David Tennant is at the Glasgow Film Festival to discuss his latest movie, You, Me and Him, the rom-com story of a lesbian couple, Alex (Faye Marsay) and Olivia (Lucy Punch), who get involved in an awkward situation with their neighbour John (Tennant) when they decide they want to have a baby, which leads to a series of terrible decisions.

The character’s a departure for Tennant, with You, Me and Him‘s John a mixture of ageing hipster and toxic masculinity. It begs the question…

Yahoo Movies UK: How did you get involved with the project?

David Tennant, Faye Marsay, and Lucy Punch in ‘You, Me, and Him’. More

David Tennant: It came to me because Phin Glynn and Georgia Tennant – and the name is relevant, because I’m married to her – are the producers of the film. They took this idea to Daisy Aitkens, who wrote it and directed it, and I knew Daisy because she’s a friend of Georgia’s, so there was a family connection when they brought it to me – not immediately, I have to say, but when they’d exhausted all other possibilities, they said ‘Oh, he’ll do.’

I’ve interviewed four directors at this festival, and three of them have been women – you’ve just worked with Daisy on You, Me and Him, have you noticed a change in the industry, either before you embarked on this project, or just after?

I think a shift is clearly happening, the impact of that in terms of who gets the jobs, it might be too soon to know. I’ve been quite lucky, I’ve worked with quite a number of female directors, though not as many as I’ve worked with male directors, but maybe more than most.

It’s just the opportunities, isn’t it? What’s interesting about this whole movement is that at one end of the spectrum there’s some serial sex offenders being brought to book – that’s as it should be, and not before time.

But what’s more interesting long term is the other end of that discussion, it makes everyone realise that we’ve all got a bit of programming we need to unpick, in terms of how we think about things. The industry as a whole needs to do a bit of that. That might mean a bit of positive discrimination for a while to balance the scales a bit.

I spoke to Ruth Wilson recently, and she said that men are going to have to lower their wages at the BBC in order for equality to happen – is that something you’d be prepared to do?

Do you know what, it’s not something I’ve considered – it’s something that’s on a case-by-case basis as a freelancer, isn’t it?

Myself, Lucy and Faye were on a favoured nations deal for You, Me and Him, that’s how it was prescribed to me, and that felt right and proper. I don’t know how much one should discuss other people’s wages…

Certainly on something like Broadchurch, Olivia (Colman) and I were on a favoured nations deal. I don’t know if that’s increasingly the case, or if that’s just the situations I’ve been in. Each situation will have different circumstances. But it’s part of the conversations that need to be being had.

From now on, it’s something I will be aware of, it will be talked about. It’s opened up a very important conversation, which it should. I suppose what I’m saying is, I have been in situations where it’s been handled appropriately and correctly, and I would hope that would be more the norm now.

You mention Broadchurch, what do you think Chris Chibnall will bring to Doctor Who?

Well, I’ve heard a couple of story ideas which are brilliant. Chris has been steeped in Doctor Who for his entire life. He will bring that, he will bring his enthusiasm, he will bring his brilliance, and also he will bring Jodie Whittaker, which is a stroke of genius.

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