Jodie Whittaker thinks gender is "redundant" when it comes to playing Doctor Who.
The 36-year-old actress faced a huge backlash from many Whovians after she was announced as the first ever woman to play the time-travelling character but she insists no one is adequately qualified to play the Doctor as the Gallifreyan is an "alien with two hearts".
Speaking on ‘BBC Breakfast’, she said: "In arguing about whether I’m qualified or not, that’s a redundant question for me, it’s an alien with two hearts so no, I’m not qualified.
"The Doctor is a character and in such a strange way it’s got so much attention, but my gender plays less of a role characterisation in this than any other role.
"Like a mother to a son who’s been murdered on a beach. I’m not walking around going, ‘I’m a girl, I’m a girl’, I don’t think about it like that."
Jodie – who played Beth Latimer, the mother of murdered schoolboy Danny, in new ‘Doctor Who’ showrunner Chris Chibnall’s crime drama ‘Broadchurch’ – insists she is just as capable of portraying the Time Lord as her modern predecessors; Peter Capaldi, Matt Smith, David Tennant and Christopher Eccleston.
She said: "My gender didn’t play a role in that and in this, I am playing The Doctor. My energy is different. Peter’s was different to Matt’s, Matt’s was different to David and David’s was different to Chris’. The point is we all bring something to it and it should be different. Otherwise why else have a role that is regenerated?"
Jodie got a chance to speak to those other Doctors when it was finally revealed she would be making history in the part and she admits her phone conversation with her friend David – whom she starred with in ‘Broadchurch’ – was very much a blur.
She said: "Matt and David and Peter were told beforehand and I was lucky enough to speak to all three of them.
"The thing that was funny with David is that my number is already in his phone.
"It was a ridiculous phone call because I just went, ‘Argh’, and then I don’t remember anything because I was so hyper and excited and overwhelmed."
Jodie makes her debut as the Doctor this Sunday (07.09.18) in ‘The Woman Who Fell To Earth’.
Jodie Whittaker: Gender is redundant on Doctor Who
