u/ClockworkFirefly22

CHIWETEL EJIOFOR:

>"Outgoing Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat has revealed that a black actor was offered the role of the Doctor but turned it down. And we think we know who that person was. According to sources involved in the show at the time, it was Chiwetel Ejiofor, the British star who went on to global acclaim in the film 12 Years a Slave. Radio Times understands that Ejiofor was offered the role of the Eleventh Doctor by the BBC but was unable to agree terms with the Corporation. The part was eventually handed to Matt Smith"

JAMES MCAVOY

RUSSELL TOVEY:

>"I screen-tested for it. It would have terrified me. I don't know what I would have done with all the attention. Russell texted me to say, 'Look, I've said this quote about how you should be the next Doctor Who, so if it goes a bit crazy...' And I was, 'Oh, that's fine...', and then suddenly it just went everywhere: people messaging me from my childhood and lots of remarks like, 'His ears are too big for the Tardis, they'll be flapping about'. People were starting to get really personal"

PATERSON JOSEPH:

>“I was in South Africa at the time, and I think if I’d been in England. I probably would have suffered some sort of trauma. But I’ll be very honest with you. I was overjoyed, but then I came back and I think I pretty much knew that I hadn’t got it [the part went to Matt Smith], and weirdly wasn’t disappointed. I walk down the street and no one knows me, but if I were the Doctor, that would certainly be the case [that people would know him]. Even in France where I live, it would still be the case.”

MATHEW HORNE:

>"The producers and I had a meeting and went, 'There's this young guy called Matt something who wants to do it.' And they picked the wrong Matt! I'd have loved to do it. [I'll be] waiting in the wings in case [Matt] has a mysterious road accident".

PETER CAPALDI:

>"'His name briefly flickered in my mind the last time,' Steven Moffat told the live Doctor Who reveal show on BBC1. But Peter Capaldi wasn’t right then. He is now".

Contrary to popular belief, Catherine Zeta-Jones, James Nesbitt and Sean Pertwee were never considered for the Eleventh Doctor, despite conflicting reports online. Pertwee, the son of Jon Pertwee, has personally ruled out the idea of playing the Doctor in recent years.

Tovey and Joseph previously played Alonso Frame and Rodrick in Voyage of the Damned and Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways respectively. Capaldi would later go on to portray Caecilius in The Fires of Pompeii and the Twelfth Doctor from 2013-2017.

BEN DANIELS:

>“It was more than a rumor. I was approached and asked if it was something I’d be interested in doing. Apparently, usually when it’s announced that the [old] Doctor is leaving, the new Doctor’s already firmly in place. But a BBC email had apparently been leaked, talking about Matt Smith’s departure or something, so they had to announce it officially much sooner than they’d have liked. I don’t know whether my name was also on that e-mail as was stated in lots of those rumors, but I was one of the names on one of their many lists they had as a possible replacement. So I was asked, and when I eventually managed to peel myself off the ceiling, I said, ‘Yeah, of course it’d be something I’d be interested in doing,’ and I was hugely excited by it. I was a huge fan of the show as a kid, like we all were really. My era was Jon Pertwee into Tom Baker and then also when it returned, penned thrillingly by the amazing Russell T Davies with Christopher Eccleston. To be thrown into that mix as a possibility was fantastic".

ALAN CUMMING:

>“They [Moffat/Gatiss] had heard of this [previous discussion to play the Ninth Doctor], and he said, ‘Would you like to be Doctor Who now?’ I said, ‘Fine, I’d love to, but they [previously] told me I’d have to go to Cardiff for eight months of the year’ and they said, ‘Oh no, you’d still have to do that.’ I’d do anything for Doctor Who, but I won’t do that.”

BEN MILLER:

>"I'd have loved to have been Doctor Who. I was once approached and asked if I would be interested in being Doctor Who – this is going back a few years – and I said yes, I would be interested. At which point I never heard anything else ever again, and Doctor Who became more and more successful without me."

Cumming would eventually appear as King James I in The Witchfinders and Mr. Ring-A-Ding in Lux, while Miller would play the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robot of Sherwood.