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IGN Interview: John Barrowman
IGN Interview: John Barrowman
The Torchwood star talks aliens, horror and being England's second-best known sci-fi icon.
by Travis Fickett

September 14, 2007 - Torchwood isn't the kind of science fiction series you're used to seeing; at least not in America. It has all the hallmarks of the genre, with aliens, futuristic technology and that sense that anything could happen. It also has a decidedly adult sensibility, where people curse, have sex, and the violence is a bit more…violent. From this description you'd never guess that Torchwood is about Jack Harkness, a character originally seen in Doctor Who, a program that is decidedly for the family and at least partially meant for children.

Playing Jack Harkness is John Barrowman, an "American speaking Brit/American-crossover" actor who instantly vaulted to icon status when he appeared as a companion to Christopher Eccleston's Doctor in the first series (what Americans would call a "season") of the new Doctor Who. It wasn't long before Doctor Who producer Russell T. Davies created Torchwood with Barrowman reprising his role as Jack Harkness in the lead role.

It took a while for Torchwood to immigrate to the U.S, but it has finally arrived on BBC America. We had a chance to talk to Barrowman who was stateside promoting the American release of the first series, a task that required him to take a break from shooting the second series - which will feature not only Freema Agyemen (Martha Jones on Doctor Who), but a guest appearance from Buffy the Vampire Slayer's James Marsters.

IGN TV: So I believe it was you or Russell T. Davies who once said the BBC doesn't want Torchwood referred to as "Doctor Who for Adults."

John Barrowman: Well, in the UK it was marketing that way in the beginning. Because we wanted to not bring the children to this show, for the whole reason that there are adult themes in it. It's the discretion of the adults to monitor what their kids are watching. And the press were very adamant about us not promoting sex and such to kids, and that's why we put the adult version in there. We're our own entity, the only thing that relates Doctor Who to Torchwood is Captain Jack. Because he's the character who goes between the two. Torchwood is his own while with The Doctor he's a companion. So I would say it's more an adult drama than it is an adult version. If adult means it has sex and swearing and violence, than yes, that's what it is. The thing that Russell doesn't like calling it is a spin-off.

- BBC
John Barrowman as Jack Harkness in Torchwood

IGN TV: Was there ever talk about having you play a different character and not even having it be Captain Jack from Doctor Who?

Barrowman: In Torchwood? No. If you go back to even before Doctor Who when Julie Gardner and Russell Davies began to discuss it, Russell actually had the idea that he wanted to do a TV show about a group of five people that were based in the UK to fight alien technology and they were a sexy crime fighting organization. That was going to be called Excalibur. And then they said "Well, let's talk about Doctor Who. So Doctor Who happened and Jack was written into Doctor Who at about episode nine, for five episodes. And the public, I don't know why, took to him and loved him. He's become iconic. The Doctor and Jack are now the two iconic science fiction figures in the UK. And that's when they said look, let's have Jack head Torchwood, this Excalibur organization. We'll call it Torchwood, which is an anagram of "Doctor Who," which keeps it all in the family. And Jack will go off and do Torchwood and his story will start there, but he'll be linked to Doctor Who and we can bring him back in. And it's worked out to be the most - excuse me - f***ing brilliant job I've ever done in my life.

IGN TV: So David Tennant has often said that he grew up wanting to be Doctor Who.

Barrowman: Yes, if David wasn't Doctor Who, I would love to be Doctor Who myself.

IGN TV: But you grew up here, right?

Barrowman: Well, I grew up in the UK until I was 9. I was born and raised in Glasgow, and then I came over to the states in 1976 and I watched Doctor Who here on PBS. So I totally am a Doctor Who fan - that's one thing about this team. By team I mean myself, David, Russell, Julie, all the different people involved, we are all fans. We're all sci-fi boffins, nerds, geeks, you call us anything you want. But we are there making these programs that are like - total sci-fi wanking sessions. David always wanted to be the Doctor. He wrote a paper once in school about why he wanted to be Doctor Who. I on the other hand, would love to be involved but I could never figure out how they could integrate an American speaking Brit-American crossover into a program like that. And lo and behold, how many years later Russell comes up with this amazing character that becomes part of the world of Doctor Who. And if anything, equal to - and it's just stunning. I can't explain to you how exciting it is for me.

IGN TV: So the American speaking happened as you lost your accent here at school?

Barrowman: It's funny, when I'm with my sister, who is here with me, the moment, [on the word 'moment,' Barrowman slips into a moderately thick Scottish brogue.] and my family who lived in the U.S., when I'm with them I speak with a Scottish accent. When I'm with David (Tennant) we speak Scottish together. And the reason I speak with an American accent is because when I went to school kids used to make fun of my accent, and as any young kid at any age you don't want to be bullied or made fun of and that's why [he slips back into his usual American accent] I learned to speak with an American accent. So, like Hispanic Americans are bi-lingual, speaking Spanish in the house and English outside, I do that with accents.

IGN TV: Do you consider one of them to be the natural one?

Barrowman: It's just both. If I'm angry, I think in Scottish. I'm not conscious of what it is - it just happens to be if I hear one. If I hear American, I speak with that accent, when I'm in England it's this quasi kind of blend of English American. Scotland though, it's my Scottish accent, no question.

IGN TV: So is Jack American?

Barrowman: Jack is from 51st century America…so I'm told. It could change.

IGN TV: Do you ever slip up on set, using the wrong accent?

Barrowman: No, I don't. When I first met David, because I met him and we spoke Scottish together and we socialized for a while prior to working together. And then when we started working together I started using the American accent and I said to him "David, this is just too f***ing weird." So I have to differentiate, but it's fairly easy since Jack is not John. There's a bit of me in him that comes across, but Jack is completely different than what I am.

IGN TV: Is it true that Russell Davies had you in mind when he created Jack Harkness?

Barrowman: Apparently so. It's probably not a direct quote, but these are similar to the words he used. He said "We came up with this character of" - and these are the words he used - "a good looking, leading man, sexy American who was confident, cocky and so on" - and he said the only person that we could think of that came to mind was John Barrowman. So I was so over the moon, and what a great compliment for them to say that, but that's how it came about.

IGN TV: So how did Jack's "omni-sexuality" come about?

Barrowman: In the 51st Century, nobody cares. His attitude towards sex is that Jack would shag anything with a zip code. Doesn't matter. To quote a musical, "any hole will do." But Jack doesn't look at it as being sex, but as a relationship. And in Torchwood we touch on relationships with human, with aliens, boy-boy, girl-girl, boy-girl-boy, we do all that stuff because although people don't like to admit that's what happens in real life.

- BBC
Jack and the Torchwood team.

IGN TV: This was all hinted at in Jack's flirtation with Chris Eccleston's Doctor.

Barrowman: Are you talking about the kiss? That wasn't really meant as a flirtation.

IGN TV: It's not just the kiss but there was often a level of flirting in Jacks' interplay with The Doctor.

Barrowman: Oh yeah, but that's Russell. My mate Max Beasley is here promoting Hotel Babylon and Max is 100% heterosexual but he flirts like crazy with me. And I flirt with him. It's just life, I think that kind of things happens in life more than people are willing to admit. If they don't see it, I think they have to open their eyes a bit. I think there's a repression there. I think everyone in this room has flirted with someone [of the same sex]. It might have been undertone, but you've done it.

IGN TV: Your character did seem to introduce the idea of the Doctor's sexuality. And maybe the idea that the Doctor himself is pansexual, or is he just a-sexual?

Barrowman: Well, The Doctor falls more so for his female assistants. He does have a deep love for Rose Tyler. There's no doubt about that. The Doctor's problem is coming to terms with that love. The Doctor has a lot of history to deal with dealing with him being the last surviving Time Lord. So therefore he commits to being an individual rather than getting involved in relationships. That's why he's always with the female assistants, and lets them go. And there's a comment later on, where Martha says "What do you mean, you just take us somewhere and you dump us?" And I turn and say to her, "Yeah, but not if you're blonde." The Doctor has traveled so much through time and seen so many different societies and so many different types of people. So Jack is not a problem to him, and he knows about flirtation. I wouldn't say that The Doctor is omni-sexual though.

IGN TV: Lately it seems that there are very few shows about the future. Even Battlestar Galactica is about someone else's future, and it comes off feeling almost contemporary. There's no Star Trek anymore. So ideas like "Someone from the 51st Century" doesn't care about sexual orientation - those ideas are lacking on TV.

Barrowman: I think people are afraid.

IGN TV: Of the future?

Barrowman: How do I say this without fitting into some political box? America is fearful at the moment. They're fearful of anything different, any change - and I say this as an American citizen, even if I'm also a British subject and live elsewhere. America is very afraid of different change and if there's any change coming it's thrust down your throat as being bad, wrong, something to fear. The word "terror" is always used. One thing that we're not afraid of in British drama is to tackle that, to introduce change through instigation in your viewing and programming. American programming has largely lost that at the moment. There was a time when they did do it - like Star Trek.

IGN TV: Though that seems like a benign form…

Barrowman: Hey, benign helps! If it's benign and it goes into you subliminally while viewing, you still get it somewhat. You know what I mean? But in the UK we like to put it in your face a little more. Americans have gone, in a way, from living with free speech and being outspoken and saying "we're going to stand up for this," don't do that so much in programming on television. Maybe that's why there's this British invasion of sorts on television, because people are starving for it. It might be a lull, but once things change hopefully soon and for the better, maybe the programming will change. Things are censored, and you might not like to think it, but they are. They're censored a lot. I'm not saying what's happening in the states at the moment is good or bad, but there is a climate here and around the world.

IGN TV: I think it's safe to say that it's bad.

Barrowman: It's different because in the UK we just had two attacks. The very next day, every British person got up and did what they did the day before. No one was like "Oh my God, I can't go on the tube" or "Oh my God, I can't go on planes." When it happened in the United States the government put such a fearful edge in everyone's heads. Fear was thrust down our throats. Our airline industry, one of the best industries in the world, almost went bust - because every American didn't stand up and say "the way we fight it is to continue to live. To continue to fly on those planes."

- BBC
Jack with the TARDIS on Doctor Who

IGN TV: I've been told that the coverage of those attacks was fairly standard on BBC, while here it was wall to wall on CNN.

Barrowman: Of course it was. Our coverage of that lasted about six hours on the day, and the next day we were back to the rain.

IGN TV: They cover the rain?

Barrowman: It's the only f***ing thing that happens…

IGN TV: It certainly seems that politics informs Torchwood.

Barrowman: With Torchwood, and Doctor Who, the great thing is - in a way - we have our messages. We have our social and political messages within it, and in this series of Torchwood we cover a terrorist cell. We ironically finished up filming that episode a week before the airport bombings. You can do it and you can make it happen, and some people will get that message and get that political edge. Others will watch it for pure entertainment value, and that's one of the beauties of science fiction. That's the way television programming should be, I think. You should have that edge, which is where I think American programming is sugar coating it at the moement, but you should always have that edge where people can either say "I get that message" and others can say "That alien was totally cool."

IGN TV: Are you ever going to sing in Torchwood?

Barrowman: [laughs] Not yet! I'm trying to get Russell and Julie to agree to do a musical episode.

IGN TV: Buffy did it. And most of them can't sing.

Barrowman: Yeah! Well, James [Marsters] can sing.

IGN TV: Marsters actually said about his appearance on Torchwood that it will, and I quote, "Titillate some to the point where they will have to finish themselves off."

Barrowman: Oh yes, they will. In fact, both of us, in our own respective moods and manners, he went off with his girlfriend and I went back to my place and we finished ourselves off. It was one of the hardest sequences, it took 12 hours to shoot. It was one of the most unexpected thing that you can imagine happening. And it happens. And yes, there will be people flicking their beans or whatever.

IGN TV: So what do you think of Torchwood's chances in the U.S.?

Barrowman: When I was asked to do Torchwood and Julie and Russell spoke to me about it, people said do you feel pressure? The only thing I feel pressure about is continuing the integrity of the genre of science fiction. If audiences like it, fantastic. If they don't, I know I've done a good program and I'm proud of it. I hop that they like it, but I don't have any control over that. I do hope American audiences take to it, because it is something different and we've got everything in there for every part of society and it's just a good show. It's a good show. It's well written. The first season you're finding your feet, also. In the second series - it's so f***ing brilliant. I'm having a blast.

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