Doctor Who's Matt Smith on trigger warnings: "Isn't art meant to be dangerous?"
"Imagine you go to kids watching Doctor Who, 'By the way, this might scare you.'"
Matt Smith has weighed in on Ralph Fiennes's comments about trigger warnings, using Doctor Who as an example of how trigger warnings could impact on art.
The House of the Dragon star appeared on political chat show Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg – a week after Fiennes told Kuenssberg that he would get rid of trigger warnings before plays.
"The impact of theatre should be that you're shocked, and should be that you're disturbed, I don't think you should be prepared for these things," Fiennes said.
Smith, who is currently starring in An Enemy of the People on the West End, agreed with Fiennes, telling Kuenssberg: "I watched it, I agree with Ralph, utterly and completely."
He went on to say: "I always thought that was one of the great things of doing Doctor Who. That you scared children, in a controlled way, but you did scare them. Imagine you go to kids watching Doctor Who, 'By the way, this might scare you.' No, I'm not into it."
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Adding to Fiennes's comments, Smith went on to say: "That's why we go to the theatre, isn't it? To be shocked, to be arrested out of ourselves, to recognise ourselves in front and with an audience."
He did include a caveat for effects like strobe lightning, before reiterating: "I worry sometimes that we're moving towards a sort of sanitised version of everything and we're stripping the danger and the invention and the ingenuity out of [everything]. Isn't art meant to be dangerous?”
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