Jodie Whittaker has admitted that she did not watch Doctor Who while growing up.
The actress, 35, has landed the role of the first female Doctor, taking over from Peter Capaldi.
But she told The Sunday Times: “As a family we didn’t watch it except at other people’s houses.
“I was much more aware of it when it came back with Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith.”
Whittaker said she did not feel daunted when she tried out for the part.
“I went to the audition excited, but I always walk into the room with an attitude of ‘I sound like this, I look like this, but, believe me, I can do it’,” the star said.
She said her favourite Doctor was former Broadchurch co-star Tennant but added: “There is no right or wrong, there are no rules.”
Whittaker will have three companions – Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill and Tosin Cole – when she appears as the 13th Doctor.
Asked if there would be any romance, she kept schtum, saying: “I’m only a few weeks in, I don’t know the answers to quite a lot of questions yet.”
She said Some Like It Hot was an inspirational movie from her childhood but it was Jack Lemmon – who played a man dressing up as a woman, not his co-star Marilyn Monroe – who she really identified with.