David Tennant recently spoke to Collider about his role in pre-war thriller Spies Of Warsaw which had its US première on BBC America last night. He also chatted about his other film roles and, of course, Doctor Who.
How did this project
come about for you? Are you at a point with BBC that they just offer you
roles?
David: That was certainly the very fortunate situation
with this, yeah. It just came out of the blue, really. I’d worked
with Richard Fell, the producer, before. And I’d worked with Coky
Giedroyc, the director, before. So, it just arrived with both their names
attached, which meant I was obviously going to have a look at it because I knew
and trusted them. And then, it had Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais as
writers, who are television legends. So, I thought I should probably give
it a fairly serious read. It just seemed like something that would be
great to do, unlike anything I’d done before, and unlike anything that I had
seen being made on television recently. It seemed, in the best possible
sense, quite old-fashioned, and like something from a different era. It
was quite noir, and a good, old-fashioned movie. It’s got a very strong
narrative, but told in this very particular world with all these extraordinary
characters who come in and out of it. I just read the script and pretty
much said, “Yes!,” straight away. It was pretty straight-forward.
What can you say about
how your character fits into this world and the story you’re telling?
David: Well, Jean-Francois Mercier is the French
military attaché to Warsaw ,
in the late 1930s. He’s part of that diplomatic world, in and out of the
French embassy in Warsaw .
But, he’s also got a clandestine life. He’s a career soldier, so he’s
been used by his Paris
bosses to learn what might be going on. Europe
is a bit of a melting pot, at that time. Poland
is right in the middle, between Germany
and Russia .
As tensions accelerate, there’s a lot of intelligence to be gathered, so
Mercier does a fair bit of snooping around and finding out what’s going
on. Very quickly, in our story, he uncovers some evidence that the
Germans are planning to invade, in the very near future, and not just Poland , but France . And he takes that
back to his Paris
masters, to be met with no small sense of incredulity.
What’s very appealing about this story is that it’s fiction,
but it’s set very much within the historical fact of the time. The whole
idea that Hitler wasn’t as bad as he turned out to be was a very popular idea,
at the time, in France , in Britain and
elsewhere. There was no appetite for a war. The First World War was
within loving memory. People did not want to be getting involved in
another protracted, bloody, difficult war, so you can understand that there
would be a tendency to believe that Hitler was not quite as bad as he might
be. A lot of the true horror of what was going on didn’t come out until
much later, anyway. But, Mercier finds himself on the side of believing
that war was not only inevitable, but must be faced head-on. He finds
that that’s a minority opinion amongst his French superiors. It’s a story
of his sense of duty coming up against his sense of what’s right and what needs
to be done, but it’s also a love story. He falls in love with Anna
Skarbek (Janet Montgomery), who he meets in Poland ,
and it’s about them getting together through all that’s going on in Europe , at the time. It’s a good, old-fashioned spy
story. It’s set in this incredibly rich time. It’s a world you can
really immerse yourself in, and that gives a wonderful setting for this
story. And it’s just a really good story. It’s a good, strong tale
to tell. Without that, there is no drama.
Is this type of
intelligent, complex, compelling story something that you’re typically drawn to
yourself?
David: I suppose so. What I’m drawn to is just a
script that takes off and that, when you read it, it has an imaginative life in
your own head. When you first read a script is the purest moment.
That’s when you can understand how an audience will ultimately receive
it. The first reading of the script is so important because you’re experiencing
it all for the first time, and it’s then that you really know if it’s going to
work or not. After that, when you read it, you’re subsequently having an
opinion. But, if you read it for the first time, fresh out of the
envelope, and it excites you and/or moves you and/or inspires you, then that’s
a pretty safe be that the end product will do that to an audience.
What was the
experience of shooting this in Poland
David: It was pretty hectic. I got to see it a
bit. We were very lucky to film all over Warsaw , and beyond, so I got to experience
the city through that, really. It’s an incredible place. The old
town is the most extraordinary time bubble because it was rebuilt, brick by
brick, by a nation that was desperate to show their strength after the city was
completely flattened in the Second World War. The very act of rebuilding
the old town was an exhibition of strength and fortitude. But, what
you’ve got from a filming point of view are streets that looked exactly as they
did, 100 years ago, without modern signs or road markings. It’s a perfect
location to shoot something. So, it was great. We had a great
time. It was an almost entirely local Polish crew who were incredibly
talented and great to work with. It was fantastic!
Is there a dream role
that you’d love to do, whether it’s on stage, in film or on TV?
David: I’ve been quite lucky in that I’ve managed to
tick off a few of my dream roles, really. Beyond that, you wait for the
next script to come in that will have the dream role that you don’t know exists
yet, I suppose. There’s a few. I’ve done a few of the big
Shakespeare plays, but there’s a few of them I’d still like to tick off.
Beyond that, I suppose there are parts you don’t know are out there until you
read them. I just like doing different stuff.
Since the movies have
become so popular, are there any comic book characters you’d love to play in
one of those big comic book movies?
David: I don’t know which ones I would suit,
really. I can’t imagine who I could play. I’m a bit old for a lot
of them now, which is a terrible, alarming truth. Who could I be? I
could probably still do Reed Richards – Mr. Fantastic. I don’t
know. Villains are always great. I’d be very happy to do a bit of
that. They’re the one growth industry in movies, at the moment, so it
would be nice to do one, I suppose, as either the good guy or the bad
guy. The bad guys probably get the better lines, don’t they? And
they wear less spandex. That would be quite good.
Because people so love
your performance in Doctor Who, is there anything that fans most often
talk to you about, when they approach you about the series?
David: No, not one specific thing. It’s one of
those things that people are very enthusiastic about, everywhere I go,
throughout the world. It’s got a reach unlike anything else. It’s
just one of those things that people feel very possessive of, and I understand
that completely. It feels like it’s yours, when you love something that
much. It’s lovely to be associated with something that means that much to
people. That’s why you become an actor, to touch people, in whatever way,
by telling stories. When people have been so affected by something that
they dedicate huge parts of their life to it, it’s lovely to be the focus of
that. You feel like you can’t quite live up to it sometimes. You
feel like you can’t quite be enough, when people are rather overwhelmed to meet
you. It’s not because they’re overwhelmed to meet me. They’re
overwhelmed to have a bit of interface with that thing that has meant so much
to them. It’s actually quite humbling to be this personified presence of
that, I suppose. But, I’m aware that that show is much bigger than any
individual’s part in it. It’s a way of life, Doctor Who. It’s a
lifestyle for some people. And what a great thing to be enthusiastic
about. What a great thing to be a fan of. It’s a wonderful,
inventive, creative, morally pure thing.
If someone wanted to
start watching Doctor Who now, is there a good classic series story that
you would tell them to start with?
David: Oh, I don’t know. There’s 50 years of
stuff, so it’s quite hard to pick one moment, unless you go right back to the
start, which would be the most obvious joining in point. But then, you’ve
got a lot of catching up to do. I think it’s the sort of show that’s
quite self-explanatory, but it’s quite hard to describe. If you don’t
know anything about Doctor Who, it’s quite an odd concept. You just
have to watch any one. It’s easier to experience than explain.
What does it mean to
you to have been a part of the Harry Potter franchise?
David: Clearly, being a part of it was significant
because they were such enormous movies, and are movies that I’m sure will live
down the years. I feel a bit of a fraud because my entire contribution
was 12 days of filming. It wasn’t much. Although the part is
significant because, for a lot of the film, he’s in disguise. Barty
Crouch Junior actually features in an enormous amount of the movie, although a
lot of the time he’s Mad-Eye Moody. So, I feel a little bit like I can’t
really take much credit for any success that those movies had, but it’s nice to
have been a part of it, however small.
Where you ever really
in talks to do The Hobbit?
David: Oh, lots of things are talked about, at many
different times and in many different stages. Things can work out, in a
lot of different ways. One has to be diplomatic. The thing is, once
a movie is made, it’s there and it exists. The people who play the parts
are the people who play the parts, and that’s how it should be.
Having had such a
varied career, are there any other roles that you’ve done that hold a special
place in your heart?
David: Everything does, a bit. Because it’s
quite a vocational lifestyle, when you’re part of anything, it’s quite
all-consuming, whether it’s something that lasts for years, like Doctor
Who, or something that lasts for a few days, like Harry Potter, or
something that lasts for a concentrated eight weeks, like Spies of Warsaw.
While you’re involved with it, it fills your whole being, really, so everything
feels quite special. I can forget about certain things I’ve done,
completely. And then, if you’re reminded about the movie or something
comes on in a re-run, it takes you right back. The memories are quite
vivid, even way back. I’m getting on a bit now, so I’ll see things from
20 years ago, that I was in, and I think, “That doesn’t look anything like
me. That’s a boy, bouncing around.” But, my interior memories of it
are still so vivid that it feels like I’m still there. It’s a bit
confusing to see the image that looks nothing like me anymore because the
emotional memory of it is still so close to the surface.
Have you ever taken
any props home with you, or is there anything you wished you could have taken
home with you?
David: I have a sonic screwdriver. In fact, I
have a little box of Doctor Who things that were presented to me,
with a sonic screwdriver and a stethoscope and TARDIS key. I don’t think
I’ve ever taken anything I wasn’t supposed to. I can’t remember doing
that. I would have quite liked a Harry Potter wand, but they
were very closely guarded. That’s quite a well-oiled machine. I
can’t think of anything else that I’ve got. Oh, I’ve got one very special
thing. When I was first with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1995, I
played Touchstone, the jester in As You Like It, and I’ve still got the
little stick that jesters have with the head on the end. I don’t know
what they’re called, but I’ve got the one that I had as Touchstone. It
was beautifully made, with a little leather handle and a Mr. Punch type
face. Every now and again, I do acquire stuff and it starts to take over
my house, and every now and again, I have a very severe bout of life laundry
and get rid of lots of stuff, and then I regret things I’ve thrown away.
Not many things linger for all that long.
Why weren’t you at the
opening ceremony of the London
David: I waited and waited for the call, but nobody
got in touch. I believe there was an online petition to get me to carry
the torch. I don’t know how many people signed it, and I don’t know what
happened to it. Either it never made it to the London organizing committee, or they chose to
ignore it. Nobody ever called me up, so I wasn’t involved. There
was going to be a little Doctor Who montage in the opening ceremony, but I
believe it was cut just before. So, even that small contribution was
cruelly robbed from me.
Having done Fright
Night, are you looking to do more studio movies in the States?
David: I’d like to, if it was the right thing.
I’ve never been very tactical about what I do or what comes up. I just
wait for things to come in. If I’m lucky enough to have a choice between
two things, I follow my gut, really. So, if the right thing came up, then
of course I would do it.
Do you ever watch any TV shows and wish you could do a guest
arc on the show?
David: Oh, yeah, all the time. But, The
West Wing is finished now. That’s the one that I would have loved to
have been part of. I’d love to work with Aaron Sorkin on something.
Just the way he writes, he has no fear in writing people that are fiercely
intelligent, and I love that. I love the speed of his stuff, and the way
people free-associate and interact. That kind of writing is very
exciting. It’s hard to have that kind of clarity of voice, especially in
a world where there’s a million executives listening to everything you do and
having an opinion and trying to drive everything towards the lowest common
denominator because that’s what happens when things are made by
committee. So, to have someone who’s got a strong individual voice that
is allowed to be heard is quite increasingly rare. These people need to
be cherished.
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