Natalie Gumede’s claustrophobia spared her from having to shoot certain uncomfortable and scary scenes for the ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas special.
The 30-year-old actress appears in much-hyped episode ‘Last Christmas’, which sees Santa Claus and the titular Time Lord – played by Peter Capaldi – meet on screen.
In the adventure many of her co-stars are attacked by face-hugging extra-terrestrials but Natalie’s fear of being trapped in small spaces meant she only had to be covered in the prop for minutes at a time.
When asked how she coped having an alien on her face, she exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "I’ve got a bit of claustrophobia. It’s not major, but like that I struggle with. We all had stand-ins anyway, because there was a lot of footage to film while were filming on the computer screens and things like that.
"For the most part, I didn’t have to wear one. There were only a couple of moments I had to and the crew and director were really kind, only asking me to put it on at the last second. It wasn’t too unpleasant an experience, they made it as nice as they could."
The former ‘Coronation Street’ actress also revealed her ‘Doctor Who’ experience has given her a thirst for making more sci-fi dramas, whether they are on TV or the big screen.
Asked whether she’d like to appear in more sci-fi in the future, Natalie said: "I think if that’s what comes my way, I’d be very happy to do more sci-fi stuff. You never know what direction you’re going to end up in.
"So much of the fun of ‘Doctor Who’ is the weaponry, the CGI and the green screen. Shooting this felt very much like you were on an adventure."
‘Last Christmas’ also stars Nick Frost as Santa and Jenna-Louise Coleman as companion Clara Oswald and airs at 6:15pm on Christmas Day (25.12.14) on BBC One.
Claustrophobic Natalie Gumede avoided scary Who scenes
