Torchwood John Barrowman: 'I'd happily play Jack forever!'
Jul 5, 2011
TV Times magazine talks to John Barrowman about the new series of Torchwood...
Given the amount of death and destruction in a typical sci-fi blockbuster, the idea behind Torchwood: Miracle Day is thought-provoking isn't it?
"Everyone else wants to blow up the world, kill people off, annihilate humanity – for the writer Russell T Davies to look at what would happen if nobody dies, everyone lives on, is just fantastic."
Your character Captain Jack Harkness is already immortal, of course...
"It is not necessarily a wonderful thing, which Jack knows, having been immortal for a very long time. There are lots of negative sides to it. You might live forever, but you still feel pain. And how do we as a society deal with it when the population sky rockets? Within days the world would be overpopulated, there would be a food shortage, hospitals would be overrun."
This series was filmed in Cardiff and LA, how did you find Hollywood?
"We filmed all over LA, in Chinatown, out in the desert, up in the mountains; what is great is that it's one climate all year round, so if we want rain or snow, we just turn the machines on! Filming at the Warner Brothers film studios was just incredible. I bought myself a bicycle so I could explore it, and it has sets that double for New York, Washington DC, everywhere."
Do you still enjoying playing Captain Jack?
"This is going to sound really cheesy, but I don't care. I didn't ever expect to be involved in Doctor Who and now Torchwood as someone with an American accent, but the fact that Captain Jack was embraced by the British public, and that I, as an openly gay man, play a huge action hero is absolutely one of the biggest gifts that could ever have been given to me. I'm proud to represent that community, but Jack has become a hero to everybody, which is what makes me so thrilled. If someone said to me, 'John, you are only going to play Captain Jack Harkness for the rest of your life', I would be content."
Torchwood begins on Thursday July 14 at 9pm on BBC1
Given the amount of death and destruction in a typical sci-fi blockbuster, the idea behind Torchwood: Miracle Day is thought-provoking isn't it?
"Everyone else wants to blow up the world, kill people off, annihilate humanity – for the writer Russell T Davies to look at what would happen if nobody dies, everyone lives on, is just fantastic."
Your character Captain Jack Harkness is already immortal, of course...
"It is not necessarily a wonderful thing, which Jack knows, having been immortal for a very long time. There are lots of negative sides to it. You might live forever, but you still feel pain. And how do we as a society deal with it when the population sky rockets? Within days the world would be overpopulated, there would be a food shortage, hospitals would be overrun."
This series was filmed in Cardiff and LA, how did you find Hollywood?
"We filmed all over LA, in Chinatown, out in the desert, up in the mountains; what is great is that it's one climate all year round, so if we want rain or snow, we just turn the machines on! Filming at the Warner Brothers film studios was just incredible. I bought myself a bicycle so I could explore it, and it has sets that double for New York, Washington DC, everywhere."
Do you still enjoying playing Captain Jack?
"This is going to sound really cheesy, but I don't care. I didn't ever expect to be involved in Doctor Who and now Torchwood as someone with an American accent, but the fact that Captain Jack was embraced by the British public, and that I, as an openly gay man, play a huge action hero is absolutely one of the biggest gifts that could ever have been given to me. I'm proud to represent that community, but Jack has become a hero to everybody, which is what makes me so thrilled. If someone said to me, 'John, you are only going to play Captain Jack Harkness for the rest of your life', I would be content."
Torchwood begins on Thursday July 14 at 9pm on BBC1
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