John Barrowman is best known for his role in the Doctor Who universe, but he's seen himself cut from that world after facing backlash online. Photo / Supplied
John Barrowman is best known for his role in the Doctor Who universe, but he's seen himself cut from that world after facing backlash online. Photo / Supplied
John Barrowman was a key part of the Doctor Who franchise for over 15 years, before being lambasted for historic behaviour led to his career taking a massive hit. He talks to the Herald about his experiences with cancel culture and facing hate online.
WARNING: This story deals with suicide. Please see below for help and crisis information.
A former Doctor Who actor in town for the Armageddon Expo has spoken out about being cancelled online, saying “sick” people tried to ruin his career over behaviour on set he had already apologised for.
Scottish-American actor John Barrowman is best known to sci-fi fans for his role as the immortal, displaced time traveller Captain Jack Harkness in Doctor Who. Barrowman first appeared in the first season of the relaunched British classic in 2005, and fast became a fan favourite. He made multiple appearances in subsequent seasons — as recently as a New Year’s Day special in 2021 — and was the lead for four seasons of the franchise’s more adult-targeted spin-off, Torchwood.
The role led to Barrowman becoming a household name in the UK. Originally a musical theatre actor, his fame from Doctor Who had him go on to star in multiple stage productions, as a judge and host on light-entertainment shows, and recurring roles in other TV projects, notably as the recurring villain Malcolm Merlyn on the DC show Arrow.
But Barrowman found his career grinding to a halt in May 2021. After the Guardian reported on multiple sexual misconduct allegations made against his former Doctor Who co-star, Noel Clarke (which Clarke has denied, and subsequently launched legal proceedings against the Guardian over), video from 2014 resurfaced online where Clarke and other Doctor Who stars, during a panel discussion at a fan convention, talked about Barrowman exposing himself on set.
John Barrowman is best known for playing Captain Jack Harkness in Doctor Who.
The resurfaced video had the backlash turn on Barrowman, even though he had apologised for his conduct on set in 2008.
Speaking to the Herald before his visit to Auckland, Barrowman said some of what he was accused of was incorrect, but that he owned up to his mistakes.
“When I was doing nude scenes and if I was doing something silly to make myself feel more comfortable and having a little bit of silly behaviour, it was amongst peers and it was amongst colleagues, and none of them complained.
“I would never do anything like that now, I’d never do silly things like that again. It has changed me a bit, but I still am the same fun John, but I’m just more cautious about the silliness that I do.”
In the resurfaced video, Clarke and co-star Camille Coduri talk about Barrowman whacking her on the shoulder with his penis, which Barrowman denied to the Herald.
In 2021, among the allegations made against Clarke, several former Doctor Who employees told the Guardian they had seen Barrowman expose himself on set on multiple occasions, but had never felt unsafe during the situation.
“He would get his genitals out on a regular basis … he’d just sort of have his balls hanging out his trousers or something, which he just thought was really funny,” one woman told the newspaper, while another said “it just felt really uncomfortable”.
Julie Gardner, executive producer of Doctor Who and Torchwood at the time, told the Guardian Barrowman had been reprimanded in 2008 for exposing himself, and understood that his behaviour had changed after that.
Barrowman publicly apologised in 2008 after exposing himself during a BBC radio interview at the time, and did so again in 2021, saying his behaviour was intended only “in good humour” to entertain people backstage.
“With the benefit of hindsight, I understand that upset may have been caused by my exuberant behaviour and I have apologised for this previously. Since my apology in November 2008, my understanding and behaviour have also changed,” he said in a statement to the Guardian.
Barrowman told the Herald his apology was not taken into account when the video and other interviews resurfaced in 2021.
He said he didn’t feel sorry for himself over what happened, but was angry about the situation and the idea of cancel culture in general.
“If people think they have the privilege and to try to do that to people, you’re sick.
“You’re a sick person if you ... if you feel you have the right and privilege to ruin somebody’s life.”
He said people came for him over “silliness and stupidity and a mistake”.
“It was judge and jury by social media were people who had no right to comment on it because it had nothing to do with them, but they destroyed my career and my life for about two years and it led to me having suicidal thoughts and suicidal attempts that I had to go to therapy about because it was devastating.”
Barrowman admitted he was still shocked to be saying that about himself, and he never imagined himself being in that position. “I was at my lowest.”
The projects Barrowman was dropped from included a live Doctor Who interactive experience he had filmed a cameo for, and audio drama spin-offs of the Torchwood franchise.
Ever since the stories of his behaviour resurfaced, Barrowman said he was starting to see his face removed from DVD box sets and books that fans were getting him to sign.
Barrowman said that’s despite there being old DVD commentaries where staff on the show joke about the office clearing out anytime he did a nude scene.
His behaviour was also referenced in a musical skit filmed for the crew in 2009 that later appeared online. In The Ballad of Russell and Julie, a tribute to Gardner and showrunner Russell T. Davies, Barrowman and former lead actors David Tennant and Catherine Tate sang about the show’s production. The skit included Tennant singing the line “Images of Johnny B getting his cock out”.
“The most disappointing thing is that some of my colleagues and the BBC themselves just shut down and turned their back on it because they were fearful of being seen to be supportive when really — actually, I hate to say it, [but] they should have been because I’ve been great for that brand. I’ve been great for the show itself,” Barrowman said.
While he didn’t name names, Barrowman suggested the people who didn’t want to support him probably had their own things to hide, and that he has photographs and videos of former co-stars that would be damaging if they got out.
“Nobody is perfect and nobody is devoid of doing something.
“The people who throw the stones, your life is not perfect either, and you’ve made mistakes, and how dare you try to destroy my life because of some stupid thing that I did a long time ago.”
Barrowman, who is openly gay, believes that played a factor in what happened.
“I think it was an attack on me. They couldn’t get me for being gay. So they attacked me in another way. They wanted to destroy me because they don’t like seeing a gay man being successful.
“And I say that with a bit of salt in the wound because there’s a lot of other gay men and women out there now who are doing wonderfully well. But I just always say, you know, you’ve got a past, watch your back.”
The allegations and backlash have not stopped Barrowman from doing the global convention circuit. He returns to Armageddon this weekend for the first time since Covid, having just been at OzCon in Melbourne.
John Barrowman also played the villainous Malcolm Merlyn/Dark Archer in DC Comics show Arrow. Photo / Supplied
Barrowman said some promoters won’t book him anymore, and management for certain celebrities won’t want him seen next to their clients, but fans still turned out when he came to conventions.
“If people want me to come down here and want to see me and they want to interact with me, they’re going to get the same great loving John and the fun John that they always had.
“I’m going to give them a great panel. I’m going to entertain them and they’re going to hug me and I’m going to hug them. And we’re going to have a wonderful, wonderful time. I’m going to live my best life.”
He said the irony of the situation was that the people who tried to cancel him were “f***wits” who were never fans of him in the first place, and his fans had laughed about the “silliness” of his behaviour in the past.
In a statement to the Herald, Armageddon founder William Geradts said: “This will be the second time that John Barrowman has physically been at Armageddon — he’s also participated in online panels in the past and been incredibly popular with fans.
“When he was here in 2017, he was a fan favourite, and judging by the enthusiastic online interest we’ve had so far, we expect that will be no different this year.”
Barrowman said he had emerged “reinvigorated” from the experience, and didn’t want pity from anyone over what he had gone through.
He said he still remained a fan of Doctor Who — though he is waiting to binge-watch the new season once it has finished airing — and that being cut off from the franchise had not changed that.
“You can try to take me out of Who, but you can’t take the Whovian out of me. I’m still a fan of the show and always will be because I love what it stands for.
Barrowman will be in attendance at the Armageddon Expo at the ASB Showgrounds during the weekend.
