Doctor Who "casting more disabled actors" for new era
The sci-fi show's casting director has spoken about the importance of casting as "inclusively as possible" in the future.
Doctor Who's casting director has revealed that the show plans to cast as "inclusively as possible" going forward, particularly in regards to "casting more disabled actors" in upcoming episodes.
Andy Pryor, who has been Doctor Who's casting director since 2005, spoke to Doctor Who Magazine (via CultBox) about his plans for casting ahead of Russell T Davies's return as showrunner in 2023.
"I like to cast as inclusively as possible," he said. "It’s more interesting. Also, if you can’t cast diversely on Doctor Who, what show can you do it on?"
He continued: "It goes everywhere, on this planet and others, and you don’t want to see the same kind of people all the time. You don’t want it to be exclusively middle-class white people speaking with RP accents."
Pryor added that Davies "feels the same way" about diverse casting and that they are "more keen than [they've] ever been" to focus on inclusivity.
"So right now we’re casting more diversely in terms of ethnicity. We’re casting more disabled actors… But there’s always more we can do.
"Certainly, there’s absolutely no excuse to not cast a disabled actor in a disabled role nowadays.
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"Also, we’re trying to cast disabled people in roles that aren’t necessarily written as disabled," he said. "We don’t always want disabled casting to be ‘issue’ casting. So our horizons are widening. I want to see more disabled people on screen."
The sci-fi show has previously hired disabled actors to take on disabled roles, with deaf actress Sophie Stone playing Cass in season 9, while in the most recent series, Nadia Albina – who was born without a full right arm – was introduced as Diane.
Jodie Whittaker will be making her last appearance as The Doctor in the BBC's Centenary special, before Russell T Davies returns in 2023 with incoming time lord Ncuti Gatwa.
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