This article was published in RT in December 2013 and is part of our digital Doctor Who anniversary bookazine. Click here to find out more.
Matt Smith is sitting in a BMW on his way to the ExCeL Centre in London’s Docklands. He’s sporting a neatly cut crop, jeans a jumper from Acne, a leather jacket from D&G, a scarf from Marc Jacobs and some slightly alarming socks.
We’re conducting this exit interview the day before his barnstorming performance in the 50th birthday episode. He only has what remains of the year as the official Doctor. While we’re talking, you can almost feel him moving on.
[image id="2236498" size="landscape_thumbnail" title="Choir4_whoFilm_028" alt="Matt Smith as The Doctor, photographed by Matt Harrison for Radio Times, 2010" classes=""] Matt Smith became the 11th Doctor in 2010.What’s it like playing the Doctor? “Everything changed. It’s all consuming — and that affects the rhythm of your life. Now, however, it’s settling down a little.” What can we expect from his final episode? “I can’t tell you. It was a great shoot — a sad one for me, but I think it’ll be a fitting send-off and a fitting introduction for Peter [Capaldi].”
Any regrets? “None. I think if I was going to choose to spend a couple of years in anyone’s body, why not live it as the Doctor? He’s going to have more fun than almost anyone else alive.”
The rest of the team is going to miss him desperately. “You will not find anyone with a negative story about Matt,” the show’s writer Steven Moffat tells us. “The producer, Marcus Wilson, gets him on set as quickly as possible because the crew literally works faster when he’s there. He’s the life and soul, greeting the guest actors like the perfect host, even when he’s feeling broody, unhappy, tired or sulky.”
[image id="2040130" size="landscape_thumbnail" title="Karen Gillan, Steven Moffat and Matt Smith" alt="Karen Gillan, Steven Moffat and Matt Smith standing next to each other against a neutral dark background and looking at the camera." classes=""] Karen Gillan, Steven Moffat and Matt Smith.Moffat thinks Smith is the most successful actor yet when it comes to capturing the enormous age of the Doctor. “Matt is a youthful envelope but he has an old soul,” he muses. “In real life Matt is very cool. The Doctor would like to think he’s cool, but he isn’t.”
It being the time of his passing as the Doctor — of a little death no matter how the character lives on in another body — we feel it appropriate to ask Matt if he’s had any profound existential thoughts as a result. Does an on-screen death teach you what’s important in life? He thinks for a moment.
“That question starts off on the wrong foot… I think the point is the endeavours we make towards the discovery of our existence through art or love or family. They are at least the things that make us realise we exist.”
He calls himself an atheist, but if he met God, what would he like to say? He laughs. “If there was a God, what would I ask? I’d ask — can I have my money back?” And he bids a warm farewell as the ExCeL swallows him up.
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