Jodie Whittaker relives worries she'd 'f*** up Doctor Who for other actors'

"Everyone’s Doctor until then was a white man," she said. "They are very different actors, but they all fit a specific mould — and I didn’t."

She continued: "If Peter [Capaldi] hadn’t been good as the Doctor, it would only have reflected on him. Whereas I felt that if I wasn’t very good at this, I’ve f***ed it for other actors.

"I think it’s completely unacceptable if that was the case, but that’s how I felt."

Elsewhere in the interview, Whittaker explained her frustrations about the idea that the Doctor might no longer be seen as a role model for boys simply because the character was being played by a woman.

"It’s never been questioned that I had to look up to men," she said. "So it was fascinating that for some, we [women] could not be role models. The Doctor is still the Doctor. But also, I was playing an alien! My gender was not the issue."

Read more:

• Jodie Whittaker hopes Netflix's Toxic Town shines a light on true story of a mass poisoning
• Jodie Whittaker on real-life Toxic Town story: "Lessons haven't been learnt"

Meanwhile, she explained that she "never read" nasty tweets written about her during her stint on the series as she avoids social media.

"I’m sure people wrote, 'I hated your Doctor,' but because I go 'la la la', I’ve got such a false sense of who I am," she said.

In Toxic Town – which also stars Aimee Lou Wood, Robert Carlyle and Rory Kinnear – Whittaker plays real-life campaigner Susan McIntyre, who led the fight to bring the Corby toxic waste case in front of a court.

The official synopsis reads: "Based on one of the UK’s biggest environmental scandals, Toxic Town is the story of the people at the heart of the Corby poisonings.

"Focusing on the mothers who took on a David and Goliath battle for justice, the series traces through the years of their fight as a terrible truth comes to the surface."

Toxic Town premieres on Netflix on Thursday 27th February 2025.

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