Jodie Whittaker gives first interview since Doctor Who casting

'I’m about to play an alien, a time lord. And that as a girl? Who knew?'

When the BBC announced Jodie Whittaker as the next Doctor Who there was outrage online, one former Doctor — Peter Davison — saying the casting meant the “loss of a role model for boys”.

Speaking to BBC Radio 6 in her first interview following the casting, Whittaker, the first female to take on the role and Peter Capaldi’s replacement, said she stayed away from social media, managing to miss the criticism.

“I’ve missed a lot of the fun stuff, and probably the bad stuff, because I’m not on any type of social media and never have been,” she said.

“If I get sent something it’s a mate screen-grabbing something, and they obviously edit. But there’s an amazing video of a young girl watching it and finding out that it’s [Doctor Who] being played by a girl. Seeing things like that are really amazing.”

Whittaker also spoke about how, growing up, these types of roles — such as playing a time-travelling alien with two hearts — seemed untouchable by women, saying it never seemed “in the realm of possibility, ever.”

“The people that are in these roles, that we’re excited about, or passionate, or that that we look up to, don’t always have to tick the same box, and that’s what’s really incredible about it.”

On the initial casting, she added: “It was incredibly emotional because my entire life, as a child, all I ever wanted to be was be an actor, and I wanted to do it because I wanted to play pretend, and that is the ultimate.

“I’m about to play an alien, a time lord. And that as a girl? Who knew? That’s incredible and really emotional because of that.”