TERRY GROSS, HOST:
That is FRESH AIR. I’m Terry Gross. Immediately’s visitor, David Tennant, is finest referred to as an actor, however he additionally has an interview podcast, which is now in its third season. A few of this yr’s company embody Stanley Tucci, Ben Schwartz and Rosamund Pike. Tennant spoke with FRESH AIR’s Sam Briger. This is Sam.
SAM BRIGER, BYLINE: Scottish actor David Tennant’s listing of accomplishments is so long as it’s diverse. Maybe finest identified for taking part in Physician Who, he’s additionally thought of one of many most interesting Shakespearean actors of his era, as you may see now within the movie of his “Macbeth,” which was staged in 2023, with Tennant taking part in the lead and Cush Jumbo as Girl Macbeth. It is now streaming on Marquee TV. He has additionally memorably performed Hamlet and Richard II. You most likely watched him because the haunted and brooding detective within the British crime drama “Broadchurch” and perhaps even within the American adaptation known as “Gracepoint,” the place he performs kind of the identical function, however with an American accent.
David Tennant has additionally been his share of display screen villains, together with real-life serial killer Dennis Nilsen within the miniseries “Des,” Kilgrave within the Marvel TV present “Jessica Jones,” one of the vital repugnant characters I’ve ever seen, in addition to the smaller however memorable lip-licking Barty Crouch Jr. in “Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fireplace.” He additionally hosted the BAFTA Awards for the previous two years – Nice Britain’s model of the Oscars – this yr opening the ceremony singing the music “500 Miles” in a bespoke black jacket and kilt swimsuit. And he was hilarious to look at taking part in a model of himself within the streaming comedy “Staged” with Michael Sheen, one of many few good issues to come back out of the COVID pandemic.
David Tennant additionally has a podcast known as “David Tennant Does A Podcast With…”, the place you fill within the title of the visitor from that episode, usually an actor he has labored with. A 3rd season of the podcast launched this yr. And whereas we’d have mentioned, hey, David Tennant, keep in your lane, there’s sufficient long-format interview reveals on the market, as an alternative, we determined that this is able to be a great alternative to have him on our long-format interview present to ask him about his life and profession. So, David Tennant, welcome to FRESH AIR.
DAVID TENNANT: Thanks very a lot for having me.
BRIGER: You probably did two seasons of your podcast ending in 2020, however you then got here again final month with the third season. Why did you come again now?
TENNANT: There was a sure sense of there have been a number of individuals I had both meant to interview or had kind of received to know within the interim, and I believed I’d have naturally interviewed them after I’ve accomplished this podcast earlier than, so perhaps now it is a possibility to form of scoop them up. It actually has all the time been the case with the podcast. It is one thing I’ve accomplished – I do not imply to attenuate it, however it’s virtually been a passion, like a sideline, like a kind of factor I’ve accomplished for pleasure after I’ve had a second. It is by no means been my principal job. So it was only a kind of second of alternative.
BRIGER: Whenever you go into these interviews, like, do you have got a particular agenda? Like, are you – once you’re like, oh, Olivia Colman, I’ve all the time needed to know this about her, or do you typically take into consideration issues in your individual profession which have puzzled you that provides you a chance to ask another person who does the identical work the query?
TENNANT: Yeah. There actually – there’s positively a little bit of that, a little bit of -there are some barely odd issues about being on this occupation and what it kind of does to your life exterior the work that’s the kind of bit you do not get skilled for at a drama faculty. You already know, one of many kind of unintended effects of being profitable as an actor, I suppose, is that you just lose a component of anonymity. And I discovered that, personally, fairly difficult when it occurred to me. So I am all the time fairly intrigued to know the way others have handled that or are coping with that, or form of characterize what that does to them and the individuals round them.
However it’s a mix of issues. You are additionally simply -again, if it is somebody you realize, you are usually fascinated with kind of celebrating them and wanting the world to know them and perceive what’s likable about them as a result of there is a kind of enjoyment of celebrating that to the general public by some means. So it is all the time – sure, it is all the time a mix of impulses, I feel.
BRIGER: Talking about dealing with being a star, you inform a narrative that somebody requested you for an autograph when you have been bare in a bathe on the fitness center.
TENNANT: Yeah. Yeah, completely. Sure, and moments like which are fairly peculiar.
BRIGER: Sure. I would say so.
TENNANT: Sure. Maybe that is stating the plain. However simply, it is fairly – I am all the time fairly intrigued to know if different individuals have had related experiences and the way they – or how they’d have handled experiences like that, as a result of I feel it is fairly – it is a bit of a kind of membership that you may’t actually anticipate any kind of sympathy for as a result of it is a very privileged place to be in. However it’s – you realize, it is a sophisticated one. It is one I wrestle with since you’re additionally very conscious if somebody needs to have a second’s interplay with you, that they are kind of – that second for them is representing all of the work you may need accomplished that has meant one thing to them. In order that’s a vastly – it is fairly a valuable second for another person, whereas you is perhaps simply pondering, I will be late for this appointment that…
BRIGER: Otherwise you’re having a nasty day or one thing?
TENNANT: Otherwise you’re having a nasty day. Yeah. And, in fact, that you just’re not likely going to make the scenario higher by explaining to somebody why that is an inappropriate second, if they are not seeing that for themselves. I draw you again to the second within the bathe. That man clearly did not perceive why I used to be discovering this peculiar and odd. So it turned less complicated to kind of carve a signature into what was the mulch of the piece of paper that he was now holding beneath a bathe. And kind of – he mentioned, thanks very a lot, and went on his means.
BRIGER: Effectively, I needed to speak about one other model of David Tennant that you’ve got performed on three seasons of the present “Staged” with Michael Sheen.
TENNANT: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
BRIGER: This present largely takes place – at the least it appears to – I do not know if it was filmed this manner – however as a sequence of Zoom calls between you and Michael Sheen and your respective spouses and different individuals. No less than within the first season, you are rehearsing this play throughout COVID, hoping that when the lockdown is over, you may have this factor able to go. And, in fact, that does not work out so properly. However – so how did this present come about?
TENNANT: It was a fully opportunistic pitch by a good friend of – properly, really, somebody that my spouse was in school with, who’s a movie producer known as Phin Glynn, who we – each Georgia and I – have labored with on numerous initiatives through the years. And some days into that first lockdown – should have been March 2020 – Phin phoned us up and went, I may need an concept of one thing we might make whereas we’re all locked in our homes. It was totally his child. He went off, received a script written. We went off and enlisted Michael Sheen and Anna Lundberg, who have been locked of their home in Wales. And between us, we simply made one on spec. Simon Evans, who performs the director within the present, can be the director and in addition wrote the script in a short time and really cleverly. Neither Michael nor Georgia nor myself or Anna had met Simon, however we received to know him very properly over Zoom, and all of it occurred…
BRIGER: He was fairly humorous within the present.
TENNANT: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah.
BRIGER: I’ve to say that after I first heard in regards to the present, I did not suppose I used to be going to get pleasure from watching it. Like, we have been…
TENNANT: Oh, no – sounds desperately uninteresting.
BRIGER: Effectively, yeah.
TENNANT: And in addition…
BRIGER: Effectively, we…
TENNANT: …It was reflecting…
BRIGER: Proper.
TENNANT: …That we have been all dwelling…
BRIGER: We have been all dwelling our lives on Zoom.
TENNANT: Yeah. Yeah.
BRIGER: And the very last thing I wish to do is watch a TV present about Zoom. Nevertheless, it shortly received me over as a result of it is so humorous. I believed we’d play a scene from the present.
TENNANT: Oh, good.
BRIGER: To set this up, Michael Sheen is irritated with you at this level.
TENNANT: That does – that tracks (ph).
BRIGER: Yeah (laughter), as a result of initially, you have been going to do that play with another person, so he was the second selection. So that you guys are doing a studying, and I feel we’ll additionally hear Simon Evans on this, and he is determined to maintain issues on observe. However Michael Sheen is principally making an attempt to choose a battle with you. And you’ve got had a line the place you used the phrase heard, and he is questioning the way you’re saying that phrase. So let’s hear that.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “STAGED”)
TENNANT: What’s incorrect with my phrases?
MICHAEL SHEEN: I am struggling to imagine them. There’s lots happening there.
TENNANT: Quite a bit happening? OK.
SHEEN: Would you attempt one thing for me?
TENNANT: Oh, positive. Glad to, yeah.
SHEEN: Is that OK, Simon?
SIMON EVANS: I would fairly we simply pushed on, really.
SHEEN: Will not take a sec. Simply give me I wish to be heard once more.
TENNANT: I wish to be heard.
SHEEN: Simon?
EVANS: I believed that was nice.
SHEEN: You do not suppose he sounds cartoonish.
TENNANT: Cartoonish?
SHEEN: I’ve thought it for some time now.
EVANS: Completely not. No, I do not. David, it is with you – I wish to be heard.
TENNANT: I wish to be heard.
SHEEN: I wish to be heard.
EVANS: Please, can we stock on?
SHEEN: I wish to be heard.
TENNANT: I wish to be heard.
SHEEN: I wish to be heard.
TENNANT: I wish to be heard.
SHEEN: I wish to be heard.
TENNANT: I wish to be heard.
SHEEN: I wish to be heard.
TENNANT: It is received to have one thing – I wish to be heard. It is received to have one thing behind it.
SHEEN: No, it is received to come back from someplace.
TENNANT: Simply since you’re mumbling would not make it good.
SHEEN: I communicate the identical language as you. You do not have to talk to me from a special…
TENNANT: Effectively, you are barely talking, although. You are barely talking. You are whispering it.
SHEEN: I wish to be heard. Let’s faux we’re all human beings. I wish to be heard.
TENNANT: Yeah, who’ve ears that must obtain the vibrations.
SHEEN: I imply, it is not a listening to factor. It is kind of a sense factor.
TENNANT: You already know, what I am doing is smart, and what you are doing is a kind of bizarre…
SHEEN: It’d sound bizarre to you since you will not have been used to listening to that popping out of your self.
TENNANT: It is so affected, in the event you do not thoughts me saying. (Imitating Michael Sheen) I wish to be heard.
SHEEN: Is not it attention-grabbing, Simon, that in the event you spend a profession…
TENNANT: Is that attention-grabbing?
SHEEN: …Talking in such a stilted, kind of synthetic means, then listening to one thing that is truthful can sound affected to you.
EVANS: I wish to be heard.
BRIGER: That is a scene from the present “Staged” with Michael Sheen and our visitor, David Tennant. David Tennant, there’s so many occasions watching that present the place I simply laughed out loud. You guys have such an ideal rapport. Are you able to discuss in regards to the model of your self that you just’re taking part in on this present?
TENNANT: I feel we fairly loved taking part in terrible variations of ourselves.
BRIGER: (Laughter).
TENNANT: We have been fairly joyful to lean into that. Apparently, Simon mentioned that one of many issues he did as he was writing it was hearken to the episode of my podcast with Michael Sheen. Once more, I do not know what that claims about – I imply, Michael’s this kind of fairly pompous or a grand character…
BRIGER: Yeah, boastful actor
TENNANT: Reasonably boastful actor. I am a kind of whining, miserabilist. (Laughter) After which the 2…
BRIGER: Effectively, you are described as weaselly at one level, too (laughter).
TENNANT: Sure, I’m described as weaselly. And I do not know the place that got here from, however it actually appeared to suit properly sufficient for us to lean fairly onerous into it and fairly get pleasure from leaning into it. I imply, even listening to that, after I hear bits of it again, it does make me smile. I suppose as a result of it jogs my memory of a second in time the place there wasn’t an terrible lot happening aside from homeschooling our kids, which was an actual recent hell that we have been all making an attempt to meet up with.
BRIGER: Yeah.
TENNANT: And being locked in our home. And though, you realize, in some ways, I did not dislike lockdown in any respect as a result of I used to be very joyful to be locked in my home and refrained from different human beings past my circle of relatives. It was actually pretty to have that launch, and that inventive launch, significantly.
BRIGER: Effectively, it is so humorous. Simply your look on the present, you simply look stupefied with boredom the entire time.
TENNANT: (Laughter).
BRIGER: Your mouth is hanging open.
(LAUGHTER)
TENNANT: Effectively, it was a selected time, is not it?
BRIGER: It actually was. One of many humorous sight gags is that you just hold getting caught ingesting out of this mug along with your face on it (laughter).
TENNANT: Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
BRIGER: And so they hold saying, is that you just on that mug?
TENNANT: Yeah.
BRIGER: And also you deny it.
TENNANT: Sure, a number of bits of that have been kind of impressed by what was taking place round us. We do occur to have a few mugs in my home that will or might not have my face on them.
BRIGER: (Laughter).
TENNANT: And I can not bear in mind fairly the origin of that specific gag. However it was both we have been on a Zoom discussing what we have been going to do and I had the mug there, or I introduced it, and perhaps I advised it sooner or later. Anyway, it turned a kind of long-running gag that runs all through…
BRIGER: That is very humorous (laughter)
TENNANT: …Three seasons, I feel. Yeah.
BRIGER: So that you mentioned you have been residence. You and your spouse, Georgia, have 5 youngsters. I’ve two youngsters. And it was very robust to kind of hold them busy, hold them on their education throughout COVID. What was it like with 5? Like, was your own home simply loopy on a regular basis?
TENNANT: We’re lucky that we have now a good quantity of area. And we have a bit of out of doors area, which I feel it might’ve killed us with out that. However, sure, in fact, it was difficult. Our youngest was brand-new. She was born in direction of the top of 2019. So we had a really small child, with all of the pleasures and difficulties that that brings, three who have been in class. That was the actual hell, the homeschooling, simply making an attempt to be the kind of manager-come-teacher that retains them on observe was very, very onerous. After which our eldest, his 18th birthday got here three, 4 days after lockdown was known as. So his large 18th birthday celebration was spent watching us over the kitchen desk.
BRIGER: (Laughter).
TENNANT: I nonetheless really feel like he received barely shortchanged there.
BRIGER: Yeah. Yeah. Should you’re simply becoming a member of us, our visitor is actor David Tennant. He has his personal interview podcast known as “David Tennant Does A Podcast With…” that is now in its third season. We’ll be again after a brief break. That is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF JAKE SHIMABUKURO’S “143 (KELLY’S SONG)”)
BRIGER: That is FRESH AIR. We’re talking with stage and display screen actor David Tennant. The third season of his interview podcast is out now. It is known as “David Tennant Does A Podcast With…”
So I needed to speak to you slightly bit about your work doing Shakespeare. Your model of “Macbeth” that I feel was initially staged in 2023 is now out there to stream on Marquee TV. And…
TENNANT: Proper.
BRIGER: You star with Cush Jumbo as Girl Macbeth.
TENNANT: Yeah.
BRIGER: So this can be a very minimalist staging. The stage itself is just about like this white platform.
TENNANT: Yeah.
BRIGER: And the viewers is kind of across the stage. And I seen watching the movie of it that each one the viewers members have been sporting headphones. Why was that?
TENNANT: Max Webster, our director, it was one in all his very earliest concepts. He was fascinated with the concept of Macbeth as a soldier. He’d accomplished a manufacturing of “Henry V” the place they’d regarded lots into the reality of being a soldier who goes to conflict, what which may do to you, concepts round PTSD and shell shock – and he talked to individuals who’d skilled that – and the concept that one would hear voices, that one would think about issues have been taking place that weren’t. And he kind of took the concept of PTSD and put it onto Macbeth, and it form of suits remarkably properly. I imply, who is aware of what Shakespeare’s expertise was with veterans from no matter wars have been round on the time. However it feels prefer it all tracks with how modern-day veterans describe a few of the issues they wrestle with after excursions of obligation.
And he began working with a sound designer known as Gareth Fry, who had accomplished different reveals the place the audiences all wore headphones, and you are able to do extraordinary issues, then, to the viewers’s expertise as a result of for a begin, you may whisper very quietly, and you may transfer the place that whisper is. So if you are able to do that for the viewers, they get an understanding of maybe what’s taking place inside Macbeth’s very troubled mind.
So you possibly can – significantly when a lot of what Macbeth says is in soliloquy, which is an deal with to the viewers, I feel it was simply utilizing a software that was out there and including to that, you have got a kind of soundscape, which is going on the entire time. You are mixing within the music. You are mixing in sound results that will or is probably not dwell on stage in entrance of you, which, once more, is including to that sense of disconcertion and what’s actual, what is not actual. So it was a kind of conceptual means of telling this very well-told story, maybe in a barely new, fairly fashionable means, whereas nonetheless being totally devoted to the textual content that Shakespeare wrote.
BRIGER: Let’s hear what a type of soliloquies feels like. That is the well-known “Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow”…
TENNANT: Oh, OK.
BRIGER: …Soliloquy from the top of the play, and you’ve got simply found that Girl Macbeth has been killed.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “MACBETH”)
TENNANT: (As Macbeth) Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps on this petty tempo from daily to the final syllable of recorded time. And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way in which to dusty dying. Out, transient candle. Life’s however a strolling shadow, a poor participant that struts and frets his hour upon the stage after which is heard no extra. It’s a story advised by an fool. It is stuffed with sound and fury, signifying nothing.
BRIGER: OK. In order that’s from the movie model of “Macbeth.” So, you realize, I am sporting headphones now, so I really feel like I am kind of experiencing what that might have been like for the viewers since you are actually whispering. And I suppose I used to be questioning, like, in the event you have been doing that in a extra conventional theater sense and also you needed to undertaking to a budget seats, like, how do you method that very same speech in these kind of two totally different eventualities?
TENNANT: It is onerous to know as a result of, you realize, once you put together a manufacturing like that, you form of know what your model of it must be. I’ve by no means heard that again, so it is onerous. I do not know. All I am listening to is what I’d have accomplished otherwise. However…
BRIGER: What would you have got accomplished otherwise?
TENNANT: Oh, I do not know. You already know, I feel that speech, specifically, really was most likely – out of the entire play, that was kind of by no means fairly the identical twice. So you have received a model of it from the time…
BRIGER: And what number of occasions did do the play? Like, lots of of occasions?
TENNANT: Oh, like, 150 or one thing.
BRIGER: Yeah. So each time it feels totally different?
TENNANT: Sure. I feel that speech greater than any as a result of it comes close to the top. It is the – most likely probably the most emotional second. It is the second the place Girl Macbeth is gone. He is aware of it is throughout. It is actually only a case of how he will go down fairly than if he’ll. And it was, significantly in our staging, it was proper out the again. I used to be kind of sitting very a lot my very own. I could not – the lighting was such that I used to be in a pool of darkness.
And I kind of tried to dare myself each night time to form of discover it. However that specific second kind of afresh every time. Clearly, that is what you are all the time making an attempt to do. It is simpler with one thing like Shakespeare as a result of the phrases are fairly bottomless and so they have a number of totally different out there meanings. And that is why actors love doing it a lot as a result of on efficiency 150, you may all of a sudden hear a line that you just thought you knew inside out. You may kind of hear it in a brand-new means. And that is – clearly, that is a thrill and in addition a bit irritating ‘trigger you are going to go, oh, that is how I ought to have accomplished that.
BRIGER: Proper.
TENNANT: Can I’m going again and do the primary hundred performances once more, please?
BRIGER: Our visitor is David Tennant. He’ll be again after a brief break. I am Sam Briger, and that is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF DELIA DERBYSHIRE’S “DOCTOR WHO OPENING TITLE THEME”)
BRIGER: That is FRESH AIR. I am Sam Briger. Our visitor is actor David Tennant. He has an interview podcast known as “David Tennant Does A Podcast With…” that’s now out in its third season. Tennant is as snug taking part in characters with their very own spaceships, as he did for the function of Physician Who, as he’s holding up poor Yorick’s cranium as Hamlet. The filmed adaptation of his Macbeth is now out there for streaming. It costars Cush Jumbo as Girl Macbeth.
So, David, you grew up exterior of Glasgow in Paisley. Your father was a Presbyterian minister. So do you bear in mind your father’s sermons? Had been they fiery or extra contemplative?
TENNANT: Oh, he might get fairly fiery. Sure, he was fairly a performer, my dad. There was positively a little bit of an previous ham about him. And, sure, it wasn’t fireplace and brimstone a lot, though it might get there. You already know, he might get slightly bit – he would thump the pulpit on occasion. However no, he was positively a performer. And he was an excellent preacher, really. Individuals would ask him to come back and visitor preach in numerous locations. I feel he was very properly considered. And he was very cherished. He was an excellent minister. His congregation preferred him. And he was sort, and he was affected person and all of the issues that I suppose it’s important to be in that job. However no, he was a great preacher, yeah.
BRIGER: Effectively, he should’ve been as a result of for a yr, he served because the moderator of the Common Meeting of the Church of Scotland, which is principally, like…
TENNANT: That is proper.
BRIGER: …The very best place…
TENNANT: Yeah.
BRIGER: …Within the church.
TENNANT: The very best place however on a revolving, yearly foundation.
BRIGER: Proper, it is yearly foundation, proper.
TENNANT: As a result of the Church of Scotland is constructed on the concept that there ought to be no hierarchy. So you’re taking a flip and also you step again once more.
BRIGER: He additionally had a TV present known as “That is The Spirit” that he cohosted.
TENNANT: He did, he did.
BRIGER: What was that present like? Did you ever go to the set?
TENNANT: I did, really, sure. It was on Scottish tv. However, sure, he did. On a Sunday afternoon in Scotland, you possibly can see my dad in “That is The Spirit.” It was a kind of non secular journal program. So, you realize, he would go and meet a group undertaking. He would do some bit to digicam, the place he gave slightly message for the day. He’d do interviews with individuals who have been doing attention-grabbing or vital issues on the planet of, I suppose, divinity or outreach or no matter it was. However, yeah, he did that for fairly a number of years. And I bear in mind sitting off digicam and watching it occur a few occasions, yeah.
BRIGER: I’ve a tough time believing the story, however it’s been advised many occasions, so…
TENNANT: Oh. Oh, come on. What’s this?
BRIGER: (Laughter) Effectively, it is on the age of three, you advised your loved ones that you just needed to be an actor since you needed to play Physician Who.
TENNANT: Which is the bit you discover most implausible about that story? As a result of I’ve ideas.
BRIGER: Effectively, to start with, simply the want success that you just have been capable of obtain in your maturity taking part in…
TENNANT: Yeah.
BRIGER: …Some of the well-known Physician Whos. But in addition, like, did you, on the age of three, perceive that Physician Who was an actor? Like, did you wish to act as Physician Who? Did you wish to be Physician Who?
TENNANT: That is the bit that now having had my very own youngsters I can suppose, 3, actually? May I’ve been 3? As a result of it does really feel like fairly an advanced thought course of, would not it? However I can date it as a result of, you realize, this was within the occasions earlier than residence video recorders, so I do know that I watched Jon Pertwee flip into Tom Baker on “Physician Who.” And I can date it, and it is 1974, so I used to be 3 years previous. Perhaps they repeated it like a yr later, as a result of typically they did that, so perhaps I used to be 4. However I do know that it was then, and I do know that that led to a dialog with my dad and mom. And also you’re completely proper that it was a dialog the place I discovered what the distinction between a personality in a tv program and an actor was. However in that second, I understood what that idea was and determined that is what I needed to do. So regardless of how implausible it appears, I do know that it is true.
BRIGER: Do you bear in mind what was so fascinating in regards to the present to you?
TENNANT: One thing about that present and the mixture of parts, actually that central character, all the time fascinated me. I simply thought he was sensible. I simply thought he was cool, he was intelligent. He was wearing kind of sensible, cool, mad garments. However he regarded like a traditional human. And I feel that was fairly vital to me as a reasonably geeky younger youngster. I did not think about I might ever aspire to be Superman or the Unbelievable Hulk. You already know, I used to be kind of fairly weedy, and I wore glasses, and I had a horrible haircut. So all these issues nonetheless felt doable on the planet of The Physician. There was one thing about that character that I could possibly be.
I additionally cherished – it is a brilliantly constructed present in that you do not know the place they’ll land every time. Each time the TARDIS lands, the place is it? What is the thriller? There’s a complete new set of characters to get. And the monsters – what is the monster going to be this week? What is going on to come back round that nook, and the way scary is it going to be? And what a thrill all that was. So, no, I used to be obsessional about it.
BRIGER: So the place I grew up, you could not simply get “Physician Who” on the 13 channels that we had.
TENNANT: Proper.
BRIGER: However I do not know if televisions have been the identical in Scotland.
TENNANT: Effectively, you say 13 channels such as you have been starved.
BRIGER: No, I do know (laughter).
TENNANT: I imply, faculty, I do know, three channels.
BRIGER: Proper.
TENNANT: We had three.
BRIGER: However there was this different dial the place you possibly can – it was form of like a radio dial the place you possibly can dial in, like, farther tv stations. And typically I might dial in, like, the out-of-state public tv present that did have “Physician Who.” And the issues that I bear in mind about it was, first, that it was actually scary. Like, the monsters have been scary, and the theme music terrified me.
However then the factor that I additionally seen was, like, typically I’d discover how cheaply made the present was. Like, why are all these sci-fi, futuristic characters sporting garments that appear like they have been borrowed from, like, “Masterpiece Theatre”? After which, in all of those science fiction or futuristic units, there are all the time these drapes in all places (laughter), like, blockading sections of the stage. I do not know, so these have been my early reminiscences of it.
TENNANT: Pay attention, all of these reminiscences are very correct, I feel. I do not suppose there’s something incorrect with any of these observations you make. And I feel I used to be conscious of all that, too. However I nonetheless both forgave it or reveled in it, its shortcomings, as a result of really the writing, they have been extremely well-written. And people central performances – I bear in mind Tom Baker, who performed The Physician by way of most of my early childhood. It was a very magnificent efficiency. He was a correctly charismatic, mercurial, humorous, humorous, heroic. It was an excellent efficiency as a bit of kind of mad appearing. It was a marvel to behold, and that simply scooped me up. How thrilling that you just tuned in.
BRIGER: Yeah, to, like, a special planet (laughter).
TENNANT: You tuned your TV set to get – so it is just like the illicit channels. It should’ve felt such as you found fantastic secrets and techniques.
BRIGER: It did really feel that means, positively.
TENNANT: Yeah.
BRIGER: Effectively, let’s hear you from “Physician Who.” That is out of your first large scene. You’ve got simply been regenerated. This is able to occur. It is kind of just like the character could be reincarnated, which was a handy solution to have new actors play this function. And so that you’re reintroducing your self to your touring companion performed by Billie Piper and another characters. And also you’re additionally surrounded by some fairly tough-looking aliens. Let’s hear this.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “DOCTOR WHO”)
TENNANT: (As The Physician) Now, first issues first – be sincere. How do I look?
BILLIE PIPER: (As Rose Tyler) Completely different.
TENNANT: (As The Physician) Good totally different or unhealthy totally different?
PIPER: (As Rose Tyler) Simply totally different.
TENNANT: (As The Physician) Am I ginger?
PIPER: (As Rose Tyler) No, you are simply kind of brown.
TENNANT: (As The Physician)Aw, I needed to be ginger. I’ve by no means been ginger. And also you, Rose Tyler, fats lot of fine you have been, you gave up on me. Oh, that is impolite. Is that what I’m now? Am I Impolite? Impolite and never ginger?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) If I’d interrupt.
TENNANT: (As The Physician) Sure. Sorry. Howdy, large fella.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Who precisely are you?
TENNANT: (As The Physician) Effectively, that is the query.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) I demand to know who you’re.
TENNANT: (As The Physician) I do not know. See, that is the factor. I am The Physician, however past that, I simply do not know. I actually have no idea who I’m. It is all untested. Am I humorous? Am I sarcastic? Attractive? Proper previous distress? Life and soul? Proper handed? Left handed? A gambler? A fighter? A coward? A traitor? A liar? A nervous wreck? I imply, judging by the proof, I’ve actually received a gob.
BRIGER: That is our visitor David Tennant as Physician Who in his first large scene. So that you’re asking, like, who am I there. One of many issues that I actually preferred about your portrayal of The Physician was this, like, unbridled enthusiasm that you just delivered to the character. However, you realize, right here you’re at this level. You’ve got been classically skilled. You went to the Royal Scottish Academy Of Music And Dance (ph). And now you are taking part in this vital British pop determine. How did all the issues that you just had discovered and the ways in which you have skilled assist you kind of embody this function?
TENNANT: Oh, it is an excellent query. I do not know. I imply, it is a type of elements that has loads of cultural baggage about it, however it additionally, the entire concept of regeneration the place one actor takes over from the following, you are given a little bit of a clean sheet. The Physician has sure immovable truths about them, however you are not anticipated to do what the final one did. You are anticipated to carry your individual model of it. You simply have to search out your self in it, I suppose. You simply need to form of chuck your self at it and see what you get. And, in fact, it was written by Russell T. Davies, who’s one of many nice tv writers of our time, and wrote it with kind of a bit like himself. I imply, Russell has a beautiful present of the gab about him. He can discuss, and he is humorous and he is fast, and he is most likely the cleverest individual in most rooms. And that is form of how he writes The Physician.
So that you simply form of look to plug into that vitality, filter it by way of your self and hope that that produces one thing that is form of endearing and never smug and annoying. Most likely some individuals did discover it smug and annoying, however hopefully, most individuals discovered it charming and humorous. I feel it is vital that The Physician is humorous as a result of he makes use of wit to undermine a few of the form of worst creatures that the universe can throw at him. That is a part of what’s superb about that character is that he might be humorous in occasions of disaster. And that is his cool. He is very uncool in some ways, however he is received that swagger, that potential to undermine all the things with a gag or with a twinkle. So I did not ponder all that. It is fairly attention-grabbing listening again to that by way of headphones now. It feels fairly inexperienced and fairly squeaky to me.
BRIGER: Effectively, it is fairly exceptional how a lot the present has given you. Once more, like, it is kind of this nice want fulfilment. You additionally met your spouse…
TENNANT: I did. I did.
BRIGER: Georgia, on the present. She really…
TENNANT: Yeah.
BRIGER: …Performed your daughter in an episode.
TENNANT: Sure, however it’s – pay attention, time may be very relative once you’re a Time Lord, and he or she’s slightly bit youthful than me. She’s not that a lot youthful than me.
BRIGER: She’s an grownup character within the present.
TENNANT: She’s an grownup character, sure. Precisely.
BRIGER: And Georgia’s father, your father-in-law, was a special incarnation of Physician Who.
TENNANT: That is proper. Yeah. He was quantity 5. I imply, I watched him as a child. He turned The Physician after I was about 11, so he was completely somebody that I drew photos of in sketchbooks, yeah. That has simply added to how odd the entire thing is that I’ve ended up being a part of this present that I grew up obsessive about.
BRIGER: Our visitor is actor David Tennant. Extra after a brief break, that is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSETTE EXPLOSION’S “SWING VALSE”)
BRIGER: That is FRESH AIR. Our visitor is actor David Tennant. The third season of his podcast, “David Tennant Does A Podcast With…” is now out.
You’ve got additionally performed a bunch of villains in your profession, and one which significantly stays with me is the supervillain Kilgrave from the Marvel TV present “Jessica Jones,” and Kilgrave principally can have individuals do no matter he needs. He can simply command them. He abuses his potential in very sadistic methods, taking away consent from girls, like, telling individuals, like, if I am late, carve your face off. Like, and, you realize, this character is charmless and, like, actually repugnant. Are you able to discuss the way you discovered a solution to play him?
TENNANT: You need to simply return to what’s written. And I feel why “Jessica Jones” as a sequence labored so properly is as a result of Melissa Rosenberg, who was the showrunner, and her workforce of writers, did one thing actually fairly exceptional, I feel. It was a superhero present. Jessica Jones is a part of the Marvel Universe. The – Kilgrave was identified within the comedian books because the Purple Man, and he is a personality who, in his first look, wears a purple jumpsuit. And it is totally purple however has this potential that no matter he says, individuals need to obey him. So if he tells them to lie down on the road, they will lie down on the street. You already know, what could possibly be fairly a kind of simplistic, fairly kind of schlocky comedian e book concept, within the palms of the writers that we had turned, as you have got hinted, it turned a narrative about consent, and it turned a narrative about emotional abuse and psychological abuse.
However it was additionally trying into what had brought on Kilgrave to be this manner. And in the event you had that potential, what would that do to your individual psychology? So sure, he is a monster, and he does terrible issues, and there is nothing – there’s little or no redeemable about him. However I feel we have been additionally let in to grasp that, with that potential all his life, how might he not be broken by that? When he would not know if any individual does one thing as a result of they wish to or as a result of he is advised them to, how might he work together as a rational human being with anybody? And I feel that was all there within the writing.
So that they created one thing actually fairly grownup, fairly tough at occasions, fairly sophisticated, but additionally manages, while completely being a superhero present, it manages to not be blithe or glib about any of the issues that it examines. And it is fairly a troublesome watch at occasions. However I simply felt very fortunate that I ended up in that Marvel present as a result of I feel it actually was a unprecedented piece of labor. And that, – you realize, I used to be only a tiny a part of that.
BRIGER: Whenever you’re taking part in these roles which are, like, horrible individuals, like real-life serial killers or these villains, like, do it’s important to kind of, like, shrug them off on the finish of the day or else you may take them residence with you?
TENNANT: Not likely. Not consciously. I feel after I put the script down, I kind of – I go away it at work. However you’d most likely need to ask Georgia. I imply, you most likely need to ask the those who need to dwell…
BRIGER: Proper, to dwell with you.
TENNANT: …By way of a undertaking with you.
BRIGER: Yeah.
TENNANT: Yeah. Yeah. As a result of I suppose issues do typically form of go in humorous path. There have been a few occasions when Georgia mentioned, oh, I am glad that is over. I did not all the time like that model of you that you just introduced residence. I imply, I do not come residence as Kilgrave, however I suppose, you realize, there is a component of – it is all faux, however in the event you’re pretending significantly darkish stuff, you’re kind of making an attempt to trick your mind into behaving within the ways in which you may behave if sure terrible issues have been taking place. And that most likely does have one thing of a price in your actual life. However I’ve by no means felt it weighing significantly closely, I do not suppose. However as I say, it is most likely – that is most likely a kind of aspect interview with Georgia. Yeah. Yeah.
BRIGER: Within the present “Staged,” Michael Sheen is usually kind of poking enjoyable slightly little bit of you being Scottish, and also you guys discuss haggis and – are there kind of stereotypical issues about being a Scot that you just kind of lean into, in addition to sporting a kilt?
TENNANT: It is humorous. After I lived in Scotland, I had no real interest in being Scottish, perhaps as a result of it was so ubiquitous. However once you’re not there anymore, you do develop into a kind of unofficial ambassador for all issues Scottish. And I do get pleasure from that vastly. I do love a little bit of haggis. And it is – yeah, there’s – in fact there’s one thing self-consciously pleasing about sporting a kilt on the BAFTAs and holding on to a little bit of Scottishness. And I am kind of now patriotic and happy with Scotland in a means that I by no means actually appreciated after I was there. Yeah, I really like being Scottish. It is nice. It provides you a calling card. It provides you a way of self, for positive.
BRIGER: Effectively, David Tennant, it has been an actual pleasure to speak with you. Thanks a lot for approaching FRESH AIR.
TENNANT: Thanks for having me. It has been an absolute delight.
GROSS: David Tennant spoke with FRESH AIR’S Sam Briger. Tennant’s podcast, known as “David Tennant Does A Podcast With…” is now in its third season.
After we take a brief break, our TV critic David Bianculli, will evaluation the brand new sequence “Dying For Intercourse,” starring Michelle Williams. That is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF QUADRO NUEVO’S “TU VUO FA L’AMERICANO”)
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional info.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content is probably not in its remaining type and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability might range. The authoritative file of NPR’s programming is the audio file.
