Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu Talk New Doctor-Companion Team and Bringing Hope To Viewers In Doctor Who Season 2
After a successful first season, Doctor Who is back for season two with a brand new adventure and companion. The Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa, goes on a journey to track down Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) and the duo must face a great mysterious force preventing them from returning to Earth. Gatwa and Sethu met up at a press conference to dish some details on the new season and working together.
With a new companion along for the crazy journeys this season, Gatwa and Varada took a moment to gush about working with each other. “Oh my god, what Varada brings out of the text is so brilliant. The text is very specific. It’s tough. It is complex speaking a lot of sci-fi language, a lot of words that don’t exist. Varada is able to take that language and make it so authentic and so naturally hers that I’m like, ‘Wow,’” Gatwa said about his co-star. “The screen presence on 100. There’s authenticity, there’s truth. Truth is what you want to try and communicate when you’re acting and I've just always got that tenfold from her. She’s a very, very good actor. I don't know how to make that more poetic. The chemistry is just there from onset and instantly there was so much to bounce off that you’re able to create something.”
“For me, Ncuti is such a brilliant, bright energy. Your doctor, just like you, is so dynamic. There’s just energy that you bring to this — to the text to the screen, to set — that you can’t help but want to join that and match that energy. There’s this vibrancy and I keep using that word for how you play the doctor. It’s just so vibrant and it's such a joy to be around,” Sethu said. “You’re such an amazing listener and that’s such a good quality in an actor as well because it’s so easy to work off you. There’s a richness in everything he brings to the table. It’s like a feast constantly when I’m playing opposite him because there’s so many little tidbits to latch onto when you’re saying something like, ‘Oh, there's a moment of comedy I can find there.’ I don’t know, it just comes so easily and naturally with him.”
Among all the new adventures this season, this is also the first TARDIS Team composed of people of color, which was a meaningful experience for Sethu. “That was something we acknowledged quite early on. We just both have that moment like, ‘Look at us.’ It meant a huge amount. I try not to take on the pressure of that because I want to free myself up to being creative and to being playful,” Sethu stated. “If you put on the pressure of being the first of anything, it takes away, in some ways, the joy because you don’t want to feel like you’re being scrutinized, but hopefully the payoff is that what we created is something authentic and that feels genuine. Now that we’re out the other end of that period of filming, it’s like I can look back and appreciate how special an experience it was. […] I’m getting messages from people all around the world saying it means a lot to see a brown person or a team comprised of people of color. It means a lot to me personally, but also it’s lovely to hear that it’s the same for other people out there.”
For avid Doctor Who fans, you might recognize Sethu is her previous guest role in the third episode of season 14 entitled “Boom” where she plays Mundy Flynn. Sethu spoke on what it was like to return to the beloved franchise. “It was the best. It was unbelievable. I literally could not believe that I was able to come back because I didn’t know there was a history of companions who had played another role and then came back as a companion. I just thought once I’ve once got to play a guest lead in ‘Boom’ that that was that and I was very sad about that because I had such a great time,” she shared. “When I got the call, as an actor, I could come back as a companion, I literally couldn’t have dreamt of it because I just thought, ‘Well, it’s gone now.’ It meant a lot and then I was very curious to see how showrunner Russell T. Davies would write it in. He managed to tie it into the story and why their relationship is so special because it’s a genetic link and there’s an importance to why the doctor keeps coming back to this person.”
The Doctor Who franchise has always been one of the most exciting sci-fi series with a lot of uplifting messages about hope. The duo shared their perspectives on how they feel being a part of that, especially in times of turmoil. “It feels really great to be doing something artistically that does that,” Gatwa noted. “I think it’s quite rare to have a show that does that. That’s the real message behind each episode is hope and upliftment. And to have two leads as well, I guess two heroes, that are attuned to non-violence is quite rare and beautiful. It encourages learning and compassion and curiosity.”
Sethu added: “I think that’s what I like the most about Doctor Who as a franchise. […] The core themes coming from The Doctor‘s point of view is curiosity. [It’s] about learning, it’s about understanding each other, communicating, connecting with other people. I think generally speaking the belief system comes from a place of love and I’m so grateful to be part of the show that that’s where the angle is coming from. The world can be a scary place so it’s nice to be something that feels like it’s coming from the right place.”
Though they couldn’t share too many spoilers on what to expect this season, fans can expect more themes of loss and Sethu teased her favorite episode finds the duo animated in 1950s Miami.
Keep your eyes peeled when Doctor Who season 2 comes to Disney+ on April 12.
