Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
My oh oh aubergine moment
Star confused by emoji in training vid
SCREEN star David Tennant thought he knew his onions about rules over sexual harassment at work.
But the former Doctor Who was left in a pickle as he watched a Hollywood studio’s staff training video made in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
He learned that texting other cast members with an emoji of an aubergine would definitely not be seen as an innocent invitation to dinner
The actor, who’s been in LA filming comedy Fuddy Meers, felt a bit pea-brained when an eggplant, as it’s called in the US, flashed up with a warning.
It said: “Remember, the eggplant emoji is not just an eggplant.”
“And that was it,” said
David, 47. “No expla- nation, just that. I went WHAT?” It was only later he discovered the innocent vegetable emoji symbolises a penis on social media in America.
The star spilled the beans about his embarrassing moment during an appearance at the ACE Comic Con in Arizona.
The married dad of four told how the video the studio’s new employees have to watch went through all the “right and proper” warnings. “Stuff like it’s bad to touch somebody on the bum and all that, and of course, sure. You’re starting with a new company, here are the rules, da de da.”
But the purple veg ban left him redfaced – and also relieved he’d found out. “I mean, imagine I was just saying ‘do you want some eggplant for dinner’ and suddenly I am up against a tribunal? Now I am terrified,” he said. Sexual harassment training films have become widespread in Hollywood after the #MeToo campaign.