3. Ncuti, one thing that sets your Doctor apart is that, unlike past regenerations, he’s got a different outfit, like, every episode. And Millie, Ruby has also taken full advantage of that giant wardrobe in the TARDIS. So, I’m curious how involved either of you have been with curating or influencing your characters’ wardrobe?
NG: It’s definitely been a real collaborative effort with our incredible costume designer, Pam Downe, who is just like — she was just amazing and so forward-thinking, and, like, I really feel has helped put this era of the show on the map. Do you know what I mean? I mean, those costumes have been so iconic, and so incredible. And we’ve not seen a Doctor change like that before or, like, embrace each time period that he’s traveling to as much as we’re doing now. So Pam is just incredible. And she’ll come, and she’ll chat to us for ages about what we’re thinking about each episode, what direction we want to go, and how we’re feeling emotionally in each episode. Because, obviously, the clothes, with what we’re doing practically, sometimes, we’ve got to be really practical. Like, your costume has to be really practical to where you are and you have to blend in.
MG: Yes, with the wires for some of our costumes.
NG: It’s a really great, collaborative effort with Pam Downe.
MG: I remember we really wanted to find, like, a pattern for Ruby and a jacket as well. I feel like a companion’s jacket is very much an iconic thing. And yeah, they cleverly, like, crafted this incredible leather jacket with fur around it. And it was just so, like, as soon as I put it on, I was like, “Oh my God, I’m Ruby!” And it’s so cool how costume just makes you feel like a character, as well as makeup. But yeah, I just, I remember she wanted me in checkers — checkered pattern — and so I’m in that quite a lot. To me, that just, like, describes Ruby — quirky, fiesty, cool. I got to pick my colors for the ’60s episode. She was like, “What colors do you want?” And I went, “Green!” And she went, “No, you can’t have that one ’cause green screens are all around.” I was like, “Fine.” And so, I was like, “Black and white?” And then, she was like, “Absolutely.”
Have you had, like, a favorite outfit that you got to wear this season?
NG & MG: Regency!
NG: Felt so hot!
MG: I was in my own world in Regency. I think I just went off on a wander in these beautiful locations. We were filming in three different manors, and every single one of them, I just went off like I was in my own little princess adventure in this dress! And all the runners were like, “Where — can people keep tabs on Millie?” Wandering off trying to find, like, an aesthetic thing, like I was in my own little film. Yeah, definitely Regency.
NG: It felt like the most we’ve stepped into a world that is completely different from anything. Do you know what I mean? Because it was the ’60s, like, we’ve still got our parents and grandparents that, you know, we know the music of that time. It’s not like we’re listening to 18th-century bops now.
MG: Oh, I see what you mean!
NG: Do you know what I mean? Whereas, you listen to the Beatles now.
MG: And there were loads of extras in the outfits as well! I was like, “I live here! This is my home!”
NG: It really transported us.
MG: And it was getting to summertime as well. It was just the best episode.
NG: It was such a fun episode.
MG: So much fun.