A few thoughts on fandom, fairness and Chris Eccleston
Ok, so I wasn’t sure about doing this, but I’ve decided it’s important so please bear with me. Please excuse massively lengthy post (it’s like 1k, fair warning) and let me say upfront that this is NOT an attack on anyone. All I ask is that you simply please, think about what I’m saying. Because kindness and fairness are important, and we are DW fans- we eat that stuff for breakfast.
So as I’m sure we all remember, a few months ago the Daily Mail posted an article about Chris Eccleston being a money grubbing so and so because it cost about £95 for an autograph at the upcoming major con. in London. This sparked a massive debate in fandom, because you know, CE.
Now, you probably all know by now I’m a huge CE fan. No news there. What you may or may not know is that I’m also an absolute fanatic about three things: honesty, consistency and fairness. You also may not know that I’m also a big CE fan not only because of his looks, or his time as Nine, or for his acting prowess in, oh, everything, but also because of who he is as a person. I deeply respect his actions and stance and integrity on a lot of things and in a lot of situations, and if you want to chat about that elsewhere, I’m more than happy to. (Trying to avoid turning this post into more of an essay than it already is).
So I hope you’ll understand that, in view of the above, I could never, in good conscience, defend or condone his actions if they were wrong, or greedy or against who I thought he was in the first place. I’d be the first one calling them out, not in spite of, but because of how much I like him. Anyone who knows me well will tell you this (seriously, I can’t keep my mouth shut if I think something is in unfair, this post being exhibit A).
So when I saw that article and the ensuing reactions from people, I’ll admit, I was a bit puzzled, for a few reasons. I’d like to share these with you below.
- As a few fans who’ve worked cons. have noted, actors don’t determine what a particular con. decides to charge for their appearance. All actors have a personal appearance fee, which is quoted by their agent to anyone wanting to have said star present at event, and will obviously be paid by the con. (unless it’s waived and for charity events, etc etc it usually is). If the con. wants to sell personalised merchandise of the star, they’d obviously carry their own costs for that. After that, the con. basically has carte blanche to set their own prices, which they do primarily based on what they think people are willing to pay for. So in the case of Wizard World, for example, charging fans much higher prices for DT and BP autographs and pics (see below), it’s bluntly because people will pay for it. They are profoundly popular as the Doctor and Rose, even after all this time, and fans are willing to pay, so the cons. know they can charge double or more for those and they’ll get away with it. If you doubt me on this, look at the marketing the con. in London for CE did even before they announced who their ‘mystery guest’ was - NEVER SEEN BEFORE, NEVER ATTENDED A CON BEFORE, UNIQUE CHANCE, COMPLETE SET, etc etc. They were trading on the whole ‘complete your set’ thing and the fact that he’d never done a con. before even before they said who it was. They’re charging higher for him here, clearly, because he’s a novelty. The man has resisted doing any DW cons. at all for years, and now he’s there- frankly, the organisers see dollar signs (well, pound signs). Unless people are going to start slamming DT, BP and whomever else is the current dollar sign for various cons. (and I’d feel equally compelled to defend them if you did) I’d say it’s unfair to slam ANY actor over their con. price. Now if you wanted to launch an attack on cons. overcharging fans because think they they can, I’d be right there with you.
- Those prices are comparable, and in some cases LESS than what a lot of major cons charge for the stars. For example, if you check out Wizard World, it cost £85 ($105) for an ‘express’ autograph with DT, £115 ($150) for a ‘deluxe’ autograph, and £300-£350 ($400-$450) for the photograph, meet and greet and autograph package, compared with CE’s £235 diamond package for this con, with all of the same. The Mail is conveniently ignoring this, of course because otherwise, no story. If you want a laugh, here’s an article slamming DT for charging his fans ‘an arm and a leg’, back in 2015, for slightly higher autograph prices than this. https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/former-doctor-who-star-david-5256308 The article is almost identical to that Daily Mail article slamming CE, comparing ‘former Doctor’ DT’s ‘huge’ fee with the tiny fee that ‘companion to current Doctor’ Karen Gillan and Lou Ferrigno (Incredible Hulk Star) are charging, etc etc. That’s just what these articles do. DT is currently set to appear at Denver Comic Con. (which is what prompted this post), and his autographs there alone are $100, which is way higher than the other stars (like John Barrowman, for example). On current exchange rate, that’s about £80, but that can change, obviously. I’m not saying that’s not a lot of money (because it certainly is) but what I am saying is that it’s no more that what other stars charge at other cons.
- You can get a CE autograph for free, and have been able to do so for years. All you need to do is write to his agent, picture enclosed and ask for it. It costs no more than postage. For real. People have posted pictures and accounts of autographs received on Fanbiz and other sites. If you want, I’m happy to give you those details. People have also written requesting custom cards, etc etc and gotten them, and quickly too. You can also wait outside stage door (or dressing room when on set) and he will sign your program, picture, etc.
- It’s been suggested that the price is outrageous, not in and of itself, but because CE is rude, uncaring of his fans and has largely ignored them. I disagree with this for two reasons. Firstly, even if the con didn’t set the price (which they do), either the price is outrageous or it isn’t- it’s not contingent on ‘niceness’. If an actor cares about their fans, we shouldn’t say they can ‘charge’ for it. It’s not really caring if they charge extra for paying attention to us, is it? Secondly, and more to the point, CE is a singularly wonderful human who is lovely to his fans. There are accounts all over the web, if you look for them, of nice things he’s done for fans, uploaded by fans. He’s made videos for kids, showed up to help DW fans with a proposal, walked a fan home because it was dark, written to and drawn pictures for kids, happily put down his shopping because fans wanted photos, posed on the street for pics by random people, and (to my very certain knowledge) stopped to chat for a little while, sign a program and posed for a pic for a jet-lagged fan from Australia when he was dead after two performances and there were a LOT of people waiting. He’s charming, easy to talk to, doesn’t brush you off (he was chatting even as we posed for the photo) and pays attention to what you say. In fact, I’ve never read a fan account which says anything BUT how lovely he is.
I could go on, but I’ll end here. All I’m saying is, please let’s be fair in how we talk about everyone. Let’s be kind, whether they’re movie stars or random people we’ve never met. Let’s be consistent. And let’s consider ALL the facts. That’s all I wanted to say.
Thank you for reading this post-turned-essay and I hope you have a nice day/night.
