Supacell's Tosin Cole: 'Doctor Who couldn't prepare me for this'
The star is no stranger to sci-fi – but the new Netflix series was a very different proposition.
Tosin Cole has already appeared in one of the biggest sci-fi shows in the world – but the former Doctor Who star said that nothing could have prepared him for his role in Netflix's new superhero drama Supacell.
The series – which was created, written and directed by Rapman – follows a group of seemingly ordinary Black Londoners who suddenly develop superpowers, and Cole said that although it shares a genre with his previous show, the two are very different propositions.
“Nothing can prepare you for this," he explained during an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com. "I feel like, you know, it's a different world.
"Doctor Who, so much is the universe and aliens and different timelines and going back into the past and stuff like that. But this is very much grounded in real-life situations... nothing can prepare you for delivering a parcel and then, you know, almost getting mugged. It's real-life situations."
He added: "Other than the green screen, maybe green screen acting can prepare me, but yeah, other than that, I just feel like it's its own thing. It's its own world. It's very fresh, and it's very new. So yeah, just taking it for what it was."
Meanwhile, Rapman explained that he hadn't actually seen any of Cole's Doctor Who episodes before casting him in the role.
"The first time I ever laid eyes on Tosin Cole was in a short film that was really good. And then I saw him in an American show called 61st Street," he said.
"And it was really when he came to audition... it's the way he took direction. So he done his version of it, which was great. But I said, 'Can you do it like this?' And he done it. I said, 'Can you do like this, but like this, but with a bit of this?' And he done it.
"Even great actors, for some reason, sometimes they can't adapt to a director," he continued. "They're so stuck in a way to put it a certain way. But he could come out of that, even though he rehearsed it one way. And that's what stood out – was that this is Michael, this is him. And I think it was a great choice."
Read more:
- Supacell review: Doctor Who’s Tosin Cole packs a punch in Rapman superhero series
- A Quiet Place star Lupita Nyong'o on how John Krasinski persuaded her to join franchise
Supacell is available to stream on Netflix now.
Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
