One of Scotland’s greatest actors, and of our generation, David Tennant has remained on the public scene for nearly 40 years and is yet to disappoint his fans. Delivering one after another great role, the Scotsman’s career has spanned such incredible characterizations as the Tenth Doctor in BBC’s long-running project, Doctor Who, and Kilgrave in Marvel’s Jessica Jones.
However, even the diversity, range, and exposure that his career brings him has done little to educate the actor on social media culture, especially the faction that communicates via the decodable emoji language.
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David Tennant Gets Enlightened About the Emoji Language
While social media might be the farthest thing to occupy the minds of industry actors, let alone veterans who actively attempt to stay away from reels and viral trends, it is hard to not be engaged with the popular crowd of today. The majority of the younger generation above the age of 15 are found active and thriving in their socials, and the era of instant news demands that one does the same in order to stay relevant and up-to-date.
And if even a percentage of that was the case on David Tennant’s part, perhaps the audience would have missed out on one of the most interesting exchanges to have taken place on Graham Norton’s infamous celebrity red couch. During his appearance, the 51-year-old claims:
“The eggplant emoji is not just an eggplant! [Tennant winks suggestively] And I’m left going like, ‘What the f*ck is an eggplant? It’s an aubergine, mate.’ But that’s not what they mean. And it turns out — I knew nothing about this — there’s a whole kind of language, usually based around food stuffs and they represent other things! Asking someone out for a taco could easily be misinterpreted as it turns out! Did you know that?! Be careful! Did you know about this?”
Unfortunately for him, however, Tennant’s misery was far from over and the two other guests on Norton’s show that evening were about to make the actor’s life infinitely harder over the course of the next few minutes.
Chris Hemsworth & Michael Sheen Educate David Tennant
Michael Sheen and Chris Hemsworth, who were on the celebrity couch with David Tennant that particular evening had been privy to the internet emoji language and found the latter’s exhaustion about the new-found discovery a situation that they could turn into an educational experience.
It was at this point that the pair piped in to educate Tennant on the so-called emoji language. To Tennant’s great dismay, Sheen asks in an exaggerated manner, “Where have you been?!”, while Hemsworth takes the kinder route to actually educate the Good Omens actor on what the eggplant emoji means.
“I mean, the eggplant kind of looks like… it doesn’t even look like an eggplant.”
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Michael Sheen, finding an opening, adds to Tennant’s misery by adding, “And then you’ve got the peach. If you start adding to that, the raindrops [emoji] — you can do anything.”
When the crowd immediately bursts into ripples of laughter, some even scandalized by the extent of Michael Sheen’s know-how on the subject, the actor immediately points toward them, claiming comically, “Don’t act innocent! Don’t come here with you ‘Ohhh!'” David Tennant, who on the other hand looks highly entertained by the entire conversation thread, concludes with a — “It’s a minefield, clearly!”
Michael Sheen and David Tennant last appeared in the live-action adaptation of the Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett novel, Good Omens, which is now available for streaming on Prime Video.
Source: The Graham Norton Show