Jodie Whittaker on Playing the Doctor: “It’s Amazing to Be a Milestone, but How Wonderful If It Wasn’t”
"I’m so excited that the role models for young children, boys or girls ... or teenagers, or adults, come in different forms."
The incoming Thirteenth Doctor and the first woman to play the role on Doctor Who is enjoying her “defining moment”—but she’s excited for a future where a lady Doctor isn’t big news at all.
Whittaker spoke to Total Film about becoming the Doctor and the experience of stepping into the history books at the same time. For a Time Lord, she sounds wonderfully down-to-earth about the whole thing, while in the same breath demonstrating that she’s embraced the cultural importance of her casting:
This is the defining moment of my life, I feel old enough for it. And I feel like I understand how important it is, and I’m so excited that the role models for young children, boys or girls … or teenagers, or adults, come in different forms. There’s nothing unattainable about me. I don’t look like I’ve been carved out of rock. I don’t sound like I’ve had the extraordinary glamour.
It might be the New Year’s resolutions spirit still lingering in the air, but “There’s nothing unattainable about me” is just a really delightful and encouraging sentiment to hear from someone who’s achieved quite a lot. I kind of want to print out that sentence and pin it to my wall.
Whittaker acknowledges that the entertainment business likes to put people into category boxes, and how Doctor Who has subverted that in the past—and now is casting an even wider net:
For me, knowing what I thought were my limitations as a person and an actor, because this industry is about, ‘You sound like this, you look like this’… but I’m normal. And that was exciting to [Broadchurch co-star and former Doctor] David [Tennant]—it was a superhero he could play. And now it opens it a little wider, to women as well.
In the U.K., where there’s a lot more weight placed on accents and their origins than your American cousins can quite understand, it’s not only Whittaker’s gender that’s significant but her Yorkshire accent. As io9 points out, maybe we’ll even get a hat tip to another Northern Doctor and enduring Doctor Who moment:
I’m beyond ready to see Whittaker in the iconic role and for everything that comes out of her mouth. Her commentary on the subject of playing the first female Doctor is full of insight and enthusiasm. But the best part is that she’s already looking past her turn in the spotlight to a brighter future where such a casting won’t make headlines and provoke endless speculation and chatter.
It’s amazing to be a milestone, but how wonderful if it wasn’t, if it was just accepted, embraced. I’m not dissing the moment—it’s f**king brilliant—but hopefully when other people grow up, it’s not so much of a surprise.
I also look forward to the days when we’ll see a diversity of Doctors announced and the reaction is a universal “fantastic!”
It seems like we might have to wait until the second half of 2018 until Whittaker’s Doctor Who season kicks into gear, but we’ve waited so long already: what’s a little more time?
(via io9, images: The BBC)
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