Jenna Coleman on Wilderness, dancing in Vegas and going beyond right and wrong

If you can’t see the variety in Jenna Coleman’s career, you can hear it. 

Royal Television Society

Coleman is particularly proud of the fact that “I don’t think we shied away from the ugliness of Liv”.

“I was dancing like I had an electric shock,” Coleman recalls. Liv exorcises her anxiety by literally “shaking it outside of her body”.

The trick was not to condemn Leclerc or let her off the hook: instead, Coleman tried simply to understand her.

Actors are often asked if they like their characters, says Coleman, but she counters that “liking or not liking them is up to the audience. As long as you understand them, then, in a way, you’re within them.”

The expectation of perfection is a dangerous thing, she continues.

“That’s something that [Doctor Who co-star] Peter Capaldi really instilled in me, about there not being about right and wrong: it’s about options.”

“As soon as it’s about options, it frees you up creatively, because you’re not trying to hit a perfect version of how you’ve read it.”

“I’m shooting on Sandman at the moment, so I’m getting a dose of my Gothic, dark fantasy genre.”

To her, cops tend to be “the cog that turns the story”, whereas she was holding out for something “that feels nuanced and complex and human”. Now, it seems her prayers have been answered.

“The scripts have been b-eau-tiful,” she says.

“There’s a lot based on women and water and echoes, memories, retrospect, past”, as well being choc-a-bloc with “really beautiful character studies.”

The question of ‘what next?’ seems a little obvious for Coleman, who seems positively allergic to resting on her laurels.

Looking further ahead, Coleman tells me “I’d love to look for another play, I’d love to do some comedy, I’d love to look for indie film projects.”

She has been toying with the idea of turning her hand to writing or directing “a little bit”. Her first project, if one were ever to materialise, would likely be an adaptation of some kind. For now, though, “I think I’m happy to be a jobbing actor.”