I’m seeing a lot of anxiety on the timeline about Jodie Whittaker’s potential replacement, and I thought some education about casting from someone who actually works in casting might be helpful to ease your mind about rumors, etc. 1/

Now, I do NOT work in casting for Doctor Who, but I *do* work for some similarly top-secret shows.

Some of them are *so* top secret that I can’t even tell you I work on them, or that I’ve read the scripts, etc, etc. 2/

For shows like this, we use a code name for the production. Let’s say my TV show was named for me: Face of Boaz. The code name could be literally anything: Christmas Tree, 97, Wicker Basket.

It probably won’t have anything to do with the show itself (but it might) 3/

Every script for the show will be watermarked with the name of the person it’s going to. That way, if portions of it show up online, you know who to blame. Sometimes the endings are even blacked out for most of the people who work on the show 4/

When an actor comes in to audition, they’re rarely given the whole script. They’re given selected pages (called sides) that they’ll read for their audition.

These sides have been carefully edited to not give too much away. 5/

Sometimes, we use code names for the characters. Sometimes the writers will write fake scenes that have similar themes to the ones in the script, but the events are changed to keep the secrets.

Almost always someone in production has to approve the sides 6/

So, as an actor, you could be auditioning for Face of Boaz the TV show, for the role of Bo, who’s lying on her couch writing tweets.

But your script would say you’re auditioning for the role of Lisa in “Christmas Tree” about a girl lying in bed on the phone with her sister 7/

Sometimes there’s even ANOTHER added layer of security, and you have to sign an NDA before you even see the fake sides with the fake names.

This NDA says you would pay a hefty fine if you reveal ANYTHING about the show, even if it’s the fake stuff 8/

And actors have been fired before for giving away secrets: not just who was cast as what, but revealing episode titles, plot details, costume photos, etc.

Almost always, if someone is giving you a “sneak peek” or a “spoiler” it’s actually a media stunt 9/

No, that superhero actor didn’t accidentally reveal a poster design, but you’ll talk about it more if you *think* he did, than if he’d just posted it on his Instagram as part of the general promotion 10/

So when you see “spoilers” revealed online, there are several things to ask:

Has this actor been working more than 5 minutes in the business? If so, they know better than to tell you ANYTHING they haven’t gotten express written permission to reveal from production 11/

If the actor is a new actor, they might let something slip, but they probably don’t know very much. They probably got the triple coded sides, and haven’t actually seen a full script. (They’ll still possibly get fined or fired, tho) 12/

If someone shares information about a show they don’t actively work on, you can almost guarantee it’s not real. It might be a joke, it might be a lie, or it might be a mistake, but it’s probably not real 13/

If it’s a secret as big as when Jodie will regenerate, or who’s the next Doctor, you can believe that the first true news of it will be shared on the show’s official social media channels or in a *trusted* news source. 14/

I know it’s tempting to grab onto every scrap of news and try to make it make sense, but more often than not, it doesn’t. There will be a handful of people who know who the next Doctor is, and no one will even hint at it until the official reveal. 15/

I hope this helps calm your minds to some degree. I know it’s frustrating not knowing, and scary having to wait, but those are your only options right now. Do your best to enjoy Jodie while we’ve got her, and focus on celebrating how wonderful she is as #JodieOurDoctor /end