Matt Smith Says "I Can't Play The Doctor For Much Longer"

Smith says that the hard work has started to take its toll on him and he says he doesn't think he'll play the Doctor for many more years. He also claims that working on the show has given him insomnia.

Speaking to Empire Magazine, he said: "I don't think you can sustain it. Tom Baker [who previously played the Doctor] did it for seven years but he did it in different circumstances. I couldn't do this for seven years. I'd be run into the ground."

The actor is about to appear in his third season of the hit BBC show and he has admitted the job - which sees him film for 12 to 14 hours every day for 10 months a year - has started to take its toll on him and he says he doesn't think he'll play the Doctor for many more years.

"And your life outside of it is ... I don't know. I hope I don't sound too pessimistic. It's just I don't think my body or my life or the people around me could sustain it."

‘I’m not great at resting and I'm not great at sleeping. It’s infuriating, I think because I learn lines ’til late at night my brain’s still ticking. I lie in bed and think, “Oh bollocks, I can't sleep.”’

It was recently rumoured that Matt had signed the contract to stay on as The Doctor until 2014, but Matt denied this at the BFI Screening of Asylum Of The Daleks.

However, he admits that he's happy with his role. He said: "He constantly allows you to reinvent him. That's what's interesting about this year. It's about what a new companion reveals in him.

"It's like a Shakespearian tragedy, 'Doctor Who'. There's a theatre to it. Because every day you're either facing the end of the world, or the loss of the person you love the most, or the invasion of the most appalling creature or alien that you can ever imagine. But in the face of that tragedy there is also comedy. It’s about adventure."


Source:
[EmpireMagazine] [VirginMedia]