Former Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston has been chatting to The Guardian about his time in Hollywood, during which he expressed his strong dislike for two of his big-budget offerings in 2009’s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and 2013’s Thor: The Dark World.
“Working on something like G.I. Joe was horrendous,” said Eccleston. “I just wanted to cut my throat every day. And Thor? Just a gun in your mouth. Gone in 60 Seconds was a good experience. Nic Cage is a gentleman and fantastic actor. But G.I. Joe and Thor were…I really paid for being a whore those times.”
This isn’t the first time that Eccleston has been critical about his time on Thor: The Dark World, with the actor stating back in November that he felt Marvel Studios had been dishonest with him about what his part as Malekith the Accursed entailed, particularly with regards to the makeup process.
Eccleston also criticised the BBC over his Doctor Who exit, accusing them of blacklisting him after he decided to call it a day as the Time Lord after a single season following the show’s 2005 return:
“What happened around Doctor Who almost destroyed my career. I gave them a hit show and I left with dignity and then they put me on a blacklist. I was carrying my own insecurities as it was something I had never done before and then I was abandoned, vilified in the tabloid press and blacklisted. I was told by my agent at the time: ‘The BBC regime is against you. You’re going to have to get out of the country and wait for regime change.’ So I went away to America and I kept on working because that’s what my parents instilled in me.”
Following Thor: The Dark World, Eccleston appeared as a series regular in HBO’s The Leftovers, and also recently returned to the BBC for the drama series The A Word.
