Billie Piper thought the 'Doctor Who' reboot would be a failure.
Billie Piper
The 38-year-old actress played the role of the Time Lord's companion Rose Tyler in the first two series of the resurrected BBC sci-fi show during the 2000s, but confessed to former co-star David Tennant - who played the 10th incarnation of the titular time traveller - that she didn't share his passion for the programme beforehand and felt that it would only last for a matter of months.
Speaking with the 'Des' star on the latest episode of his podcast, 'David Tennant Does A Podcast With...', Billie explained: "I didn't grow up with it, so I didn't have that feeling you had of complete fandom and you were obsessed right?
"Then, we started making it, everyone said it was going to be a failure. So you just don't imagine it being on for longer than three months, imagining that 15 years later, it's still probably the biggest job you will have ever done and you'll still be talking about it and going off and meeting people and you know, celebrating it."
Billie confessed to finding the attention that came from being on the legendary sci-fi series - which originally ran from 1963 to 1989 before being revived in 2005 - "quite hard at times" even though she had already shot to fame as a teenage pop star.
Recalling being mobbed on set, she told David: "Sometimes I found that quite hard because, I had three years just living a life that wasn't particularly normal, but it wasn't 17 hours a day selling records and being very actively public.
"I really enjoyed those sort of sloppy years, and then going back and starting 'Doctor Who' reminded me about that. The sort of pressure and responsibility was a big part of it because I was in my early twenties and quite wild. And then you're the face of a family show. I found that really hard."
The 'I Hate Suzie' star continued: "I'd been there before and it's an uncomfortable position for me. I've never really liked that. You become this thing to people and you don't really have any part in that. And so you have to behave in a certain way or at least try to, and that's quite annoying."
'David Tennant Does A Podcast With...' is available on Apple, Spotify and all podcast providers, and is a Somethin' Else and No Mystery production.
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