It seems being a Doctor Who fan makes you a hot commodity.
Not only are “nerds” trendy and Geek is the new cool these days but it seems our members are in demand particularly if you are a putting together a television series.
In the space of just a few days the Doctor Who Club of Australia received two requests from production companies looking for people to take part in their programs.
And they were polar opposites with the first request coming from Endemol Shine – who were casting Beauty and The Beast and just a few days later the BBC approached us for interest in Mastermind.
“The timing was quite bizarre from Mastermind to Beauty and the Geek,” Casting Supervisor, Mike Searle from Endemol said.
“We produce quite a lot of shows at Endemol and the more and more shows we produce, the more and more and people that we cast the more we realise that it is actually up to us going to people who haven’t applied for these shows, which often give you the best cast,” he explained.
“We always have a list of name every single show – the same people apply – and often the people who don’t think they want to be on the show or don’t actively go out looking are the most natural and that’s what people want to see on the screen.
“When the first reaction by someone is “I don’t know about that – I’ve never thought about it – it’s a good thing because if they have thought about it probably for the wrong reason.”
So why did these two groups specifically reach out to the Doctor who club?
Mastermind Casting AP Alisha Davies said it was all about size and finding people who were passionate about their favourite subject to appear in series three of the SBS program.
“We decided to contact the Doctor Who society as it has a large fanbase and we would love to have members of your society apply for the show,” she said.
“We found the Doctor Who society through Google search.
“We are looking for fun and vibrant contenders who passionate about their subject and have a good level of general knowledge. So whether your subject is Picasso or Potter, Basketball or Brazil – we’d love to hear from you!
“Mastermind is returning for its third series, and it’s great- everyone has so much fun when they come to the studio to film.
“We are filming between January-March 2021, the air dates are unconfirmed right now, but will air sometime in 2021.
“We would love to hear from everyone from across Australia. We are hoping the borders will open soon and we can have contenders from all states and territories.”
Entry time for the Channel 9 series Beauty and the Geek is closing very soon and Mike is hoping that our members would either be interested or would know someone who would be.
“There is not one type of person we’re looking for – so the cast isn’t going to be made up of all of the same kids of people,” he said. “So we’re kind of focusing our research on reaching to various different groups, various different organisations that I guess still come under that in quotations “geek sub-culture” and we Doctor Who aligned perfectly with that. We’d love to find someone who knows everything there is about Doctor Who that can come on and teach these beauties a thing or two about that.
“I guess the good thing about Beauty and the Geek is that it’s a fun show, family friendly and the content isn’t based upon the drama. There are shows out there on TV at the moment which kind of need people not to get on – they need that to feed the content where this show is a fun show – we don’t need any drama. It’s about both the Beauties and the Geeks coming away with something they didn’t have before. So we’re hoping the Beauties use their confidents and their charisma and charm to pass that on to some of the geeks and equally we’re wanting the Geeks to bring some of their knowledge and facts – because they look at the world in such different ways, we’re trying to make sure both groups come away with something from the experiments.”
The Geeks don’t have male – they were asking everyone to apply. He said the boundaries are thin between both sides and some people who apply might fall into both.
“We áre encouraging everyone to apply and then through the casting process that’s when we would decide what side will fall on,” he said.
“Eighteen will be the youngest and there’s not a hard cut off, it’s not a love show, but we’re hoping they will form connections so because of that we don’t want the age range to be too wide so I guess the sweet spot is above 18 to around the 30 mark but if they’re a little bit over 30 it’s still doable.
”We’re looking for the weird and wonderful – the quirky.”
For Beauty and the Geek – More details, and the opportunity to apply online if they’d prefer, at www.BATGcasting.com.au )
If you want to take part in Mastermind visit: https://go.mycastingnet.com/Apply/Show/Mastermind.
- You must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident (have the right to live and work in Australia).
- Are at least 18 years of age at the time of applying.