Jodie Whittaker has promised herself she'll binge watch 'Doctor Who' "from start to finish" once she's stepped down as the female Time Lord.
Shaun Keaveny and Jodie Whittaker
The 36-year-old actress has been cast as the extraterrestrial being in the forthcoming series 11 of the sci-fi show and, although she's banned herself from re-watching any of the previous episodes featuring other actors in the lead role to prevent herself from "nicking" their characterisations, she's vowed to watch the programme from series 1 once she's handed the baton over to someone else.
Speaking with BBC Radio 6 Music's Breakfast Show host Shaun Keaveny on Thursday (27.09.18) morning, she said: "For me, I came into the audition process and I was like: 'Look, I've seen it because you'd have to live under a rock if you haven't but I was not brought up in a Whovian house so how much do I need to watch before my next audition.'
"And he [Chris Chibnall, the new 'Doctor Who' boss] was like: 'You don't have to! Do the work you need to do but essentially I want you to come at it with a fresh prospective and you'll hopefully get everything you need to know from the sides and the episodes.' But actually, I started to watch and then I thought do you know what I'm going to read it because you can read everything you need to know online, which is the wonders of modern technology, but when I started to watch it I was like: 'Do you know what, I really want to feel in every moment that I'm really listening to the other actors and responding with as much natural instinct as I can rather than feeling like is this a character choice that I've potentially nicked from someone else ...
"When you're casting a new person you might as well use their fresh energy but when it's over and I'm not it anymore and I hand over the baton, I'm going to watch it from start to finish in order ... I'm as excited as everyone else to see the series because I haven't seen it yet."
Jodie is the first ever woman to play the time-traveller and, although she's proud to make history, she's predicted there will be many more female Doctors to come.
She explained: "I've got embrace this time and be really excited by it but it'll be ace when it's not a moment because there will be so many female Doctors to come but I will be that 80 year old going: 'Hiya love, have I told you about this.' "
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