Jodi Whittaker looks back on her time on “Doctor Who” fondly, the actress told the Times of London in an interview published Saturday — and “just wouldn’t hesitate” to return to the series if given the right opportunity. As she put it: “It’s absolute joy.”
Whittaker briefly returned to the BBC production for a cameo during the regeneration of the Doctor played by Ncuti Gatwa.
That particular regeneration left fans — and the series — in a lurch. Showrunner Russell T Davies exited the series, and Gatwa appeared to return as Billie Piper’s Rose, the erstwhile companion of both Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant’s Doctors.
Unfortunately, Whittaker wasn’t able to shed any light on what might happen next.
“Nobody tells you anything. They didn’t even tell Billie and me that the other was in it,” she explained. “I got on set and half the crew didn’t know [that Whittaker was appearing]. The thing that makes me laugh about ‘Doctor Who’ is the secrecy. You’re, like, ‘Oh, I have to get a day off work,’ but not say what job I’m doing.”
Whittaker also reflected on what it meant to become the first female Doctor in the show’s history.
“There needed to be a first and I didn’t fully appreciate it,” she says. In the show, “I’m not like Jack Lemmon in ‘Some Like It Hot’: ‘I’m a girl, I’m a girl!’ I just am. But once it was announced — as well as a few grumpy pumps — for a lot of people it felt like a really wonderful moment,” she added.
The actress wrapped her time on the series in October 2022.
“I’ve shot my version of regen, and it was singularly the most emotional day on set I think I’ve ever had,” Whittaker told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s a really bizarre feeling, because it’s the best time I’ve ever had on a job, and I made the decision to leave it, so it’s a really strange thing to do to yourself. It feels like you’re giving yourself stitches — like, ‘Why have you done it?’ But … it felt right.”
“It was a wonderfully-celebratory-slash-grief-ridden day that I could spend with the family that I’d made,” she added. “I suppose the best thing about it is that the episodes are still on. So until they’re off, I don’t have to really get my head around the fact that it’s not my part!”
