Peter Capaldi auditioned for Sisko in DS9!
- Thread starter StCoop
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Yeah, I saw this news from the Deep Space Nine documentary Facebook page. Sounds like we might see some of those audition clips in the documentary itself (or its extras).
But Capaldi's and Anthony Head's auditions wasn't the one that shocked me the most. Instead it was Siân Phillips for the role of Kai Opaka (as shown on the casting session sheet Trek Core tweeted).
But Capaldi's and Anthony Head's auditions wasn't the one that shocked me the most. Instead it was Siân Phillips for the role of Kai Opaka (as shown on the casting session sheet Trek Core tweeted).
He looks really young in those photos, and indeed he would have been in his mid-30s at the time. Avery Brooks was around 44 when the show started.
Truth be told, I really can't picture Capaldi as Sisko. As much as I like Capaldi as an actor, I'm glad Avery Brooks got the role of Sisko. IMO, he embodies the character in a way that no other actor really could.
Truth be told, I really can't picture Capaldi as Sisko. As much as I like Capaldi as an actor, I'm glad Avery Brooks got the role of Sisko. IMO, he embodies the character in a way that no other actor really could.
Anthony Head (Giles in Buffy), Ralph Brown (Danny the drug dealer from Withnail & I and Ric Olie from the Phantom Menace), Peter Firth (Spooks) and Keith Allen (now best known as father of Lily and Alfie) are also on the same list.
A Capaldi Sisko would of course have been interesting, but I suspect that they were never really going to follow one white male British actor with another as lead of a Trek series. I think I saw an interview yesterday with one of the DS9 makers who confirmed that this sheet is legit but that they were basically just doing their due diligence and that they'd all been determined to cast a non-white actor.
A Capaldi Sisko would of course have been interesting, but I suspect that they were never really going to follow one white male British actor with another as lead of a Trek series. I think I saw an interview yesterday with one of the DS9 makers who confirmed that this sheet is legit but that they were basically just doing their due diligence and that they'd all been determined to cast a non-white actor.
The first thing I remember seeing him in was The Crow Road, a tv version of an Iain Banks book, where he played the hero's gentle, hippyish uncle. No Malcolm or Doctor Who about him (well, maybe a little of Five or Eight, but no Twelve). He's really quite versatile.
^The series was really very good, as is the book. I looked again at the IMDb page and Peter had quite the head of hair in it. It struck me that I saw a repeat episode of his first run of DW a few weeks ago and he looked much less Doctor-ish in it. He looked like Malcolm Tucker dressing oddly. With the longer hair he wore in later episodes, I didn't see Malcolm at all - he was totally The Doctor.
Michael Piller, IIRC, was really interested in Alexander Siddig for Sisko after seeing him in a television movie about Lawrence of Arabia, but then he came in to read for the part and he realized how young Sid was.
That was Ira Steven Behr.
There seem to be a LOT of actors who auditioned to play Sisko. IIRC, Robin Sachs (several Minbari from B5, and General Valen* from VOY's "The Void") was also one of these people. I think he tried out for the EMH as well.
* they did that on purpose, didn't they?
* they did that on purpose, didn't they?
There seem to be a LOT of actors who auditioned to play Sisko. IIRC, Robin Sachs (several Minbari from B5, and General Valen* from VOY's "The Void") was also one of these people. I think he tried out for the EMH as well.
* they did that on purpose, didn't they?
I think Tony Todd aka Candyman aka Worf's brother Kurn aka The Visitor's adult Jake Sisko also auditioned.
^Whoops, I have to admit, I'd seen the link on Facebook yesterday and so commented here without realising that it was a link to the same story! *redface*
I don't really see Capaldi as a possible replacement for Avery Brooks' Sisko. I cannot even imagine him in that role at all. However, I could see him playing a station commander during the occupation – an Earth Kardassian running Terok Nor more ruthlessly than a native Kardassian commander would.
But that's the power of casting, isn't it? We utterly associate Sisko with Avery Brooks and all that he brought to the role. But had Sisko been played by a wiry 30-something Scotsman, we would associate the character with all of Peter's quirks and tics.
Apparently the makers of The Thick of It couldn't see Capaldi as Malcolm Tucker but gave him an audition anyway and we know how that went. The creator of Cracker envisaged a skinny, nervous bundle of energy - the director said 'Robbie Coltrane' and TV history was born. Margaret Mitchell, writer of Gone With the Wind, wanted Basil Rathbone, not Clark Gable, as Rhett Butler and Ian Fleming didn't want Sean Connery to play James Bond (but later said that if he was writing the Bond novels all over again, he'd rewrite them to make 007 more like Connery).
Yeah, I thought it a big mistake to give him a haircut before filming began. I wanted the hair right from the week they announced him in the role, so it was a happy relief they let it gradually return and then grow all the wilder. That suits the Doctor. It felt as right as when Sisko got to grow a goatee and shave his head.
He was also the prison guard "85" in Alien 3 and he played a shady Russian scientist in the first season of Agent Carter.
I'm just a bit weirded out seeing Capaldi that young, no make-up and not the most flattering lighting. He reminds me of me when I was in my late-20s.
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