. Why don't we wait and see...
Well I guess if you're getting a really famous/good actor to play a small part then it might be construed as that, but then though the role was minor it was important that it had a lot of gravitas. By the same token was the use of Vanessa Redgrave in Atonement stunt casting because she was only in it for a few minutes?
And of course it isn't like stunt casting is anything new for Who.
Hale and Pace in Survival anyone? Or even Nicholas Parsons as Wainright in Fenric (for me the classic example of someone being loads better than you would ever expect them to be)
Last edited:
James Corden was actually on ITV not BBC for the world cup.
Then why are people calling it stunt casting for the christmas special? The only stunt casting has been maybe Patrick Moore and a couple of other celeb cameos, everyone else, Peter Kay included, are all actors and have acted in other stuff besides Doctor Who.
Norton is a regular guest star on the show, and always pissed off the entire audience
I don't see the hoohah over Jenkins. She's a pretty opera-cum-pop singer who sings the Welsh national anthem at rugby matches and, once, the FA Cup final. I know fandom needs a bee in its bonnet at all times to survive, but dear god. Leave her be. What the hell has she done to anyone?
/Welsh solidarity rant over.
As HappyDayRiot noted, people need something to bitch about.
It's actually quite funny in that, for most people outside of the UK (myself included), we are oblivious to the "stunt casting" of most any episode. Sure, I recognized Bill Nighy. But, then again, I loved him in Love, Actually and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy before now. However, I couldn't tell you (without Google) who James Corden, Michael Gambon, or Katherine Jenkins are! They would just be actors to me, just like Billie Piper was when I met her as Rose.
The only "advantage" I would say, in not being the target demographic...
The only "advantage" I would say, in not being the target demographic...
The definition is always going to be inherently relative, but I'd argue that it's stunt casting if you're distracted by who the actor is rather than what the actor is doing. If you're busy going, "Hey, it's that guy/woman from [_______]!" then it's stunt casting.
^So you're basically saying any well known actor or actress who's had a popular role previously is stunt casting?
Well personally I don't think if someone is famous for being an actor that it should be considered stunt-casting. Simon Callow was, imo, without a shadow of a doubt the best (or at least, one of the best) person around to play Dickens in The Unquiet Dead. Anything else really is kind of irrelevant - the fact that he had achieved a degree of fame prior to that should not be cause for any gnashing of teeth.
I would think the inherent definition of stunt casting would be getting celebrities not normally associated with, say, a television show....or acting. Celebrities that would inherently create their own buzz or attraction to the show, based on their name alone. For example, Kylie Minogue was stunt casting. Bill Nighy would be a famous cameo. I feel there is a difference in there, as one is a celebrity and the other an actor...
Similar threads
