{"id":1853004,"date":"2023-10-13T17:49:36","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T21:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/platogaming.com\/plato-data\/bad-omens-david-tennant-cast-a-shakespearean-curse-at-nycc-2023\/"},"modified":"2023-10-13T17:49:36","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T21:49:36","slug":"bad-omens-david-tennant-cast-a-shakespearean-curse-at-nycc-2023","status":"publish","type":"station","link":"https:\/\/platogaming.com\/plato-data\/bad-omens-david-tennant-cast-a-shakespearean-curse-at-nycc-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad Omens: David Tennant cast a Shakespearean curse at NYCC 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cI hold no truck with such superstition<\/a>,\u201d said David Tennant on stage during his spotlight panel at New York Comic Con<\/a>, moderated by Popverse\u2019s Tiffany Babb. He\u2019s about to start rehearsals of The Scottish Play at the Donmar Warehouse<\/a> in London and was happy to share his \u201cShakespeare geek point of view\u201d with the crowd at NYCC. \u201cI think we should say the word Macbeth,\u201d he said. \u201cMacbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth!\u201d <\/p>\n

Because of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike<\/a>, the Scottish actor was unable to discuss many of his current or past projects. \u201cCome on SAG\u201d became Tennant\u2019s refrain as audience members shouted out questions about Doctor Who, Good Omens,<\/em> and other things he couldn\u2019t talk about. Tennant did, for what it\u2019s worth, sneak in a shout out to Ncuti Gatwa, who will assume the role of the Doctor<\/a> in the next season of the series, while talking about drama school. They both attended the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, now known as the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. <\/p>\n

And that doesn\u2019t mean Tennant couldn\u2019t discuss the broad strokes of his career, the benefits of New York pizza, his many years voicing the How To Train Your Dragon<\/em> audiobooks, the mostly Zoom-set BBC series Staged<\/em> with his Good Omens<\/em> costar Michael Sheen, and lots and lots of Shakespeare. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to learn [the play] before I start,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I was doing this very morning.\u201d Tennant will star as the titular tragic hero alongside actor Cush Jumbo (The Good Wife, Torchwood<\/em>) as Lady M. \u201cThe cast is all assembling and it\u2019s very exciting,\u201d he continued. \u201cI don\u2019t want to have to be holding my script too long. That\u2019s the sum total of my preparation, really.\u201d Tennant said that it\u2019s difficult to prepare for a play that one has seen so many times already, in different productions good and bad, but that when Macbeth <\/em>goes wrong, it \u201coften goes wrong in performance.\u201d And since rehearsals have yet to begin, \u201cright now it\u2019s fine! It hasn\u2019t started yet. Right now, it\u2019s a perfect production. It\u2019s going to be the best production of Macbeth <\/em>that\u2019s ever been.\u201d <\/p>\n

Clearly he doesn\u2019t believe in jinxes, either! But he did admit to making one mistake already. \u201cWhen you do something like Macbeth<\/em>,\u201d Tennant said, \u201csome people have gone before you […] There was one day I started going from version of one speech by Ian McKellen<\/a>, to Patrick Stewart, to actors I\u2019d never even heard of.\u201d A greater modern access to past performances via film lead him down a \u201cwormhole,\u201d the actor said, that was \u201cfascinating and completely<\/em> useless.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ultimately, his Macbeth will be specific to him. \u201c[Shakespeare\u2019s plays] exist in the moment they\u2019re being performed,\u201d he said. \u201cOne of the things that makes Shakespeare tenacious [and why] his plays are being performed as much now as they ever have been, if not more, is that he had such an understanding of what it is to be a human that whenever you place one of those plays, things come out of them anew. Things sing out.\u201d That\u2019s more important, he said, then what words the old titans of Shakespeare like Kenneth Branagh or John Gielgud did and did not stress in their performances. <\/p>\n

New York Comic Con isn\u2019t necessarily where one would expect to hear references to Richard II<\/em>. But it\u2019s not too far off course. So many of the actors he mentioned, like McKellen, Stewart, Branagh, and Whishaw, are all household names in the nerd sphere for their involvement in The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, James Bond, X-Men, Harry Potter, Thor \u2014 <\/em>and the list goes on. Tennant may not have been able to talk about how he is a titan of science fiction and fantasy like them, but he fits right in. <\/p>\n

You can check out the rest of Polygon\u2019s coverage of all of New York Comic Con 2023\u2019s news, trailers, and highlights right here<\/a>. <\/p>\n