David Tennant Offers Support For Actors Strike On Otherwise Circumspect NYCC Panel

They’re reading from the same script.

Just like Ewan McGregor yesterday, Dr. Who alum David Tennant was very tight-lipped onstage at New York Comic-Con about anything having to do with struck work due to restrictions imposed by the ongoing actors strike. The Scottish actor was making an appearance to talk up his career to fans; a tall feat nowadays for many thespians.

When one fan screamed “Scrooge McDuck,” Tennant’s character from the 2022 Disney+ movie, Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, he responded, “We’re not talking about Scrooge McDuck! Come on SAG!”

“Thank, God, for all that they do,” the actor added about his union and their continuing walkout.

However, at one point in the panel, Tennant appeared to veer close to promotion when he fielded questions about the BBC pandemic series Staged. The series followed Tennant and Michael Sheen as two actors whose West End play was put on hold because of Covid-19, but whose director has persuaded them to carry on rehearsing online.

“The first one we made was on spec, just to see if it would work, because watching people on Zoom screens is not necessarily the most thrilling television,” he explained.

“But we made one for ourselves and it sort of worked, and then the BBC saw it and thought, ‘Yeah. We’ve got nothing else going on,” he continued to tell the room.

“(We made) six of them, so very clearly, we managed to make this show in lockdown from our houses, and it was lovely for us. It kept us sane.”

Check out the video below:

David Tennant gives the backstory on how television series ‘Staged’ came about #NYCC23 pic.twitter.com/26OINNn2N5

— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) October 13, 2023

However, for the most part, ala McGregor, Tennant was confined to talk about Shakespeare (he’s preparing for Macbeth onstage, “I’ve seen some horrible productions. It’s a play that often goes wrong in performance because witches are hard to do on stage. Do you make them sort of like traditional witches
with the hats and the cloaks or do you do something a bit more modern and weird?”) and his fave NYC foods (bagels and pastrami).

Yesterday, an Obi-Wan and Fargo-less conversation with McGregor had the Primetime Emmy winner talking about threads in his sweater, no honey or sugar in his tea, and what oil he uses in his beard.

The fact that Tennant and McGregor showed up onstage is amazing alone considering actors didn’t dare pull that off at July’s San Diego Comic-Con; the fan confab impacted promptly from the actors strike which began just days before.

Similar to SDCC, SAG-AFTRA Chief Negotiator and National Executive Director is putting in an appearance at NYCC to talk about the industry dilemmas with AI and how they impact actors.

Today is the 92nd day of the SAG-AFTRA strike.