デイヴィッド・テナント、自分は“ダメなスコットランド人”だと告白｜David Letterman

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome David Tennant. David, come on out here.

Thank you very much. Now help me, I have a couple of things I want to clear up. First of all, Gracepoint is the name of the show. It was called a different thing in England. What was it called?

It was called Broadchurch in the UK.

Broadchurch. And it is still on the air there as Broadchurch?

Yes, second season coming up there, yeah.

Changed here to Gracepoint. And why would they change the name?

I guess they thought Broadchurch was a little... churchy? I don't know. A little broad? They had a meeting, they had to get pointier, and they had to reach a state of grace. I have no idea.

But it makes no real difference. It's just a small town place. Now here's the other thing that I wanted to know about. Is your home country of Scotland... recently there was a big vote, would Scotland leave the United Kingdom. And the vote was no, we're going to stay with the United Kingdom. How do you feel about that? And did you get to vote on that?

I didn't get a vote. If you don't live there, you don't get a vote, and I've lived in London for a good while, so yeah, I don't get a vote, I don't get a say.

How would you have voted? It's none of my business, but how would you have voted?

Do you know what? If you don't live there, I think it's hard to say. Because I think it's hard to really know how it feels politically, how it feels even emotionally about it. And I left 20 years ago, so I quite rightfully didn't get a say.

Do you still have family in Scotland?

I do, yeah. My dad's still there, my sister's still there.

How did they vote?

(Laughs) Again, it's none of my business!

I know, exactly. As Sandy would point to this discussed on network television in the United States. But here's what... and I was very excited, I wanted Scotland to leave.

You did? Why?

Because I just like bedlam. I like mayhem. I like things being confused. Especially when you're a very long way away from it. It has no effect on my life. What do I care?

But tell me about growing up in Scotland. Is it as wonderful as people say?

It's, yeah, it's great. It's a wonderful country. It's quite wet. You know. It's quite cold. We didn't have vegetables till 1982.

Really? 1982, they didn't have vegetables?

Yeah. A lot of scurvy. But it's getting better now. No, it's great. It's a wonderful country, and I'm deeply proud of it.

Here's another question for you. Irish whiskey or Scotch whiskey? Which do you prefer?

I like... Jack Daniel's.

How about that.

I'm playing to the home crowd.

Of course. Very smart. Of course, that would be a perfect answer for you. Now, and maybe you don't have any firsthand information on this one. Who drinks more, the Irish or the Scottish?

I think that is a war that will be waged for eternity. They're both pretty good at it. Yeah, I have blood of both nations running through me, and I'm a very cheap date. So I'm not really the person to ask.

Tell us when you began acting. Because Scotland, great actors come from Scotland.

Yeah. Good.

When did you decide, and for God's sakes, you were Doctor Who. Did you know that? You knew that.

Yeah, I knew, I knew that.

So at what age did you start? Did you take the stage?

Well, probably not till I was a teenager, but I had designs on it from a very, very young age. From watching Doctor Who amongst other things. I mean, it's been running 50 years, almost as long as you have.

Just about.

Now, for God's sakes, what do people know you from? They know you, do they always say, oh, you're the guy from Gracepoint, or from Broadchurch, or from Doctor Who. Which of these things do they know you from?

Well, it was always Doctor Who. I mean, probably it's still mostly Doctor Who, but Broadchurch and Gracepoint are certainly coming up the inside track.

But you're not still Doctor Who.

I'm not, no.

But it's a bit like being the president. You're always the Doctor. We refer to you as Doctor.

You do, you may do that, yeah.

Well now, who's Doctor Who now?

Peter Capaldi.

How is he?

He's fantastic. Another Scotsman.

How many different Doctor Whos have there been?

He's the 12th.

This is like Dr. Seuss, isn't it? He's the 12th Doctor Who?

He's the 12th, but there's also, there's another one, so you could say there's been 13, and then there was a movie version, so you could say there was 14. Approximately 12.

That's remarkable, isn't it? And 50 years, it's been a while. But this must be the longest- running series in television in the world.

Well, it did have a bit of a gap. It's not run continuously, so I don't know... I think it does hold a couple of Guinness World Records, yeah.

So when you're out and about, people say, oh, it's the Doctor Who number 11.

I'm 10.

You're 10, I'm sorry. Forgive my ignorance. You're 10.

I'm 10. But my father-in-law was number 5. Which is a sort of... so when we're out together, that does confuse people.

I'm confused now.

Yeah. It's an unlikely thing to have happened.

When you sign on as Doctor Who, is it for like a two-year gig, a three-year gig, or they just let it go till you want to leave?

It's sort of... yeah, they let it go. It's kind of under discussion, under continual discussion.

Do you have a family?

I do, yeah. I have three kids and a beautiful wife.

Are they with you up in Canada?

They visited when they could. My eldest is in school, so... but we're all out, well, they're on the other coast at the moment, but they're all out in the States at the moment.

So this must be a great experience for them. They spent time in Scotland with you... and then they come to the United States and now they get to visit you in Canada. That's a pretty good growing up for a kid.

Yeah, it's alright. And they get to be here for Halloween, which they're very excited about, because Halloween here is such a big deal.

Bigger than it is in Scotland?

So much bigger than it is in Scotland. And so much easier. Kids here, you just go up to a door, you say trick or treat, and people give you stuff. Loads of stuff. They were here for Halloween last year and they had armfuls of stuff. And at home, when I was growing up, you had to perform.

Is that just Scotland?

You knock on the door, trick or treat, and they look at you. They wait. And you have to do a joke, or a song, or a dance. Maybe just Scottish people are, you know... starved for entertainment.

So then when a kid is done performing, does he or she get the prize, the treat?

A little bit. A little bit, yeah. But not like you get here. You guys are generous. It's just like, have candy, have rot your teeth here, please. Get a blood disorder. Yeah, it's...

And is it haggis, haggis, haggis?

Haggis. Do you like haggis?

I've never had it. I don't know what it is. It's a sheep's stomach, is that right?

It's a treat. You've missed a treat. Well, it used to be encased in a sheep's stomach. Now it's like... it's stuff you don't want to know exactly what it is.

Better or worse than a sheep's stomach?

There are probably still bits of a sheep's stomach in there. There's hearts and lungs and... but it tastes great, honestly. Give it a try, just once.

And is it baked, is that how they make it?

It comes like a big sausage. Like a round sausage. A stomach-shaped sausage. And you boil it. You boil it in a pan.

Oh, you boil it.

Do not let the pan boil dry.

No.

Do not let the pan boil dry. That will end badly. I can swear to you right now. No, that will never happen. Keep that pan boiling. And it's a delicacy. Of the gods.

This show, Gracepoint, is filmed in Canada.

We filmed it in Canada. British Columbia, yeah. Vancouver Island.

Oh my god. Vancouver Island. I've been to Vancouver Island. It's beautiful, right? Oh my god. It's God's country as they say, and it couldn't be more... you must love it up there.

I loved it. I had a great time. I mean, it rained a lot. But as we've established, I'm used to that. So the soft LA types that came up with us, they didn't get it at all. They didn't understand why they had to stop filming for the rain. But we had a great time, and it's a beautiful, as you say.

A perfect part of the world to recreate in. Do you go out and do a lot of hiking, biking, mountain climbing, fishing, hunting, that sort of thing?

No. No, I pretty much stayed in my room.

Really, you stay in your room?

Well, it's quite hard work making a TV show, you know. And then you don't wanna... you know, you wanna have a bit of time catching up on the box sets and the... you know, that's what I do. And there's always people wanting to talk to you when you go outside.

Here's something else. The ancestral home of golf is Scotland. You must play golf.

No. I don't drink whiskey, I don't play golf, I don't even live in Scotland. I'm a very bad Scotsman. I'm very proud of being Scottish, but I'm very bad at it.