Doctor Who's Matt Smith keeps breaking his tools

11 April 2012
The Weekender

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Doctor Who actor Matt Smith has already broken four sonic screwdrivers while getting to grips with his role as the new Timelord.

Smith told the Radio Times he gets extra practice in by keeping the tools - most commonly used on the BBC1 show for unlocking doors - on him all the time.


Seeking sonic screwdrivers: Doctor Who aka Matt Smith

"I've broken four of them," Smith confessed. "I like to have it about my person at all times, just twirling it around and flicking it. It's all part of the magic, isn't it?"

The actor, 27, also said he fancies having a crack at Hollywood.

"Why the hell not?" he said. "I could do with a bit of poolside. I'd take my mum - she'd love it."

But for now, Smith said he was happy in the Tardis, saying: "I feel very safe, literally safe, in the Tardis."

Smith reiterated remarks in previous interviews that he had written short stories about Albert Einstein and the Doctor as a way of getting into the role.

He told the magazine: "I saw that photograph of Albert Einstein poking his tongue out and it just clicked...

"I started writing short stories about Einstein and the Doctor, where the Doctor was getting irritated with the great man's buffoonery.

"He'd be saying: 'Come on, Albert, keep up!' and I think that, more than anything, was my way into the part."

Smith, whose hopes of becoming a professional footballer were scuppered by a back injury, added: "There's supposed to be this divide between art and physical culture, but I look at someone like Zinedine Zidane and I see the pure expression of artistic grace.

"The courage needed to be a great sportsman applies equally to art in general and acting in particular."

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