London-born
actress Freema Agyeman was making steady inroads into British television when
she got her big break with a relatively minor role in the current revival of Doctor
Who,
playing a character who is brainwashed and later killed by the evil android
Cybermen. Her performance impressed the show's producers enough that they
brought her back the next year as the new primary co-star to David Tennant's
Doctor—this time playing her deceased character's cousin, the plucky
doctor-in-training Martha Jones. Though Martha was replaced this year by a new
companion played by Catherine Tate, she's returning for a short story arc and
the series finale, as well as a three-episode stint on the spin-off Torchwood, with the potential for a
more permanent return. Agyeman recently spoke with The A.V. Club about creating her
character, avoiding spoilers, and the dangers of typecasting.
The
A.V. Club: Did you want to be an actress when you were a child?
Freema
Agyeman: No,
I didn't at all, actually. Nobody in my family is in the business, and none of
my friends were. I went to a very academic school that actually—when I
got to the point of wanting to pursue acting, they just had no idea how to do
that, because all of their contacts were very academic. I was very much into
science when I was young—I wanted to be a marine biologist, then I wanted
to be a doctor, and then something else, I was always changing. Acting didn't
come up until much later, probably about 16 or 17. I thought, "Oh, I quite like
this."
AVC:
How did you get your start in acting?
FA: I went to University
after my A levels and did a degree in performing arts. It was only when I got
there that I realized there were stage schools out there, and you had your
union and your contacts and The Spotlight and this whole world of the acting
industry that I had no idea about. So when I graduated, I took a year out and
just thought really hard about whether it was something I knew enough about, and
whether it was the career I could dedicate the rest of my wacky life to.
[Laughs.] And then after a year, I just thought, "You can't overthink these
things, and ultimately, I really enjoy doing it." That's all that matters,
really. And I haven't done too badly, so I would strongly say to people that
there's no right and wrong way of achieving it. I think that it would be
different for everybody, and I'm glad that just the want to do it was enough for
me. But I've been lucky as well, I must say.
AVC:
The story is that when you auditioned for the role of Martha Jones, you thought
it was just going to be a one-shot appearance in Torchwood, not as the Doctor's
companion.
FA: I was told it was for a
regular in Torchwood, but every time I went to the audition, they never had a
script, and that was obviously because it was never for that in the first
place. I was always auditioning for the companion, which I didn't know. When I got
to the audition, they asked me to read [the part of Rose Tyler] from episode
one of series one, which was called Rose. The second time, [they asked me] to read
for the part of Gwen Cooper, who Eve Myles plays in Torchwood, again saying "We haven't
got any scripts for your part." I didn't blink at all; there was no way to
think it's all a ruse. Then just before the screen test, they said, "Well,
we've been sort of sussing you out for the companion." So yeah, I didn't know
the whole way. I'm glad I didn't, because it was such a life-changing thing
that I probably would have overthought it and blew it if I had enough time to
think about it.
AVC:
Was that before you were cast in "Army Of Ghosts"?
FA: It was after. It was
actually the Cybermen episode that got me to be seen. I was really proud of
[the roles I'd played] up until then. I was doing some children's theater and
some outdoor plays, and then one episode of a series over here on the telly,
and then two episodes of another series. So it was developing nicely, and then
[Doctor Who]
came actually out of nowhere. If I hadn't had that first part [in "Army Of
Ghosts"], I don't know if my experience would have been enough to get me in the
door to be seen.
AVC:
Were you a fan of Doctor Who as a child?
FA: I watched the show, but
it wasn't prevalent throughout my childhood, because by that time, it had come
off the air. I caught it just at the end when Sylvester McCoy was the Doctor,
and then it was gone. I certainly knew of it—everybody in Britain knew of
it, and that's why when word spread that the remake was coming out, there was
so much excitement, and it was a really high-profile deal.
AVC:
It's a lot different in America, where the show has always had more of a cult
success.
FA: Whether people watch Doctor
Who or
not over here, everybody knows about it. It's a British icon, it's so part of
the nation.
AVC:
So you certainly didn't come into the show not knowing what it was about.
FA: I didn't know absolutely
everything there was to know. David Tennant is a massive fan, and grew up
dreaming he would be the Doctor one day. So I did feel, when I first got the
job, "Right, now I've got to do loads of research into absolutely everything Doctor
Who." But
that's not possible to do in a short space of time. So my knowledge has been
growing and developing as I've been doing it, and that's been fine. That's been
appreciated by the fans, and the executives never expect me to be brushed up on
absolutely everything.
AVC:
When you were cast as Martha, you were coming onto a show that's had dozens of
co-stars and 10 lead actors over the years. Did you have any worries about
making yourself stand out in such a large crowd?
FA: No, quite the opposite. I
found a lot of comfort in the fact that 30-odd people have been companions
before me. I think that when there are so many people contributing so many
things to the show, all you can do is make it your own. You can't try to emulate
anyone, because who would you pick? The companions are very much the everyman,
and the audience watches the story through their eyes, so they could be the
person next door. And everybody's different. There was great comfort in the
fact that when I started, when people were asking if I was nervous, it was easy
for me to think "I've got to make it my own, and whether that stands out or
not, it's fine. There's been so many people over the years who've done it their
own way, and that's all I can do." I was just humbled and happy that the
character went down well. We'd all sort of think, "All right, how would Martha
be in this situation and that situation?" because she was brand new. None of us
knew, and we were all developing her together. I had a lot of input at that
stage, and it was so exciting that I wasn't nervous in the slightest. I didn't
want it to be marred by nerves and apprehension, I just wanted to grab it and
run with it, and I'm glad I did, because I look back and smile rather than
looking back and thinking, "Oh, how did I do that?"
AVC:
How much input did you have into creating the character?
FA: You have as much input as
you want. What I noticed throughout the series is, the scripts would start to
sound like the way I speak—you know, they were written in the way I talk,
and that came over time, with the writers getting more familiar with my
representation of Martha Jones. When I was filming the first episode, the
director would say, "How do you think she would react to that?" It was just all
there in front of me to give as input as I wanted, and at that stage, I was
saying, "Ooo, I'm not sure, because I don't know her." But by the middle of the
series, I knew exactly how she would behave and who she was, and I was very
readily giving my input. [Executive producer] Russell [T.
Davies] was always available at the end of the phone to talk about
anything, and run something by. He's never said to me, "No, I disagree."
AVC:
Did you feel it was necessary to distance the way you played Martha from the
way Billie Piper played the previous companion, Rose?
FA: I think that when Russell
created the brief [for the character], he did that stage for me. As they say,
you can't compare apples and pears. Martha's a very different person than Rose:
She's older, more independent, more academic—you know, training to be a
doctor. She lived alone, [but] she had this big family around her, and even
though she wasn't the eldest child, she was the one they turned to for advice,
because she had this wise head on young shoulders. She was more challenging of
the Doctor because of it, so all of those aspects made her very different from
Rose. So instantly I was different, and it was being consciously done. I then,
after that point, created her as my instinct dictated. When we had the launch
of the show, the first time the press saw it, one of the questions I was being
asked was, "Can you see the similarities between Martha and Rose?" And there
are always going to be some aspects that are similar, because firstly, you have
to be a go-getter. You can't be a wallflower, you can't be quiet and shy.
You've got to be a bit gung-ho to want to travel through space and time and
explore, so automatically, you get similarity there. But on every other front,
she just naturally became different.
AVC:
In the current series of Doctor Who, and in your recent Torchwood appearances, Martha's
character has become more self-assured and capable of meeting alien menaces on
her own, without the Doctor's help. Does that parallel your experience as an
actress in your second year on the show?
FA: Yeah, yeah. I wouldn't
say that I suddenly felt any more involved than I had before. The acceptance
from the crew and the executive producers and the cast, David and everyone, I
felt it from the very beginning. I felt supported and accepted—it's not
something I noticed growing over time, it was always there, established at a
very early point. Which is what is so beautiful about the experience, and maybe
what made me feel not so nervous. I never felt overwhelmed or out there on my
own. I just felt part of the family from day one.
AVC:
How much do you know in advance about the arc plots in the series? Are you only
given information on your own role, or do they tell you, for example, "The
Master's coming back this year"?
FA: I very quickly became of
the mind that ignorance is bliss. There's so many secrets involved in the show
that as much as you don't want spoilers, there are so many people that will
absolutely do everything to get them out of you. So I very quickly thought "The
less I know, the less I can put my foot in it." I could call Russell and say "Please,
can I have an overview of the arc," but it's not something I felt the need to
do. I found it quite exciting to receive the scripts episode by episode and see
it unfold. I mean, personally, they did have a meeting with me to discuss the
arc of my character, six or seven months after we started. The shoot goes on
for nine months, so I knew about this series and my Torchwood involvement—and now,
yes, further things that don't involve me, in the overall machine of the show.
As much as you want to know is available for you to know, but I never tried,
really.
AVC:
Shows like Heroes actually have statements printed on the scripts warning
people not to let information leak to the public. Is there a lot of pressure to
keep things secret on Doctor Who?
FA: Exactly, which is why I
prefer to know less. When I received the script for the finale of this series,
I had a great big round of press coming up, so I made the conscious decision to
not read the script before I went into those meetings. So every time somebody
asked me "What's the story? Who's coming back?" I genuinely didn't know. When
you have the readthroughs and there are other guest actors in, the execs often
say, you know, "We remind you not to disclose anything." But once you've been
in it a while, it's a given that you don't say anything at all. I often send
Russell texts before meetings like, "Is that out there already? Is that okay to
confirm?" Because I just want to be really clear on what I can and can't say. I
don't want to ruin anything for anybody. And when you get your script, as well,
it's got your name watermarked on every page, so if that gets into the wrong
hands, they know whose it is. They do take security measures, but at the same
time, there's a lot of trust within the Doctor Who family that we all honor
and respect.
AVC:
Joining the cast of a science-fiction series with such a cult audience can be
kind of a double-edged sword, in that once you're cast as Martha, you're Martha
for life, with whatever effect that may have on your future career options. How
do you feel about that?
FA: At the moment, I feel
pretty much fine, because Martha is the biggest thing I've done in terms of a
high-profile part. I'm quite fine with the children calling me Martha down the
street. People do see me as her, but that doesn't bother me in the slightest.
And in the realm of Doctor Who and Torchwood, I do get to explore
different genres within each episode. It's sci-fi, but one week you'll find it
very dramatically and emotionally based, no aliens whatsoever, and it's all
emotional believability. And the next time, you're flying off through space. So
there's enough range for me to not be worried about what I'm doing at the
moment. I'm fully aware that Doctor Who will always, always be part of my life,
and that's not something I would run away from in the slightest. I wear it with
pride, definitely.