David Tennant on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Doctor Who’s David Tennant Appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on April 27th, 2016.

In an article about Catherine Tate from yesterday, we spent some time talking about David Tennant’s recent involvement with Shakespeare Live! by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Both this and Tennant’s recent lead role in William Shakespeare’s Richard II at the Brooklyn Academy of Music were mentioned in his interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert which aired on April 27th, 2016. This was only one of various topics in an exchange that was lively, witty, and flirty. We highlight parts of it below.

At the top of the interview, Colbert described Tennant’s Tenth Doctor as “one of the few young, sexy Whos out there” while granting that there are “older sexy Whos out there.” Colbert then began the questioning with:

"“Who are the most fervent fans who come up to you? Because you’re also in Harry Potter as Barty Crouch Jr. You’re also a well-known Shakespearean actor. Is it the Shakespeare people, the Doctor Who people, the Harry Potter people — who are the most wild-eyed when they see you?”"

Tennant laughed and replied that he prefers “the term ‘enthusiastic'” and that he does not “want to condemn people into some sort of fervent, sort of, frothing craziness.” He thinks “that Doctor Who fans get a bad rap on that front” and claims that “all the Doctor Who fans that [he meets] are terribly intelligent, wonderful people, frankly.” Colbert ribbed that he “didn’t realize that people from the British Isles could pander that well. That was really beautifully done.”

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Colbert then mused that, while Tennant would not want to condemn his fans, “it would really sound great to be condemned with that accent of [his]” and that he could “really curse somebody out with that Scottish accent.” Tennant asked if Colbert would like that to be done to him, to which the host replied, “Please, condemn me with that accent!” Tennant made the obvious observation that the request sounded “vaguely kinky.” Colbert agreed that it did “a little bit,” while also calling the concept of Tennant yelling at someone “sort of medieval.” To this, Tennant acknowledged that he could “do medieval yelling” because he is “in a Shakespeare play. That’s what [they] do.”

With the topic now on Richard II, Colbert said that he loves the “lesser-known Shakespeare play . . . because it’s about a weak king who’s deposed.” Tennant referred to it as “a lesson in how not to lead a country” and that “there are some people who could, you know, learn from it right now.” While he did not name anyone in particular, this was relevant to the episode’s previous interview with Susan Sarandon. The Bernie Sanders supporter had some on-point criticisms of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

The discussion continued:

"Colbert: Why do you think Shakespeare is still so resonant to us today? Why is he still important?Tennant: Because he has a way of saying things that has never been bettered. He’s got a way of getting to the nub of what it is to be a human being, and he says it better than anyone has done since, I think."

They go on to talk about how the Bard “made up about 1,700 words,” as well as coining many phrases, such as “eaten me out of house and home,” “be all and end all,” “kill with kindness,” “laughing stock,” and “all that glitters is not gold.” Also, Tennant does not “really care” whether or not Shakespeare was the true writer of the works which are attributed to him.

Tennant amusingly considers himself to be “common as muck.”

There is also a fantastic promo video of Colbert and Tennant doing a brief parody of the famous Abbott and Costello comedy routine “Who’s on First?”

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Next: When Peter Capaldi Met Pearl Mackie

The episode’s musical guest was Catfish and The Bottlemen who gave a great performance. I do not know how much longer it will be up as a free episode, but here is the link to watch the whole thing while you can.

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