How long will Jenna Coleman star as Queen Victoria? It’s hard to imagine the former Doctor Who actor making it through all 63 years of Victoria’s reign without the use of some heavy prosthetics – and now Coleman has admitted there will “come a point in her story” when she can no longer play the role.
When we first met Victoria in series one of the ITV drama she was an 18-year-old princess just about to become Queen. But as we go into the third series, the year is 1848 and the monarch has already had six of her nine kids. In real life, her waistline was also starting to expand.
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Asked whether she’ll continue to play Victoria after series three goes out in 2019, Coleman tells Radio Times magazine: “We’re deciding on a series-by-series basis.”
She adds: “In the next one she’s starting to look a bit more matronly, she’s had six or seven children, so a bit wider, bit more of a bust, the make-up is more drawn… but there will come a point in her story when no amount of prosthetic make-up or me lowering my voice will be convincing enough.”
The actress, who previously played the Doctor’s companion Clara in Doctor Who, also reveals that she actually turned down the role of Victoria twice before agreeing to do it.
“I had just finished doing nearly four years on Doctor Who and I didn’t want to do another long TV project,” she explains. “I wanted to do lots of different things, but now I’m doing Victoria, I find her quite addictive.”
Now she’s about to star as a very different character altogether. In BBC1’s The Cry, Coleman plays a mother whose baby boy goes missing on a trip to Australia – disappearing from the back seat of a rental car.
“The Cry is a real contrast to Victoria, and Victoria was a real contrast to Doctor Who,” she says. “That was the attraction for me. If I’d been offered something sci-fi after Doctor Who I probably would have turned it down. I’ve never done anything like a psychological thriller before.”
Victoria season three starts on PBS Masterpiece in the US, Sunday 13 January, 9/8c
This article was originally published on 24 September 2018
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