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David Tennant interview - Radio Times, April 2007 |
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The star of Doctor Who tells Nick Griffiths how he balances playing the Time Lord with leading a normal life.
When do you start work each day?
Filming usually kicks off at 8am -
assuming it's not a night shoot - which
means you have to be here just
after seven. I live about half an hour
from the studios, so I usually get up
around six.
Does that take a while
to get used to?
It's funny, you get into
that routine quite quickly.
Also, because of the
nature of filming, that
routine keeps being
messed up because you
go to night shoots, when
you have to quickly
rewire your body clock
and try to get used to sleeping all day
and waking up at 5pm to go to work.
You just have to be continually flexible.
What, then, is the hardest part
of being the Doctor?
That's quite a hard question. This year's
been harder generally because we've
done more nights and more odd hours
and slightly further afield locations,
just because the scripts have been
more ambitious. The show keeps
pushing itself and Russell keeps
pushing what's achievable.
You love your Shakespeare - what
was the Globe like?
It was great. The curious part was,
because we couldn't get in until after
the show finished at nine, we would
start filming at about 11pm and shoot
through the night. But there are
daytime scenes in the Globe as well,
so as the sun came up we had to switch
to the daytime scenes. Just as you
were getting a bit weary around 6am,
you had to switch to a whole other
mode. The very nature of Doctor Who is
that it's all quite high-energy. You can't
allow yourself to droop.
How do you keep that energy up?
Oh, I don't know. Black coffee? That's
the character, that's the job, and it's
the nature of these kinds of scripts as
well; that's what you thrive on. Often
the Doctor's energy is what powers
a scene, so you've got to match that.
I don't find it difficult, particularly.
The very energy that comes off the
script is what inspires you.
How do you manage the day-to-day
stuff like shopping and bills?
That's the stuff that I find problematic.
It's the answer to your question about
the hardest part of the job: keeping
normal life going.
Presumably you get recognised -
is it disconcerting?
You acclimatise, but it was a bit of a
shock at first. Billie
and I got chased through the traffic
once in a car. You expect paparazzi
to do that, but when it's normal
people you start to think the
world's gone a bit mad. But I've had very
few bad experiences.
Do the days ever feel repetitive?
No: that's why nine months shoot by.
I can't believe I'm nearly finished! We
started on 1 July. It does seem a long
time ago that Catherine Tate and I were
doing the Christmas episode. I think,
jings, this is such an extraordinary time
and it's flying by, and in my dotage I'm
going to look back and think, that was
the blink of an eye!
**
Read our 2005 interview with David Tennant - or take a look at our full Doctor Who guide.
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