John Barrowman: There’s
more to actor than swashbuckling Torchwood character
When Fan Expo Canada hits the Metro Convention Centre from Aug. 23 to 26, there
will be thousands of eager followers of Doctor Who and Torchwood
there to see John Barrowman, the omnisexual Captain Jack from those two series,
in the flesh — if you’ll pardon the expression.
But there
might be another group as well, smaller, but no less fanatical. That would be
the musical theatre fans for whom Barrowman is an idol, albeit one who has
never appeared, alas, in the Toronto area.
What kind of
a man can combine sci-fi and show tunes? Meet John Barrowman, the 45-year-old
Scottish-American for whom Anything Goes isn’t just the title of his
autobiography and one of his biggest theatrical hits but a motto that he lives
his life by.
“Don’t be
ashamed if who you are, don’t play into clichés,” is the advice Barrowman
dispenses over the phone from England, splashing in his swimming pool as he
does so.
“I’ve never
been ashamed of being gay, although it hasn’t always been easy,” says the
unapologetic Barrowman. “My family talked about everything, sex was not a taboo
subject when I was growing up and I had the best possible mixture of
influences: I had an European upbringing in the United States.”
Born in
Glasgow, Scotland, in 1967, Barrowman “grew up right in the heartland of
conservative America” when his father was transferred to the Caterpillar
factory in Joliet, Ill., in 1976. “But I did musicals all during high school
and spent the summer shovelling coal in a power plant.”
Barrowman
moved to San Diego to study theatre and then went on an exchange program to
England in 1989, where he instantly hit it big, playing the juvenile lead in Anything
Goes in the West End opposite Elaine Paige at the age of 22.
“And that was
it,” he laughs. “I don’t think I’ve stopped working ever since.”
He’s not
kidding. If you went to see any of the big musicals in London during the 1990s,
you probably saw Barrowman, who managed to star in most of them: The Phantom
of the Opera, Miss Saigon, Sunset Boulevard, Beauty and
the Beast — you name it. But by the
end of that decade he was getting a little restless and he broke out in a
variety of directions.
He still
speaks with passion of his performance in an obscure 1998 musical called The
Fix, directed by Sam Mendes and produced by Cameron Mackintosh, that landed
him an Olivier Award nomination.
“That was a
trip. I played a heroin addict who was wheelchair-bound. Sam was always after
me to go further, try something different. I learned from my research that
after a while addicts have to find new places to shoot.
“So at one
performance, instead of injecting into my arm, I pulled my underpants right
down, shoved my tackle to one side and injected into my crotch.”
Barrowman
roars with laughter at the memory.
“Cameron came
backstage afterwards and said, ‘Well, you’re never doing that again. Half the
audience fainted. Whether it was from the injection or seeing your equipment,
I’m not sure, but I’m not taking any chances.’”
He doesn’t
think it was directly linked to that experience, but Barrowman went to America
for a few years after that, appearing in TV series like Titans, losing
the lead in Will & Grace to Eric McCormack, and starring on Broadway
opposite Carol Burnett in Putting it Together.
He also
played the lead role of Bobby in the 2002 Kennedy Center production of Stephen
Sondheim’s Company, a performance about which I wrote at the time that,
“His voice hits every note of the Sondheim score with an aching purity that
says more about his yearnings than anything in the script, while his puppy-dog
playfulness is a tool that keeps deeper intimacy at bay.”
Barrowman now
admits that was “a life-changing moment for me. It thrust me into adulthood. I
was in my 30s at the time, but acting like a kid. After that, I learned to
commit fully in everything I did.”
It’s a good
thing he did, because his biggest break was to come along a few years later, a
role for which his total commitment was necessary.
When the
legendary series Doctor Who was brought back to the BBC in 2005, “I got
word there was going to be a swashbuckling character that the creative team
thought I’d be great for.”
The role was
Captain Jack Harkness, a time traveller from the 51st century who was indeed
dashing and larger than life, but also sexually omnivorous and not ashamed of
any of it.
“No wonder
they thought of me,” jokes Barrowman, but he goes on to describe how nervous he
was the night that Russell T Davies and Phil Collinson (the head writer and
series producer of the new Doctor Who) came to see him in a revival of
his first London hit, Anything Goes.
“I think they
came to see the show to discover if I was still hot as I was when the pair of
them were thinking of casting me in Queer as Folk,” says Barrowman.
They
obviously did, because an hour after the performance ended he received word
that he was Captain Jack.
When the
character proved incredibly popular, he was spun off in 2006 into a series of
his own, called Torchwood, but Barrowman later found out that was the
intention all along.
“Russell
thought of Captain Jack and Torchwood first, but the BBC said they
wanted him to redo and rewrite Doctor Who before going on to the other
series. Just to cover his bets, he put Captain Jack into Doctor Who
early on and it all worked out like he hoped it would. Clever lad, that
Russell.”
Barrowman
also attributes a lot of Captain Jack’s impact to the work that writer Steven
Moffat did in scripting the initial Doctor Who episodes where the
character appeared.
“He was
exceptional at taking the personality of the actor playing the role and weaving
it into the part. I hate the word ‘character,’ because I believe that on a TV
series you become the person you’re playing and vice versa.
“There’s a
lot of Jack that is like John and a lot of John that is like Jack.”
After four
series of programs, Torchwood went into hiatus, largely, claims
Barrowman “because Russell’s partner is not well,” but there remains
considerable pressure to resume production.
“You have to
understand that it’s not just Russell’s decision or the stars’ decision. It’s a
BBC decision as well. The fans want it to come back and I want to come back. I
love what it stands for.
“If I were a
young boy, aged 10 to 18 and I had a guy on television who I knew was openly
gay, playing the hero, it would have made my life a lot easier.”
Early in
Barrowman’s career, he relates how a famous closeted producer “once told me
never to let people know I was gay and I said, ‘I can’t believe you of all
people could tell me this.’
“If I wanted
to give a young gay performer any advice today, it would be this: if somebody
tells you that you shouldn’t be getting a role because you’re gay, tell them
that they’re wrong and then prove them wrong.”
FIVE FAVE
CAREER GOALS
Hollow
Earth
“It’s a book
my sister and I wrote and I’d love to bring it to movie or TV screens.”
True Blood
“I would love
to be on one of those wonderfully edgy cable TV series like True Blood
or The Walking Dead.”
Tonight’s
the Night
“I’d like to
do a North American version of this British TV series of mine, where people’s
performance dreams come true.”
Mack and
Mabel
“Jerry
Herman’s score for this musical is stunning, but I’d love to rewrite the book,
especially the ending, and produce it again.”
La Cage
aux Folles
“I adored
playing Zaza and would love to do it again. You want to talk saucy? Just let me
go in that one!”
Barrowman Brings TV Cash
to Millport
Millport residents
arose this morning to a new world; one filled with the promise of cold hard
cash or ‘Balamory bucks’ as news that Scots-born John Barrowman had secured
funding for a television series based on his and his sister Carole’s young
adult novel series Hollow Earth.
Millport
which The Sun is duty bound to call ‘sleepy’ is in Cumbrae, off Ayrshire, and
was the inspiration for the fictional telepaths John and Carole Matt and
Em’s own location, Auchinmurn.
Torchwood: Exodus Code
Is there no
end to John Barrowman’s talents? New from BBC Books in September is Torchwood:
Exodus Code, a new tale from the Captain Jack Harkness actor and his sister,
Carole E Barrowman.
This new
title from BBC Books is an epic thriller that finds Captain Jack and Gwen in a
race to save humanity itself…
In typical
Torchwood apocalypse style, it starts with a series of unexplained events. Earth tremors across the globe. Women being driven insane by their heightened
and scrambled senses. And the world is
starting to notice – the number one Twitter trend is #realfemmefatales.
Typically,
governments and scientists are bewildered and silent, and once again the world
needs Torchwood, but there’s not much of Torchwood left.
Were you pleased with the reaction to Hollow Earth?
CB:
“From the beginning, it was important to follow Matt and Em’s emotional
development as much as their supernatural developments and since one of
the critical conflicts of this book hinges on a terrible choice a
character makes, having that kind of arc turned things darker.”
There has been lots of demand from Torchwood fans for there to be an adaptation of Exodus Code. Is this something you’d be up for as a movie, TV series, webisodes or comic?
Do you miss the UK while working on Arrow? Are there any UK cult shows you’d like to appear on?
