At 3 Years Old, David Tennant Knew He Wanted To Be Doctor Who
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How did David Tennant become Doctor Who?
This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. Today's guest, David Tennant, is best known as an actor, but he also has an interview podcast, which is now in its third season. Some of this year's guests include Stanley Tucci, Ben Schwartz, and Rosamund Pike. Tennant spoke with Fresh Air's Sam Brigger. Here's Sam.
What roles has David Tennant played beyond Doctor Who?
Scottish actor David Tennant's list of accomplishments is as long as it has varied. Perhaps best known for playing Doctor Who, he is also considered one of the finest Shakespearean actors of his generation, as you can see now in the film of his Macbeth, which was staged in 2023, with Tennant playing the lead and Cush Jumbo as Lady Macbeth. It's now streaming on Marquee TV. He is also memorably played Hamlet and Richard II. You probably watched him as the haunted and brooding detective in the British crime drama Broadchurch, and maybe even in the American adaptation called Grace Point, where he plays more or less the same role but with an American accent. David Tennant has also been his share of screen villains, including real-life serial killer Dennis Nilsen in the miniseries Dez, Kilgrave in the Marvel TV show Jessica Jones, one of the most repugnant characters I have ever seen, as well as the smaller but memorable, lip-licking Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
He also hosted the BAFTA Awards for the past two years, Great Britain's version of the Oscars, this year opening the ceremony singing the song 500 Miles in a bespoke black jacket and kilt suit. And he was hilarious to watch playing a version of himself in the streaming comedy staged with Michael Sheehan, one of the few good things to come out of the COVID pandemic. David Tennant also has a podcast called David Tennant Does a Podcast With, where you fill in the name of the guest from that episode, often an actor he has worked with. A third season of the podcast released this year, and while we might have said, hey, David Tennant, stay in your lane. There's enough long-format interview shows out there.
Why did David Tennant return to podcasting?
Instead, we decided that this would be a good opportunity to have him on our long-format interview show to ask him about his life and career. So David Tennant, welcome to Fresh Air. Thank you very much for having me. You did two seasons of your podcast ending in 2020, but then you came back last month with the third season. Why did you come back now?
There was a certain sense of there were a few people I had either meant to interview or had sort of got to know in the interim. And I thought I would have naturally interviewed them when I'd done this podcast before. So maybe now is an opportunity to to kind of scoop them up. It really has always been the case with the podcast. It's something I've done. I don't mean to minimise it, but it's almost been a hobby, like a sideline, like a sort of thing I've done for pleasure when I've had a moment. It's never been my principal job. So it was just a sort of moment of opportunity.
When you go into these interviews, like, do you have a specific agenda? Like, are you when you're like, oh, Olivia Colman, I've always wanted to know this about her? Or do you sometimes think about things in your own career which have puzzled you that gives you an opportunity to ask someone else who does the same work?
Yeah, there's certainly there's definitely a bit of that a bit of there are some slightly odd things about being in this profession and what it sort of does to your life outside the work. That is the sort of bit you don't get trained for at a drama school. You know, one of the sort of side effects of being successful as an actor, I suppose, is that you lose an element of anonymity.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
How did David Tennant become Doctor Who?
0:25–0:43
2
What roles has David Tennant played beyond Doctor Who?
0:43–2:23
3
Why did David Tennant return to podcasting?
2:23–4:21
4
How does David Tennant handle celebrity interactions?
4:21–8:05
5
What is the show 'Staged' about?
8:05–13:24
6
How did David Tennant approach his role in Macbeth?
13:24–23:11
7
What are the challenges of performing Shakespeare?
23:11–46:12
Speakers
10 identifiedMore from Fresh Air
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