Jodie Whittaker in One Night is TV’s must-see performance right now

This article contains references to sexual assault.

There aren’t many challenges as big as becoming the first female Doctor Who, but as she leaves the Tardis behind her, Jodie Whittaker is facing her biggest challenges to date on screen in One Night as Josh Smith finds out for the latest edition of his column, Josh Smith Meets…

We have barely even said hello and already Jodie Whittaker and I are delving into the minefield that is living life as two Geminis in a world that unjustly sees us as (let’s put it kindly), complex. “I am very fitting apparently,” she laughs. Barely seconds into meeting Jodie for the first time you see why she has become such a mainstay figure on our TV screens having starred in everything from Doctor Who to Broadchurch. Not only is Jodie supremely talented, she’s also the kinda gal you want to have a DMC with and knock back the shots with, too.

Alas the shots will have to wait because aside from talking about the Gemini characteristics we are on Zoom to talk about her latest post Doctor Who role, in Paramount+’s new TV show, One Night. In the dramatic six parter - which you will binge in a night, I can guarantee it- Jodie plays Tess, a corporate highflyer who returns home to Australia with her wife and kids after 20 years living in London. But Tess’s return home means she must face the dramatic and harrowing sexual assault that she can’t remember, that led to her leaving her homeland. Her trauma is also further bought to the surface when her former childhood best friend, Simone writes a novel about a loosely veiled friend who was raped. The resulting show poignantly explores the themes of trauma, memory, sexual assault and relationships to devastating effects which is unique in many ways, but mainly because it’s rare to see a sexual assault not explored through the lens of police investigations. Instead _One Night is told through the point of view of three best friends, whose lives changed forever after Tess’s assault.

The script was, “immediately immersing,” for Jodie so there was zero chance of saying no, even if it did mean skipping off down under for five months which wasn’t necessarily the plan after spending five years fighting Darleks and travelling to different universes as the thirteenth and first female Doctor Who. “The amazing thing about Dr Who is when you shoot it, you shoot it for a year, but then the episodes are staggered. So I'd actually been at home for a whole year not working when the final episode came out but I was actually on a self-imposed maternity leave,” Jodie tells me.

“I was chilling and I was also very much looking for the next job. It had been such an incredible experience, playing The Doctor was my absolute joy and happiness but I'd been away from home filming, obviously it's not Sydney, but Cardiff isn't around the corner from London and I live in London so I'd spent a long time commuting. I just felt like going forwards, maybe I’d do a huge ensemble piece that's not too heavy on the old characterisation for me and also maybe shoot somewhere around the corner, maybe a bit of Soho. Then I read it [One Night] and was like, ‘oh fuck, I need to do this. This is amazing.’ We all [Jodie and her husband, fellow actor, Christian Contreras and her two children] moved for a very short window in hindsight, but it was this incredible adventure to this incredible country to do a phenomenal show that I'm so proud of.”

And Jodie should be so proud of One Night. Her performance is an incredibly nuanced exploration of to sexual assault and the resulting trauma it creates. How did she prepare to tackle such difficult subject material that is the lived experience for sexual assault survivors? “In my preparation what was really relevant and really helpful was that online you can read impact statements if people have publicly allowed them to be in that format,” she replies. “And there were quite a few relevant impact statements to read for me because it was from people who didn't remember the assault and that was a really helpful way in because that is what makes Tess's character who she is. It's knowing something without the knowledge and that is such a difficult thing to have to live with.”

‌“I remember talking about this on set,” Jodie adds, “what was interesting was I played Beth in Broadchurch and she becomes someone who for a rape survivor is their port of call and their person that they refer to within the police statement scenario. Tess wasn’t given that opportunity. Playing Beth, there was a lot of research on being on the outside of the assault and what it's like to talk to someone who was a survivor of rape or a survivor of a sexual assault. That was interesting playing the person who is the safe space for that survivor and then playing the character that's very much in that. For 19, 20-year-old Tess, there's no one there for her. No one except her friends.”‌

I wonder how Jodie looked after her own mental wellbeing dealing with such tough subject matter everyday for months. “On this particularly, we're in a really safe space. There were intimacy coordinators and there was someone we were checking in with a lot, too,” she shares. “We were always in an environment where everyone within the scenes knew what was going to happen and that was down to the extras as well so everyone was told, ‘this scene is this, it will involve this and if this has an effect on anyone, absolutely you can take yourself out of this. There's no obligation if anything's upsetting to anyone.’ It felt like an environment where we were given the space to work.”

‌“There are definite days, I have to say a lot of episode six, where you go home - and I'm really lucky it hasn't happened to me - but acting and pretending it has all day or for five months, it has a residue. I'm not a method, I don't stay in character, but there is certainly something that is very present when it's there and I notice it more now. Up until Doctor Who, I played a lot of women that are going through particularly traumatic moments in their life. I had no idea until I played the doctor that it did sit with me and I didn't really realise that. When I was doing Doctor Who I felt like a 12-year-old just bouncing around the room for three years and I’d never been happier and it just bled into life too. And when you go back into roles like Tess, it is there, but it should be, I am not in any way pretending this has happened to me it absolutely hasn't. But for this to be authentic, it should cost me something, otherwise I'm not the right person for the job.”

As well as playing a rape survivor, Jodie takes on the challenge of playing a queer character too, which in our current climate where straight actors playing queer roles is heavily debated is no small challenge, either. For me personally as a certified member of the LGBTQIA+ community if an actor is straight and plays a queer character and it’s handled sensitively or it’s nuanced it’s a-ok with me, but not everyone agrees. I wonder if that pressure weighed on Jodie’s mind?

“For me the most important thing is an audience member's response and if that person is the right casting. I'm failing my job if within that we didn't believe that Tess and Vicki (Kat Stewart) should be, and would be, together. The main thing for me is authenticity in my portrayal - as someone who isn't a survivor of a sexual assault as well - and making sure that if someone's watching this that I don’t stand out to them as a person who isn't representing this in the right way. I adored that marriage between Tess and Vicki because it was so complicated and realistic to me, regardless of whether it had been two women, two men or a man and a woman. The relationship was so truthful that I felt that it was only left for me to f**k up. You just don't want to be bad casting for something.”

Jodie certainly doesn’t “f**k up,” and playing Tess was certainly challenging for Jodie on many levels, a challenge she powerfully rises to. But one of the challenging aspects for Jodie was playing someone so closed off, when she is naturally a big personality and big sharer. “Playing someone who gives nothing away was fascinating and also I thought, ‘what a random choice I am for that role.’ And when I read it I was like, ‘I can't f**king do this.’ So, I definitely want to play it! I've got a weird thing about my personality where I like to do things that I definitely think I can't do,” Jodie says.

Another challenge altogether was Tess’s Australian accent -which may I just add Jodie nails. “My character's been in England for 20 years, which was my get out of jail free card whenever I struggled with the accent or we did any improv and I improvised in half Yorkshire and half Australian,” she laughs. “I worked with an incredible dialect coach who had a lot of work on their hands. I landed on a Tuesday and we turned over [started filming] on the Friday and I was a lot further off [the accent] than I thought. I was really cocky going in. I thought I was going to absolutely smash it and I was like, ‘yeah, I'll need a couple of hours.’ And then we got in and I was awful. I was terrible and I'd been so ignorant to the dialect as well. Just because I'd watched Home and Away and Neighbours, I thought I was a hundred percent qualified for this role.” It’s a good job Neighbours made a comeback just in time then…

‌As our time wraps up I wonder in a career which has seen Jodie reach so many heights and done so many varied roles, what her guiding principle in her career is. “The best times I've had on a job are because A, everyone has a sense of humour and B, isn't an asshole. So don't be an asshole because it is so much more fun and it is so much of a wonderful experience for everyone if nobody is having a sh*t time at work… Don’t get above your station!” A lesson in life for everyone: don’t be an asshole from a very straight talking Gemini.

One Night is streaming on Paramount+ now.