DOCTOR WHO AT SDCC 2015 - Our Interview with Jenna Coleman
With Series 9 fast approaching, I thought it would be fun to catch up with the latest gossip from Clara Oswald herself 'Jenna Coleman'. She discussed the changes in her
character over time and what we can expect from a season nine Clara. Also
covered were the change in the dynamic between the Doctor and Clara in this new
season, the differences between working with Matt Smith vs Peter Capaldi, how
much fun they have on set, and much more.
QUESTION:
The secret to Clara being the “Impossible Girl” is that she was scattered
throughout the Doctor’s timeline, being permanently tied to him. Does that give
you job security?
ANSWER: You think you can kill me, but
then there’s also like another Clara echo somewhere in time and space. It’s a
pretty cool concept. I was always waiting for that scene where all the Clara’s
meet and gang up on the Doctor, but that’s not happened yet.
QUESTION: Last series,
Peter was freshly regenerated, trying to figure out what kind of Doctor he was
going to be and maybe taking a step back from saving humanity. That gave your
character a chance to step up and do heroic things; be very Doctor-y. Now that
he’s settled into the role, how will that change the dynamic for series 9?
ANSWER: I think they’re much more on an even keel this
series. It’s not as complicated, they’re much more united, they kind of know
where each other stands, they’ve gotten into a groove. It’s like the two of
them are united together looking out at the adventures. They’re great together,
they love each other, they disagree, they slap, and they move on. They’ve
worked it out in a way. So it’s great to have got to that point and have this
series to be able to do that. We’ve called it the glory years of Clara and the
Doctor.
QUESTION: Peter spoke about some
big mistake that his doctor makes. Is there anything you can tell us about
that?
ANSWER: It’s a grave thing the Doctor
has to face. It’s quite a test.
QUESTION:
Is Clara over her heartbreak from Danny’s death?
ANSWER: Her perspective has changed on
life. I think it’s something that’s happened to her and it’s changed her. She
kind of moves forward with this whole new perspective which, in a way, is quite
freeing, but also dangerous.
QUESTION:
Do you think it’s important for the Doctor to have a long-standing companion
around when he regenerates?
ANSWER: It’s good to have that person
who knew you to be like, “this is who you are” – to have that kind of
familiarity when you don’t recognize yourself.
QUESTION: Do you think the Doctor
might go dark if a companion wasn’t around when he regenerates?
ANSWER: I imagine it’s quite unsettling
and an unfamiliar place to be, so it’s always good to have someone who knows
you around. God knows what he’d get up to. We talked ages ago about doing a
short thing about having the Doctor by himself and what he gets up to trying to
be human, but getting it all wrong. Instead of having a rubber duck in the bath
he’d have like a real duck.
QUESTION:
How do you feel about balancing these over-arching season long stories with
stand-alone adventures?
ANSWER: We always have like a general
idea, but usually Steven doesn’t reveal too much about the end. At the moment,
we’re filming episode 11 and we don’t actually know how it’s going to come to
fruition. But the themes are so strongly weaved in throughout the series, it’s
kind of up to us to just play each episode as the internal story and that kind
of weaves its own path.
QUESTION:
If you were the showrunner, what would you like to see your character do?
ANSWER: I don’t know. Last year was
quite dark, I think, and the relationship was so complicated to play. I’m
actually just enjoying living in the moment and just laughing our way through
time and space. We had the mystery of series 7, we had the complications of
last year. There’s a lot more freedom with her now.
QUESTION:
Speaking of the Doctor going to dark places, as smart and playful as she can be
she also seems to have that darkness. Would you like to explore that side of
Clara?
ANSWER: Yeah. You know, there are points
in the series in which we do, as well, which is really interesting and was very
fun to do. It’s quite interesting to get her backstory, which we don’t a lot,
but she was an only child who lived with her head in books and ideas of
adventure and travel, which is now what she’s doing in real life. She lost her
mother at a really young age, so she’s had a lot of loss and, actually, she’s
quite solitary as well. So living in this bubble of existence of the TARDIS
with the Doctor, she’s kind of found her home, I suppose.
QUESTION:
Are we going to see any episodes back on Earth or will it mostly be other
planets?
ANSWER: We’re mostly space-bound this
year.
QUESTION: How different is the
comparison from working with Matt to working with Peter?
ANSWER: The initial differences were …
Matt was like a tornado that you kind of like tried to work around. Peter is
much more internal and the room will come to him, whereas Matt would go out to
the room. I think those were the first kind of big things that you’d notice.
But they’re both really generous actors and imaginative and you really, really
don’t know what they’re going to throw at you, which makes my job quite easy
because often if you’re reading something you’re like, “I just don’t know how
to play this” and I think, “Well, it’s fine. I can just turn up and look at
Peter.”
QUESTION: When you’re a companion
on Doctor Who, how do you cope with every season people wondering if this is it
for your character?
ANSWER: It’s the same with the Doctors,
though. I think it’s the nature of the beast, of this show.
