Yasmin Finney talks Doctor Who and feeling empowered in British Vogue cover
In her British Vogue cover Yasmin Finney also discusses overcoming the haters and growing up.
Yasmin Finney is the moment!
The 19-year-old graces British Vogue’s December cover and shares that the new era of Doctor Who “will change the world.”
The Heartstopper star remains secretive over Doctor Who details. In the show she’ll play Rose, a young trans woman opposite Ncuti Gatwa’s Time Lord.
“There are spies. If I talk about the Whoniverse, it’s over,” she jokes. “All I can say is, I feel so honoured to be seen by Russell [T Davies]… I remember growing up idolising it,” she remarks, noting the show’s new iteration will be “very inclusive”.
“I’m happy to be the representation on a show that means a lot to so many,” Finney adds.
Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies himself lovingly remarks about Finney’s abilities from her first audition: “she stole the show.”
He adds that his “greatest worry was whether 57 other shows would snap her up instead.”
Davies notes watching Finney since has been “an education”. He goes on to say, “to see someone commanding such attention – and let’s face it, such enmity – with grace and wit and a wonderful smile”.
Elsewhere in the interview, the young actress also shares that she was subjected to bullying at school that made her feel “like an alien.”
Now, however, those that once ignored and terrorised how are now in her DMs with messages of congratulations.
“I don’t hold grudges, but you know,” she notes, “it’s crazy to think how the script’s flipped.”
Finney recalls that while at school, after being bullied in the boys changing rooms, she’d change alone in disabled toiled until the girls snuck Finney into their changing room.
“They loved it. For them, I was their gay accessory,” she recalls. “They loved me because I was overcompensating. I was overly feminine. I was making them laugh.”
However, when they were found out she was faced with being expelled her family intervened and unisex toilets were installed as a place for her to change.
By Year 11, Finney details she left her school bullies “gooped, gagged and everything in-between” when she wore a skirt to school.
“From that moment, I felt so empowered. I never looked back.”
On stepping into the spotlight with her ground-breaking role as Elle Argent in Heartstopper, Yasmin believes she’s proven herself over anyone who doubted her.
“They’ve got nothing on me anymore, you know? Not that I did it for them,” she tells Vogue. “But it’s like the cherry on top,” she adds.
“I just like to know that people are realising that everything I did from a young age, I wasn’t in the wrong. Everything I did was perfectly fine.”
“Right now, our eyes are trained on our screens – and the women lighting them up – like never before,” British Vogue tweeted with the announcement of Finney’s cover.
There will be four cover stars for December, beside Finney is Elizabeth Debicki, Simone Ashley, and Sienna Miller.
Heartstopper series two and Doctor Who, both starring Finney, will be out next year.
See the full feature in the December issue of British Vogue available via digital download and on newsstands from Tuesday 15 November.