DAVID Tennant has revealed his friends told him that becoming an actor was a “daft idea”. However, in an interview with The Big Issue the former Dr Who star said that even at the age of 16, he believed they might be wrong.

He said: “I didn’t know any actors. And people all around me were going, quite rightly, ‘This is a daft idea. You won’t make a living’. It was sound and proper advice.

“But there was a little part of the teenage me that thought they might be wrong. It would be nice to go back to [my younger self] and tell him, ‘You’re in your mid-40s now, and you’re still getting away with it’ – though I still don’t know how much longer that’ll last.”

Tennant says he did not enjoy adolescence. “I was always aware I was waiting for adulthood to start. I found the lack of control over your own affairs as a child annoying,” he said. “And that just became more pronounced during the teenage years. I knew I definitely wanted to go to drama school.

“I think I got my first acting job at 16. Or even at 15, an anti-smoking ad. Then I did an episode of [ITV children’s drama series] Dramarama. We went to Skye for four days and I stayed in a hotel on my own for the first time. It felt like a glimpse into adulthood.”

Tennant stars in You, Me and Him, screening at Glasgow Film Festival on February 25 and 26.