Jodie Whittaker “could have died” while filming Doctor Who season 12
By Dan Selcke
The new season of Doctor Who — the 12th since the series was revived in 2005 — starts in just a few weeks, and star Jodie Whittaker nearly died to bring it to you. Or at least that’s what she says on a new episode of The Graham Norton Show airing tonight.
It happened when the team was filming in South America. “Unbeknownst to me, the crew was filming a huge sac spider,” she remembered, “and no one told me how terrifying and dangerous it was, and it crawled down my face and inside my costume – I absolutely bricked it and can’t repeat what I said.”
A sac spider could refer to any number of species, but the important thing is that this kind was apparently very deadly. “I found out after that I could have died! It was horrific.”
So there you go: when we inevitably see a season 12 episode set in a jungle or something, know what Whittaker had to go through. Maybe they even kept the take where she was terrified.
Playing the Doctor comes with a certain level of notoriety, something Whittaker is still getting used to. “It’s an interesting thing and it’s all over the world and you have this weird narcissism thing where you think everyone is watching you,” she said. “The most embarrassing thing happened to me yesterday on the tube. I was standing on the platform with my empty reusable cup and an elderly gentleman walked towards me and put his arm into my space and I was like, ‘What are you doing?’ He said sorry and explained he was trying to put some money in my cup! He had no idea who I was!”
Okay, so it comes with a certain level of notoriety, but there are still people who don’t watch TV. I don’t want to think about what that’s like.
Doctor Who
season 12 kicks off with a two-episode premiere on New Year’s Day!
dark. Next. Will Daisy Ridley and John Boyega ever return to play Rey and Finn?
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h/t Digital Spy