Doctor Who star’s ‘woke’ dilemma over Sassoon role

HE PLAYED a genderfluid Time Lord whose character changes every few years, but Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi has questioned whether he should have accepted the role of poet Siegfried Sassoon, because they have different sexual preferences.

‘Understandably, people will ask whether I, a heterosexual man, should be playing a homosexual — perhaps not,’ muses Capaldi, who performs the role of Sassoon in the film Benediction, to be released next month.

‘A gay person would have insights into that world that I don’t have. And it’s absolutely right that we should be asking these questions.

‘For far too long, there have been certain groups that have been excluded from the acting industry because of their sexuality, the colour of their skin or where they went to school. If our goal is to be in a better place, there needs to be some sort of… rebalance.’

Capaldi, 64, explains: ‘I play the war poet Siegfried Sassoon as an older man trying to make sense of the horrors he saw in World War I.

‘At the same time, he’s also coming to terms with his homosexuality.’

Sassoon was not openly gay as homosexual acts were illegal until 1967 — the year of his death.

Capaldi starred in Doctor Who for three years from 2014, after making his name as foul-mouthed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in political comedy The Thick Of It.

He accepted the role of Sassoon because he was so desperate to work with celebrated screenwriter Terence Davies, 76, whose films include Distant Voices, Still Lives.

‘I suppose the truth is that I wasn’t brave enough or gracious enough to step aside, because I wanted to work with my idol,’ he says. ‘And that was rather selfish of me.’ Capaldi is not the first actor to voice such ‘woke’ doubts about accepting a role.

Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne said it was a ‘mistake’ to have taken the part of Lili Elbe, one of the first people in the world to have gender reassignment surgery, in 2015’s The Danish Girl.

And Benedict Cumberbatch expressed regret at playing a non-binary model in 2016 comedy Zoolander 2, saying the part would ‘never be performed by anybody other than a trans actor’ today.