Matt Smith shrinks to recall his naked shame

Matt Smith shrinks to recall his naked shame
Matt Smith shrinks to recall his naked shame (Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

Matt Smith has told of his shame at stripping naked to swim in the freezing sea during his first film scene with Eva Green. The 27-year-old Doctor Who actor plays Thomas, the late husband of Eva's character, who she seeks to clone, in sci-fi thriller Womb. Matt told The Sun: "We were on the north German coast and the script called for me to run into the Baltic without any clothes on, in the middle of b****y winter. It was the coldest I'd ever been and, of course, it just so happened to be my first scene with Eva. "I had to get out of the water and do the whole thing in front of her stark b*****k naked. "That's not a good lot for any man, let me tell you." Matt, who makes his Doctor Who debut on BBC One on April 3, was so cold he collapsed. He explained: "They said I could use a double, but I'd worked myself up to do it so I went into the sea three times. "The next shot we did, we were running along the beach and I was so frozen I couldn't move. I just hit the deck," he said.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.