Oh Lord, it’s the new DOCTOR WHO
has been Jodie Whittaker iconic cast in TV’S most Hilton role, and Boyd it spoke to her about earlier this year
In February this year, I spent a lovely half-hour in the company of Jodie Whittaker, ostensibly to discuss her role in the last-ever series of Broadchurch. Since Chris Chibnall, the creator of that smash-hit crime drama, had recently been announced as the next boss of Doctor Who, I thought I’d end the interview by jokily asking Jodie, 35, about the idea of her becoming The Doctor. My tongue was firmly in my cheek, and Jodie seemed to think the very notion was really funny. Now, five months later, in one of the boldest, bravest and best casting decisions in TV history – which, by the way, no one saw coming until it was leaked the day before the official announcement – Jodie Whittaker has indeed been confirmed as the new, 13th Doctor. But what is the actress really like? And what did she actually say about the idea of being a Time Lord? legendary first run of Broadchurch. Jodie had to spend much of that series in various states of distress, and she’s proven herself to be brilliant at playing women in emotional turmoil throughout her career. When I spoke to her about her intense role in Sky 1’s firefighting drama The Smoke in 2013, following straight on from the tear-sodden Beth, she said, “I didn’t bother wearing mascara for about a year because there was no point.”
ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN
In real life, though, Jodie – who has a young daughter with her actor husband, Christian Contreras – is as down to earth as any actor I’ve met. She’s also brimming with genuine enthusiasm. When we chatted earlier this year, she was beyond thrilled that her low-budget British indie film in which she plays a woman living as a hermit in her mum’s shed, was getting great reviews and awards. That unfettered passion is going
Adult Life Skills,
to be perfect when she has to deal with Doctor Who fans, young and old, who will make huge demands on her time and attention. She also clearly has respect for the show, as she showed in our chat earlier this year. When I light-heartedly asked if she was interested in a role in Doctor Who or even actually becoming the next Doctor, because “anything can happen” these days, she laughed and joked that she would email new Who boss Chris Chibnall to ask him, then she said, “Yeah, anything can happen! But it’s exciting, because the show is a part of everyone’s childhood. Whether you’ve seen one episode or a thousand, you’re familiar with it. A nd I feel really excited for Chris [Chibnall], because I know how passionate he is about it.” She also paid strong tribute to Chibnall’s skills, observing, “For anyone who’s going to be in it, the writing is going to be amazing. It’s been consistently good for the past ten years, and now that baton has been passed to the right person, particularly because he’s so good at writing characters. I think it will be really exciting.”
INTO THE FUTURE
Just how exciting, though, only she knew. By that point, Jodie had been approached by Chris Chibnall, and she thought he just wanted to chat to her about
Broadchurch. It turned out he had decided it was time for The Doctor to be female and he wanted to run the idea by her. After hardly any thought, she told him she was up for the challenge of being the first-ever Doctor who’s not a bloke.
Having seen Jodie in her next big TV project, a medical thriller called
Trust Me (coming next month to BBC1), in which she plays an NHS nurse who pretends to be a doctor, it’s quite clear Whittaker can do pretty much anything when it comes to acting. Deeply charismatic, oozing inner strength, yet totally natural, she’s surely going to be perfect for