Jodie Whittaker - "Doctor Who was my happiest time"
The star returns in new drama, One Night, on Paramount+ Report by Nelsonj. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Transcript
00:00 Jodie, lovely to meet you.
00:02 You too.
00:03 I wasn't seeing things. Your character is covered in tattoos, right?
00:08 Yes, it is, but I don't know. Is that a massive spoiler?
00:11 I don't know, because I haven't got that far. I haven't watched the whole thing, so I don't know if that's a spoiler.
00:16 No, I'm just saying, even the character... I mean, this is the thing.
00:19 This was literally, however many pages into ep one, I went, "I'm playing that part,"
00:24 even though I knew it would be a nightmare in makeup.
00:27 But it isn't, because it's such an incredible character choice.
00:30 It's there. It says so much about who Tess is, and I absolutely adored that,
00:39 but also, we don't see it that often, and it's the genius of Emily's writing.
00:46 And to me, straight away, I was like, "I have to play this part. Who is she?"
00:51 Because who you think she is, and the armour that's built up, and it's just incredible.
00:56 It's such an incredible role.
00:57 Did you pick anything then that was on there, or was anything with any significance?
01:01 Everything. There's not one accident on there, but I would love to take credit for it.
01:06 It was absolutely not me. It was Emily and Sheldon, the makeup designer,
01:09 and there was a lot of, obviously, development of characters,
01:14 but there were some things that were in there.
01:16 I picked the zip down there. There's a zip tattoo, which was really important to me,
01:22 but it was a medley of this poetry that's been written by the writer.
01:27 There's designs that reference certain periods. There's a transition of time on there.
01:32 You have someone who would have got some tattoos in their early 20s,
01:37 some that would have been later on in life.
01:39 There were some that you potentially get when you've probably had a lot of wine,
01:45 and there's some that you have thought about.
01:48 So, it was a complete...
01:50 It's all got significance.
01:52 Every single thing was a choice, and it was, I think, just...
01:57 For me, there are certain character descriptions that writers can give you so much in one line,
02:03 and it was that.
02:04 Ah. What do you draw on for a role like this?
02:09 Because there's a lot to it, and I imagine it takes a toll on you as well.
02:14 It's an interesting one. I didn't fully realise how... It wasn't until I played the Doctor,
02:20 when I've always said, "I'm not method," just because in between takes,
02:24 I quite happily go back to my Broad Yorkshire accent and chat away,
02:27 and find out what everyone's doing for their dinner, and there's all that.
02:30 But then, it wasn't until I played the Doctor that I realised that when you do...
02:35 Because mainly career-wise, before that, I'd been very emotional,
02:41 or traumatic events had happened to them,
02:46 and it wasn't until I played the Doctor that I realised how light you could...
02:51 Because there's just such a kind of childlike energy to that role
02:54 that I felt like for three years, I was like, "Wow! I'm like 12 again!"
02:59 Whereas going back into it, and this being my first job back since that role,
03:06 there's a certain amount of research that you should, and I do,
03:14 but then there's also the thing of, I might not stay in character,
03:18 but if you spend a day or five months in a certain headspace,
03:23 there is that, I suppose, soundtrack or narrative in your brain.
03:33 But I'm lucky because the main thing is that this is a role,
03:38 and I'm one of the lucky ones that this hasn't happened to.
03:41 So there's also that, and I think the brilliant thing for me with Tess
03:45 was I am a world away from her on paper, and that was the thing for me
03:50 that made me want to play her so much, was I'm incredibly tactile,
03:53 I overshare, I'm manic, and I can't read a room.
03:59 But the thing about Tess was that everything is internalised,
04:02 and particularly where we meet her at this particular moment in her life,
04:06 she's the outsider coming in and everything is contained,
04:09 and she's built up all these protective walls,
04:12 and once the cracks start to appear, how that manifests itself,
04:17 and in it, her response to things was very different to mine,
04:21 but that's what was so fascinating because actually,
04:24 we are all these things all the time.
04:27 And the friendship, the exploration of friendship was so important to me,
04:30 and that's what I adored because this story isn't anything without all of them,
04:35 and really, the main storyline for me is Simone and what this book does to us,
04:44 and getting to see that from her point of view,
04:47 Hat's point of view, Tess's point of view, was so uniquely written to me.
04:51 It is, though, your first role back after playing the Doctor.
04:55 How much has life changed for you since then?
04:58 The thing about getting the Doctor is the life change.
05:01 So you get announced as it, and then you get to play this incredible role,
05:05 but obviously then, for the next four years, because it was three seasons
05:09 over four years, you just have the time of your life on set with your best mates
05:13 and loving every second of it.
05:15 So the change is that suddenly you are grief-ridden every day
05:20 because you're not there, and someone else is playing the role,
05:25 and it's just an amazing thing because you'll never not be it.
05:29 It'll be the conversation I'll be having.
05:32 It'll be linked to every job for the next however long I'm lucky enough to work,
05:36 and I couldn't be happier about it.
05:38 It's my happiest time, and if that job meant that I got to do this job,
05:42 then it's just the gift that keeps on giving.