Matt Smith says there is a particular role he’d like to revisit, to play again, and no, it’s not the lead in Doctor Who. Nonetheless, it’s a role oddly linked to Doctor Who.

While promoting the Game of Thrones spin-off, House of the Dragon, in which he plays Daemon Targaryen, Matt was asked if there’s a part he’d like to play again, and enthused:

“Yeah, there is actually. There’s a part in a film called Lost River, which Ryan Gosling directed. It was a part called Bully and he was absolutely out of his box. I wore a gold sparkly jacket and a horseshoe here [points to his trousers]. And he used to go and cut people’s lips off. He was proper mad and I’d love to revisit him and shave my head again.”

Unexpected, huh?

No, River Song isn’t the link here, seeing as Alex Kingston isn’t in Lost River; the link is actually Matt shaving his hair off — he did this ready for shooting the Gosling-helmed movie, but before he shot his swansong as the Eleventh Doctor. That meant he had to wear a hairpiece throughout The Time of the Doctor, hence him whipping his wig off during the episode to reveal the TARDIS key.

Obviously, this doesn’t mean Matt doesn’t want to play the Eleventh Doctor again. There are persistent rumours that he will again for the 60th anniversary, in fact!

Still, Matt probably just wanted to give an honest, if kooky and unexpected, answer this time around. Doctor Who fans don’t always need pandering to! And Mat’s credits are extensive, so fair play to him for not giving an easy response.

Lost River also starred Christina Hendricks, Iain De Caestecker, Saoirse Ronan, and Ben Mendelsohn, so might be worth a watch if you haven’t seen it already. Admittedly, it isn’t exactly critically-acclaimed, but who cares what critics think, eh?