Ncuti Gatwa Gives Interview Claiming He Left Doctor Who "Because I'm Getting Old And My Body Was Tired"

After the most critically panned run in history, Ncuti Gatwa is hitting the interview circuit, claiming he wouldn’t say never to returning to the role of Doctor Who.

The last few months of Doctor Who have been a roller coaster of drama as Russell T. Davies, Ncuti Gatwa, and the BBC tried to spin the situation for damage control for their incredibly controversial run of Doctor Who that turned off fans in record numbers, leading to the lowest ratings in the show’s history and Disney+ pulling a partnership that funded the show’s existence.

It was rumored that Ncuti Gatwa would be gone from Doctor Who before the first season of his run even aired, with troubles from the BBC set leaking even at that point. Those rumors only became bigger after the first season, where Doctor Who’s ratings hit all-time lows, only to be beaten by the second season, where Russell T. Davies seemed to make a point of creating plots that centered around attacking fans of the show who were annoyed with its identity politics focus.

After the show’s cancelation and a tacked on desperate attempt for buzz by having Billie Piper regenerate into The Doctor, the cope tours have started in the media with Russell T. Davies last week championing the cause of turning Doctor Who into a pride parade, saying, “I find a lot of the other science-fiction franchises are very straight, very masculine, very testosterone-y, and so that’s our space. I do think that’s where Doctor Who can fill a space.”

The interview got weirder with more coded attempts at grooming children into the lifestyle, clearly on Russell T. Davies’ mind.

However, Ncuti Gatwa has been fairly quiet in recent days. He was supposed to attend Eurovision, the singing competition, when Doctor Who attempted to play off that show as a gimmick, and backed out just as news of his leaving the show was beginning to circulate in the media. Rumor has it that behind the scenes, he was very upset with the controversy the show generated and felt like it was damaging to his career.

In an interview with the BBC, Gatwa was asked, “Why did you walk away?”

He replied, “Because I’m getting old and my body was tired. My body, my knee, and I’m not just starting doing some ballet. So I’m making really great decisions here. It’s the most amazing job in the world. It’s a job that any actor would dream of, and because it’s so good, it’s strenuous. It takes a lot out of you physically, emotionally, mentally. So I… it was time.”

This appears to be a cope on Gatwa’s part as he only had eight episodes per season to film that were spread out over the course of multiple years, and the actor is only thirty-two years old, so he’s hardly “getting old” as he said. It’s of note that a much older Peter Capaldi handled the role for three seasons with nearly double the episodes per season in back to back to back years.

The interviewer then asked if he’d ever return to the role, to which Gatwa said, “Never say never.” His body language indicated that it wouldn’t be likely, however. Fans also probably wouldn’t be very receptive to him returning to the role either.

It’s clear from the tone that Gatwa really doesn’t want to talk about his time on Doctor Who, honestly, knowing that the show was a complete failure because of his over-the-top effeminate way of portraying the character, combined with Russell T. Davies ’ identity politics-heavy scripts.

What do you think of Ncuti Gatwa giving an interview about Doctor Who? Leave a comment and let us know.

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