Jodie Whittaker reveals the advice she'll give to her Doctor Who replacement
She hasn't "handed off" yet, but Whittaker already knows what she'll say to the next Doctor.
There are no indications that Jodie Whittaker is looking to hand over the keys to the TARDIS just yet, but the actress has revealed she already knows what advice she'd give to her Doctor Who successor.
Speaking (alongside her predecessors David Tennant and Matt Smith) as part of a new video interview to promote Doctor Who's arrival on HBO Max, Whittaker explained that since she hasn't "handed off" yet, she's still "in that strange floating space where I own [the role]".
But, she added, "the thing that I would say to the next person is, the pressure of the history of the show is totally made-up in your own head.
"On set, all the crew... they're excited and with you to bring something new, because that is the beauty of this as a role – you're not supposed to be recreating what someone did, you're supposed to take it [in a different direction]."
The Thirteenth Doctor star acknowledged that she felt "a lot of pressure" and that "the actor inner monologue... is there for a long time", but said that "once you're in your own costume, in your own Doctor's clothes, and you've got your own friends in it, in a weird way all that pressure disappears because it's yours to play with."
Whittaker will next be seen as the Doctor in festive special Revolution of the Daleks, filmed as part of the show's 12th series and set to air on BBC One in either late 2020 or early 2021.
Beyond that, the future of Doctor Who is less clear – though filming on series 13 was, as of February 2020, planned to get underway this autumn, BBC Wales Director Rhodri Talfan Davies recently suggested that the show could not be made "to the current standard" under new social distancing guidelines post-COVID-19.
"A production like that, which at any point employs hundreds of people, freelance and staff, I don’t believe can be made to the current standard in a socially distanced environment," Davies said.
Read more:
- Doctor Who: David Tennant, Matt Smith and Jodie Whittaker are keen for a new multi-Doctor story
- David Tennant responds to Doctor Who fans spotting TARDIS in his garden: "We didn't nick it!"
- David Tennant "very sad" that planned Tenth Doctor / Brigadier team-up never happened
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Authors
Morgan Jeffery is the Digital Editor for Radio Times, overseeing all editorial output across the brand's digital platforms. He was previously TV Editor at Digital Spy and has featured as a TV expert on BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 5 Live and Sky Atlantic.
