Peter Capaldi has spoken about the pressures of fame and specifically being the lead in Doctor Who.

It seems some of this stems from the notion that the role never leaves you, so he’s worried his real-life melancholy (to paraphrase Capaldi) would disappoint fans.

He explains:

“It’s great fun being Doctor Who, but the pressure of it is quite intense. You’re sort of on all the time and you don’t want to disappoint anyone because even though I’m not Doctor Who, if people are meeting me they’d rather meet the version of me that is Doctor Who. So you try not to let them down, right?” Yeah, because I’m quite miserable and melancholic, really.

“And that was, that was one of the big changes in my life, I guess, which happened quite late, was I’m quite miserable really, but I thought you can’t be miserable if you’re Doctor Who. You can’t because you would disappoint people so I have to become cheerful all the time.”

It’s understandable that he took on the role of the Twelfth Doctor because he’s always loved the show, but that the exposure is too extreme for him. Nonetheless, I think most fans would appreciate that everyone is different, that Capaldi is an actor, and that he can’t be a cheerful chap all the time; we’re all allowed to be a bit miserable!

In the interview, Peter also revealed that he was approached for The Celebrity Traitors, but turned the chance down, similarly due to the level of fame. He explained:

“It’s very difficult for people in that business to understand that you want to keep it small. People keep saying to me, ‘Why don’t you do a bigger tour?’ or ‘Why don’t you do a bigger release?’ or ‘Why don’t you promote this more?’ I’m not doing it to be famous.”

I think we can all applaud his love of doing something because it’s a passion, not because he wants to be seen.

And don’t forget that you can read Peter Shaw’s review of one of Capaldi’s gigs on the DWC!