Mandip Gill, who plays the Doctor’s new best friend Yaz on the most recent season of ‘Doctor Who,’ has addressed concerns from American viewers who are having some trouble understanding her accent.
Yaz speaks in her native Yorkshire voice, which is leading some American viewers to turn on the subtitles. Gill is understandably confused about the issue, considering she is not the only British talent on the season.
Giving a recent interview, Gill addressed the issue, saying:
“We were made aware that could be an issue from the beginning, but how I justified it was like, ‘You’ve got Scary Spice in the States, and she’s way more Northern than we are. So if you can understand her, which you completely do ‘cause she gets that ‘X Factor’ job again and again, you can definitely understand us!’”
This wasn’t the only time the cast’s accents have proven difficult to understand. An American TV show recently struggled to provide subtitles for Whittaker, and captioned her pronunciation of Huddersfield as “HOODEZFIELD”. Gill took this as definitive proof that Whittaker is more northern than her! She took to her personal Twitter to share the moment:
Me and Jodie often argue about who is more Northern and then this happened. And I win ! pic.twitter.com/dTDyP0dVyG
— Mandip Gill (@MandipGill) October 5, 2018
Whittaker explained that the actors play off each other when they get together, and get more northern as time goes on. She said:
“When I sit with Mandip at lunchtime I get all ‘yack yack yack.’ We just get broader and broader throughout the day.”
‘Doctor Who’ airs Sunday on BBC and BBCAmerica!
