Former Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker has opened up about the backlash to her casting as the 13th Doctor. The actress made TV history in 2017 when she became the first woman to play The Doctor. While many Doctor Who fans and all of Whittaker's successors were publicly supportive,

Whittaker became the first woman to play the main Doctor when she joined the beloved BBC show in 2017. In a recent interview, she shared how she was under significant pressure after taking on the role and felt that her performance could impact other women breaking grounds in acting roles.

Whittaker also balked at the idea that her casting meant the character was no longer a role model for boys. “It’s never been questioned that I had to look up to men,” she said. “So it was fascinating that for some, we [women] could not be role models. The Doctor is still the Doctor. But also, I was playing an alien! My gender was not the issue.”

In Toxic Town – which also stars Aimee Lou Wood, Robert Carlyle and Rory Kinnear – Whittaker plays real-life campaigner Susan McIntyre, who led the fight to bring the Corby toxic waste case in front of a court.

Jodie Whittaker recalls a ‘really loud rage’ from a ‘noisy few’ when it was announced that she would be the 13th Doctor - Nathan Denette/Canadian Press