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dontkillspikeTranscribed from James' interview featured on the Torchwood: The Death of Captain Jack audio story.
"I have been wondering when you guys would call and I remember, I was in bed with my wife, and she said 'You've gotta do some of these Torchwood radio shows,' and I said, 'You know what? I've been thinking the same thing. I'm gonna call Steve, my manager, and just see what's possible.'
I remember I was in London touring, with my band, Ghost of the Robot, and we couldn't get the tour manager to come out to dinner, Lisa Powers. She said that she wouldn't leave her hotel room because Doctor Who was on, and it was the second season premiere and she wouldn't miss it for anything. So she said, 'If you want to have dinner with me, we can have room service in my room,' and so we did, and we watched Doctor Who, and within 15 minutes, I was in love, and I called my manager and asked him to ask Russell [T. Davies] if I could come on the show. Russell said 'No. He can't come on Doctor Who, but we do have a spin-off and there's a character we've been trying to cast and I think that he would be right for it.' And they sent me the script, and I was just, 'Holy God, this is amazing,' and just fell in love with it immediately.
I'm used to being the person on set with an annoying amount of energy. When everyone else is tired, I'm like 'Hey guys! Isn't this fun?! Come on!' and I remember John [Barrowman] just buried me, and he was just a tornado of energy [laughs] and I thought 'Oh my God, I can't keep up with this man.' And everyone, man, what a great cast and what a great group of people; just having fun, with the scripts. And when everyone is willing to have fun, it's a lot easier to have fun myself.
It has been absolutely delightful. I was surprised that I was in it that much. [laughs] When I read the script I was like, 'Oh, this is gonna be easy, I'll be in a few scenes like in the show,' but I was just all the way through it and I was very happily surprised. I've loved this character since I first played him and I often play him in my head, but he's dangerous to let out in to the world. [laughs]
Oh, I missed Cardiff. I missed the rain. Yeah, in England you have this wonderful stuff that falls from the sky, for free, this water that comes down, and we just don't have that in Los Angeles, or in California much at all. And there's musicians in Cardiff. But, this is a lot easier, you know, we get to sit down.
I remember when Russell, we had dinner together when I came to Cardiff first, and he said that, that 'Torchwood is my Buffy,' and I didn't know quite what he meant by that, at first, but I think what he meant was, that Torchwood is a subversive show, just like Buffy was. Buffy was subverting the lie that women can't hit, that they can't fight back or defend themselves, and I think that Torchwood was subverting the lie that an LGTB person can't be a hero. And I think that we offended all the right people with Torchwood. So happy about that. I remember I was doing a BBC interview, while we were filming, and it was raining and we were in the SUV and the guy from the BBC said, [British accent] 'So what you think about the homophobic backlash against Torchwood?' and he pushed the microphone in my face, and I said, 'We have a backlash? We have a back- We have a backlash! Yay!' And I was over the moon. So I've loved Torchwood from the very beginning."
Grab the Torchwood: The Death of Captain Jack aubiobook for yourself at BigFinish.com
"I have been wondering when you guys would call and I remember, I was in bed with my wife, and she said 'You've gotta do some of these Torchwood radio shows,' and I said, 'You know what? I've been thinking the same thing. I'm gonna call Steve, my manager, and just see what's possible.'
I remember I was in London touring, with my band, Ghost of the Robot, and we couldn't get the tour manager to come out to dinner, Lisa Powers. She said that she wouldn't leave her hotel room because Doctor Who was on, and it was the second season premiere and she wouldn't miss it for anything. So she said, 'If you want to have dinner with me, we can have room service in my room,' and so we did, and we watched Doctor Who, and within 15 minutes, I was in love, and I called my manager and asked him to ask Russell [T. Davies] if I could come on the show. Russell said 'No. He can't come on Doctor Who, but we do have a spin-off and there's a character we've been trying to cast and I think that he would be right for it.' And they sent me the script, and I was just, 'Holy God, this is amazing,' and just fell in love with it immediately.
I'm used to being the person on set with an annoying amount of energy. When everyone else is tired, I'm like 'Hey guys! Isn't this fun?! Come on!' and I remember John [Barrowman] just buried me, and he was just a tornado of energy [laughs] and I thought 'Oh my God, I can't keep up with this man.' And everyone, man, what a great cast and what a great group of people; just having fun, with the scripts. And when everyone is willing to have fun, it's a lot easier to have fun myself.
It has been absolutely delightful. I was surprised that I was in it that much. [laughs] When I read the script I was like, 'Oh, this is gonna be easy, I'll be in a few scenes like in the show,' but I was just all the way through it and I was very happily surprised. I've loved this character since I first played him and I often play him in my head, but he's dangerous to let out in to the world. [laughs]
Oh, I missed Cardiff. I missed the rain. Yeah, in England you have this wonderful stuff that falls from the sky, for free, this water that comes down, and we just don't have that in Los Angeles, or in California much at all. And there's musicians in Cardiff. But, this is a lot easier, you know, we get to sit down.
I remember when Russell, we had dinner together when I came to Cardiff first, and he said that, that 'Torchwood is my Buffy,' and I didn't know quite what he meant by that, at first, but I think what he meant was, that Torchwood is a subversive show, just like Buffy was. Buffy was subverting the lie that women can't hit, that they can't fight back or defend themselves, and I think that Torchwood was subverting the lie that an LGTB person can't be a hero. And I think that we offended all the right people with Torchwood. So happy about that. I remember I was doing a BBC interview, while we were filming, and it was raining and we were in the SUV and the guy from the BBC said, [British accent] 'So what you think about the homophobic backlash against Torchwood?' and he pushed the microphone in my face, and I said, 'We have a backlash? We have a back- We have a backlash! Yay!' And I was over the moon. So I've loved Torchwood from the very beginning."
Grab the Torchwood: The Death of Captain Jack aubiobook for yourself at BigFinish.com
