Q&A: Jenna Coleman, 32, actress

Jenna Coleman on being followed by Whovians, playing Queen Victoria — and her role in the new mini-series The Cry.

Jenna Coleman. Picture: Martin de Boer / Contour by Getty Images

You played the Time Lord’s companion in three seasons of Doctor Who. What’s it like being followed by legions of Whovians? You meet all kinds of people at the international Comic-Cons, and the strangest thing is the events themselves become just a normal day in the life of a Doctor Who actor. People have come in to propose to their partner with me there in the middle. Not even just once — it’s happened a few times! I’ve never really been into sci-fi so the whole thing was quite a shock.

Were you pleased with the casting of a woman as the 13th Doctor? It’s not just great because it’s a woman, but Jodie Whittaker is also such a good actor. It’s a joy to see any kind of diverse actor taking on that role.

You grew up in Blackpool, England, and went straight from school into a role on long-running TV soap Emmerdale. Was that a pro or a con? Who knows; it’s sliding doors, really. I feel incredibly lucky to be working and getting the jobs I have, but there are certainly days when I feel not well equipped. The benefit of drama school is you get three years when you’re not on camera being judged; where you can learn and test your limits. I was straight on set at 18 and learning in a more exposed manner.

You have no children yourself, but in your role as the monarch in Victoria have given birth no less than seven times… Queen Victoria had nine children so I’ve probably got more labour scenes to do in season 3. I can’t believe how many I’ve done in the last two years.

There must be a lot of children on the Victoria set. How do you keep a lid on things? You don’t, really. We use all sorts of tricks — often the nursemaid on screen will be the child’s real-life mum — but obviously it’s chaos, completely unpredictable, and everything takes a lot of time. You’ve just got to roll with it.

In the mini-series The Cry, you play a woman struggling with the demands of new motherhood. Do you think there’s too much pressure to be perfect today? I think it’s important to see a realistic portrayal of what lack of sleep can do, and how your hormones are still going crazy for a couple of months after having a baby. A lot of my contemporaries and friends are new mums and it’s made me aware of how brutal those early months can be, as well as beautiful. While researching for Victoria, I found that women then would have a month in confinement so their body could heal. But now it’s like, two weeks’ maternity leave, and you can be out of hospital in six hours.

What else did you discover about Queen Victoria? The access to her is unbelievable; you can read all her diaries online. I was surprised at how vibrant and creative she was: she was an amazing watercolourist, she published a book, she tried to learn to sing opera. And she wasn’t coy about giving her opinion. Apparently she wrote to the police about Jack the Ripper and said to them, “Have you thought about looking here?”

You’ve been dating your Victoria co-star Tom Hughes since 2016. Does he ever break character? What’s incredible about him is that he’s always completely authentic when he comes to set — there’s never a moment when I don’t see Prince Albert. I’ve been really fortunate always having good actors to work opposite. You can be completely transported because when you look at them you actually believe everything they’re saying to you.

The Cry starts February 3 on ABC-TV and iview.