{"id":585190,"date":"2026-05-15T08:57:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T08:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/585190\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T08:57:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T08:57:15","slug":"rivals-star-david-tennant-addresses-difficult-co-stars-and-admits-i-take-it-personally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/585190\/","title":{"rendered":"Rivals star David Tennant addresses ‘difficult’ co-stars and admits ‘I take it personally’"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Tennant has opened up about working with “difficult” actors, admitting he “takes it personally” when a bad atmosphere is created on set, as Rivals returns to Disney+\"A<\/p>\n

David Tennant has opened up about ‘difficult’ colleagues(Image: DISNEY)<\/p>\n

The Rivals star David Tennant has confessed he “takes it personally” when discussing “difficult” actors. The former Doctor Who<\/a> star acknowledges that many in his industry are perceived as “self-involved” and “narcissistic”.<\/a><\/p>\n

However, David maintains that the majority of actors he’s worked with during his career have been “great”. The 55-year-old goes as far as saying he genuinely enjoys spending time with his fellow performers.<\/p>\n

That said, he has come across some “difficult” characters along the way. He shared this insight during an appearance on the Inside of You podcast with Michael Rosenbaum.<\/a><\/p>\n

When questioned whether he’s worked with anyone he “can’t stand”, David responded: “I’m sure I have, I’m sure you have too.<\/p>\n

“Most actors are great, I’d say, and I think it’s always worth saying that because we do have that reputation as a profession, of being self-involved, narcissistic, and awful.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

David stars in Rivals(Image: DISNEY PLUS)<\/p>\n

“But 95 percent of people might have a smattering of that but actually, they’re interesting people, they’re fun people, they’re creative people. I enjoy being with actors. I enjoy hanging out with actors.”<\/p>\n

David does concede there are certain individuals he finds challenging to collaborate with. He describes these as people who “get going” by creating a “bad atmosphere”.<\/p>\n

He added: “But every now and again…the trouble is the industry indulges it because if somebody is worth something to a production, they are cosseted and protected and that breeds a behaviour. That can be difficult to navigate.<\/p>\n

“I’m not very good with a bad atmosphere and I take it very personally and find it hard to operate. For some people it’s like their engine, isn’t it? They come on, they p**s everyone off, and that gives them a little bit of catnip. That gets them going.<\/p>\n

“For me it’s the absolute opposite. If I feel I’m being accommodated, I want to flay my own skin off, so I find it very difficult to be around that kind of personality, that kind of energy.”<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Rivals season 2 will be airing in two batches this year on Disney+(Image: Disney)<\/p>\n

Rivals, adapted from Dame Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles novel series, makes its comeback on Disney+ today (May 15). The opening three episodes drop at 7am.<\/p>\n

New instalments will follow on a weekly schedule, with a further batch of episodes due later this year.<\/p>\n

David reprises his role as Lord Tony Baddingham, the merciless managing director of Corinium Television. He’ll share the screen with Emily Atack<\/a>, Aidan Turner and Alex Hassall.<\/p>\n

The official synopsis for Rivals states: “In the second season, the battle for the Central South West television franchise reaches fever pitch as the war between Corinium and Venturer enters a dangerous new phase.<\/p>\n

“More ruthless than ever, Tony Baddingham is determined to dismantle his rivals piece-by-piece, weaponising scandal and manipulating those closest to him to maintain his grip on power.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Tennant has opened up about working with “difficult” actors, admitting he “takes it personally” when a bad…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[162823,6491,3149,835,7169,96,149568,200015,23310,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-585190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-aidan-turner","tag-celebrities","tag-david-tennant","tag-doctor-who","tag-emily-atack","tag-entertainment","tag-jilly-cooper","tag-michael-rosenbaum","tag-the-walt-disney-company","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}