Former Coronation Street star Millie Gibson has revealed where she was and what she was doing when she heard about the audition for Doctor Who and when she bagged the coveted role.
It was revealed in November that Millie, who exited the cobbles in September after three years playing Kelly Neelan, has landed the role of Doctor Who's new companion and will star alongside Ncuti Gatwa, who was also revealed as the 15th Doctor last year. Since the big announcement on Children In Need, the former soap star has moved to Cardiff from Manchester to undertake her big new role.
Millie will make her debut over the festive season in 2023, when former Sex Education star Ncuti takes control of the Tardis, as his sidekick Ruby Sunday. And it appears the audition for the role couldn't have come at a better time for the teen, who was named the best young performer for her role in Corrie at the 2022 Soap Awards.
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"My agent rang me and said, 'How are you doing?'. And I was like, 'I’m a bit down, it was my last day today', and he said, 'Well, this will keep you occupied,'" Millie recalled to the Doctor Who magazine. "When he told me what it was, I just kept thinking, 'Oh my God, this is fate, this is fate.'"
Millie then recorded a self-tape, which her manager asked her to re-do, before getting a call-back inviting her to an audition in London. The actress recalled feeling nervous before meeting her potential co-star Ncuti and showrunner Russell T Davies for her audition but said they were the "most at-ease people ever".
Speaking about auditioning alongside Ncuti, she said: "They were seeing what the chemistry was like, how we bounce off each other with the lines. That was another thing I was nervous about because you know chemistry as soon as you walk into the room. So if it doesn’t happen, you’d know straight away, and they’d know it, too.
"But what's so great about Ncuti is, a stranger could bounce off him without even knowing him. He’s just so beautifully talented, in that aspect. He’s the perfect Doctor. And I’ll try to be the perfect companion."
And Millie actually discovered she had won the part while she was getting a spray tan ahead of the National Television Awards last year. "I was in the room waiting to dry off when I got this WhatsApp call, asking me to join the call with all my agents," she said. "I picked up the phone and they were like, 'Are you good at keeping secrets?'. I said, 'Yeah'. They said, 'Are you really good at keeping secrets? Cos you’ve got it'."
Previously sharing her reasons for bowing out of Corrie, Millie told the Manchester Evening News and other press: "I think Corrie is… it’s a home. That’s the best way I can describe it and because I’m so young, I just thought I need to leave home for a bit and spread my wings and see what could happen."
However, Millie, from Broadbottom, added: "I have no responsibilities. I don’t have kids, I don’t have a mortgage to pay or anything like that yet, I’m still grateful to be living at home. So I’ve just been a bit like I’m going to see what else the world has and if it does, it does. That would be quite good, wouldn’t it? But I thought I may as well see what happens while I’m still young. But I’m going to miss it so much."
But Millie had to convince her parents she was making the right decision. "When I first thought, ‘This is going to be the year that I do it,’ my mum and dad were like, ‘Are you sure? It’s such a secure place, you’re doing great’. And I’m like, ‘I know but I’ve got to trust my gut, trust my instincts,’ and I went with it without them being on board at first, and as soon as I started to go with it and convinced them they were like, ‘Ok, fine. We’ll accept it’. But I just had to make the decision for myself, go with it and hope for the best."
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