Hot off the heels of Ewan McGregor sharing at New York Comic Con yesterday that he wants to play Macbeth, David Tennant has his own news. In his own panel, the Fourteenth Doctor Who and Good Omens star revealed that he will play Macbeth. Tennant will step into the title role in a production of Macbeth at Donmar Warehouse in London. It will run from December to next February.
While Tennant stuck to talking about live theater and acting in general due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, it’s funny to see what comes out when actors can’t talk about certain roles. How else would we know that David Tennant will play the very role that Ewan McGregor wants to play?
In another twist of irony, Donmar Warehouse is actually where McGregor played Iago in Othello, another play by William Shakespeare. In responding to the question of who else Tennant would like to play, he said, “I would also like to play Iago,” after someone in the crowd shouted out the suggestion. David Tennant is no stranger to Shakespeare, however, having previously played the title role in Hamlet, seen below:
In another interesting juxtaposition between the two Scottish actors, McGregor only referred to the role as “the Scottish King,” likely due to the superstitions around saying the name. However, David Tennant shared, “I hold no truck with such superstitions” and proceeded to say “Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth.”
As for his thoughts on the play, Tennant feels its a tough one to put on. “Witches are hard to do onstage,” he said, explaining how a production has to decide whether to portray them as traditional witches or something weird and modern. “Putting something supernatural in a live environment is hard to get right.”
The only thing harder than Shakespeare? Musicals. Tennant confessed that after seeing Ben Platt in Dear Evan Hansen and Idina Menzel in Wicked, he felt he wouldn’t be able to match that level of singing. He joked to the crowd, “Stay in your lane, DT!”
He has no problem doing audiobooks. Most of the time. In signing up to do the How to Train Your Dragon audiobooks, Tennant decided to give every character a distinct voice. This didn’t pose a problem… until characters with just a couple of lines in one book became much bigger roles in sequels. He illustrated this point by explaining how he voiced a dragon with three lines by sucking in air while talking, which proved a challenge when that dragon received a page-and-a-half-long speech down the road. Performing the voice for New York Comic Con, he had the crowd laughing and then applauding.
Going back to Macbeth, David Tennant talked about preparing for the role. “When you do something like Macbeth, obviously, some people have gone before you,” he remarked wryly. He had watched Ian McKellen perform the role in drama school and thought that was the best production, but now he’s on the other side, wondering what he can steal from Ian McKellen. “We now have access to these things,” he said, in referring to going down a wormhole of videos of different productions. Yet each one is specific to that actor.
His realization for himself? “Hopefully, you’ve got a version of MacBeth that’s specific to you.” He also finds another benefit of Shakespeare: his plays can apply in different ways to different times. In regards to researching how actors would’ve done the role in Shakespeare’s time, he found it a fun Shakespeare nerd deep dive, which he loves, but probably not helpful in the moment in the rehearsal room.
So, perhaps Ewan McGregor will go see him and prepare for his own performance down the line.
David Tennant encouraged the crowd to check it out in addition to other live theater, saying, “Come to London, see a play!”
And he had one other final piece of wisdom to impart. “Good shoes do make a difference” he said, responding to if he had anything profound to say. “Strive for a comfortable shoe.”
