A surprisingly good (for DMail) article about David, now playing a villian, The Purple Man(!?), in a Marvel story
'I'm nothing special': David Tennant on his transition from Time Lord to supervillain in Marvel's latest Netflix hit Jessica Jones
- Scottish-born actor plays evil physician Dr Killgrave
- It is the Broadchurch star's first 'Dr' role since he was Doctor Who
- But Tennant's Purple Man isn't such a bright hue as in the comics
- 'I love superhero shows myself. I adored The Hulk when I was growing up'
He’s gone from a Time Lord to a troubled detective, and can now be seen as a supervillain in the new Netflix TV series Marvel’s Jessica Jones. Not bad going for a minister’s son from the heart of West Lothian.
But ask David Tennant how it feels to be one of the most famous Scotsmen in the world and he squirms.
‘I’m very uncomfortable with the feeling there’s anything special about me,’ he admits. ‘I was brought up as a Presbyterian and a lot of that is about feeling you’re not worthy of... well, anything really.
The thought anyone should attach any great importance to anything I say is one I feel slightly queasy about, and I always try to remember that if I have any influence, it’s because of a TV show I’ve been in, not because of who I am.’
David was born in 1971 in Bathgate, the son of the Very Reverend Doctor Alexander McDonald. Although his father spent some time as co-presenter of the Scottish Television religious programme That’s The Spirit!, David’s childhood was solidly rooted in religion rather than showbiz; yet he says he’s been hooked on TV for as long as he can remember. ‘I watched everything.
I loved it all; not only Doctor Who, which I was obsessed with, but superhero fantasy stuff, and I’d watch every sitcom too – Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em, Never The Twain with Donald Sinden – I grew up as part of the TV generation.’
He says he knew he wanted to act from a young age, though his parents were less than delighted with the idea.
When he was 11 he was spotted in a school play by aristocratic older actress Edith MacArthur, who approached David’s parents and said, ‘One day, he and I will be on stage together.’ Bowing to the inevitable, the Rev McDonald and his wife, Helen, let their son have his way.
He took his first professional role at the age of 16 in an anti-smoking film for the Glasgow Health Board; at 17 he became one of the youngest students ever at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and one of the first roles he landed after he graduated was that of Edmund Tyrone in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, the part of his mother being played by none other than Edith MacArthur.
‘To actually be up there acting with her felt like things coming full circle in the best of ways,’ he says.
David – who changed his name to Tennant after finding there was already a David McDonald registered with Equity – had been toiling away on TV for 17 years before he was offered the lead role in Doctor Who at the age of 32, and says now that even he was startled at the sheer breadth of the Doctor’s fan base.
‘It was a bit strange to play him at first because I’d been such an obsessive fan when I was growing up. It was peculiar and disorienting to find myself a part of it.
'Plus, when I was a child, the show seemed quite British to me, but these days there’s a global obsession with it – when I visit the US I meet fans of all ages.’
Arguably more high-profile for David was his role as dour detective Alec Hardy in crime thriller Broadchurch. ‘Alec isn’t the most approachable chap,’ says David. ‘He’s taciturn, difficult, opinionated, and doesn’t smile a lot. Filming Broadchurch involves long stints with a scowl on my face. I’m not generally grumpy in real life, so I quite enjoy being it on the screen.’
Marvel’s Jessica Jones follows the adventures of a retired female superhero, played by Krysten Ritter, who’s reinvented herself as a New York private investigator.
David plays Dr Killgrave, a brilliant physician-turned-supervillain who suffered a chemical accident that, in the original comic book, turned his entire body a vivid shade of aubergine, though he says he’s relieved his TV version won’t be purple.
‘In one of the first phone calls I had about this job I was told, “We’re not painting you purple.” He’ll still be called The Purple Man so there’ll be a lot of nods towards his purpleness, but it will be in other ways.
‘I love superhero shows myself. I adored The Hulk when I was growing up – the comic books and the TV shows. But I always wanted the TV shows to be more fantastical than they were, I was always thinking, “OK, but when is there going to be an alien invasion?
'When is a mad scientist going to invent a death ray?” Jessica Jones is much further out there on that score, so I guess those stories have finally caught up with my desires!’
Off screen he’s been married for four years to actress Georgia Moffett, daughter of the fifth Doctor Peter Davison, whom he met on an episode of the show titled, fittingly, The Doctor’s Daughter.
They live in London with Georgia’s 13-year-old son Ty; their own children Olive, four, Wilfred, two, and an as-yet-unnamed newborn daughter; plus a cockapoo called Myrtle.
When he’s at home he says he likes to keep life as low-key as possible. ‘Actors spend a lot of time not being themselves, so it’s very important to me when I’m not working to have people around I can trust and just have a nice time with.
'I enjoy a good no-holds-barred dinner out, or to be at home with a good box set. But what makes me happiest of all is being with my family. That’s the most important thing in life, really.’
Marvel’s Jessica Jones is available in its entirety on Netflix now.
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