Doctor Who: 7 Reasons Jodie Whittaker Will Make A Great 13th Doctor
4. She Has A Fantastic Acting Range
Since she burst onto the scene starring alongside Peter O’Toole
in the British comedy drama Venus (2006), Jodie Whittaker has played an
incredibly diverse range of characters across all sorts of genres. From the
quirky humour of Adult Life Skills, as Anna – who lives in a garden shed and
makes videos using her thumbs for characters, to the emotional intensity of supernatural
drama Marchlands as a grieving mother from 1968, Whittaker has exactly the kind
of range that will stand her in good stead as the time travelling alien.
Whatever changes lie ahead for Doctor Who, it will no doubt continue to be a show where anything goes. One week it can be a horror pastiche and the next a light-hearted parody; one week set in the 1800s and the next in the year 20,000. The Doctor is able to stand outside any given culture but also effectively disguise herself within it, and Jodie Whittaker’s voice talents may well be brought to bear in that regard.
Whittaker’s natural accent is from West Yorkshire, but she has played characters with Irish (Good Vibrations), Dorset (Broadchurch), and Received Pronunciation (Attack the Block) accents amongst others, all to great effect. It remains to be seen whether she’ll be following Eccleston and Capaldi in using her native accent.