Smith, who played the 11th Doctor in the BBC series from 2010 until 2013, has also said he knew that Whittaker would be playing the 13th iteration of the character just three days before it was announced.
In a video posted on Twitter from a panel at Boston Comic Con, Smith said: “When I found out about Jodie, I rang her, and she didn’t pick up the phone.
“It was before the announcement so I just left a message, going do-do-do-do…”#jodiewhittaker check those voicemails!!! #MattSmith #FXB17 #bostoncomicon pic.twitter.com/Fjo3fes2Gu— Nikki (@impossiblynikki) August 14, 2017
Smith sang part of the Doctor Who soundtrack for the audience, before adding: “And I just did the whole song so she must have been going, ‘What the hell is going on?’. I said, ‘it’s Matt – call me.'”
He said he can relate to the pressure that Whittaker might be under following the announcement last month.
Smith said: “I remember that feeling of being, I don’t know, judged before you’d done anything.
“And only in the world of Doctor Who does that happen. Once you’re part of the family, you’re in, but then it’s like you’re an alien.”
Smith said that people would shout at him to not “break” Doctor Who, adding that in England there is a “a lot of hysteria that surrounds” the announcement of a new Doctor.
“It makes like the Six O’Clock News, and all the big news shows. It’s a very strange feeling.”
He said he discovered that Whittaker would be the new Doctor “only three days before” after asking BBC insiders for the information.
“I was like, ‘you have to tell me, who is it, I have a right to know!’ It’s essentially me.”
Broadchurch star Whittaker, who is taking over from Peter Capaldi, is the first woman to be taking on the role of the Doctor.
Via York Press
