Ncuti Gatwa says Ryan Gosling freaked out on the set of ‘BARBIE’ when Gatwa was announced as Doctor Who

Ncuti Gatwa says Ryan Gosling freaked out on the set of ‘BARBIE’ when Gatwa was announced as Doctor Who. 

“I remember Ryan Gosling bounding up to my trailer like, ‘Doctor Who is the coolest show in the world man! I’m the biggest fan.’”

There was a year and a half spent here at the Globe, too, in Emma Rice’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, but Gatwa says he can see a through line from that effervescent Mercutio to the part that sent him stratospheric. “The jester is always the most powerful person,” he says. “And with Eric, he’s been bullied and he’s kind of at the bottom of the pile, so there’s just this joy that lives within him because he has nothing to lose.

Despite being a keen dancer and drama enthusiast from a young age, he always saw himself going to university, until a teacher advised him to pursue something more creative. He headed to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland instead, and, after a stint at the Dundee Repertory Theatre on a graduate scheme, found himself playing Mercutio in a production of Romeo & Juliet at Manchester’s Home theatre. It was here that he felt completely in his element. “That role was the most fun of all time,” he remembers.