Doctor Who's Sacha Dhawan compares The Master to Iron Fist role

Doctor Who's Sacha Dhawan has drawn a comparison between The Master and his Iron Fist character.

The actor – who's had somewhat of a breakout year in 2020, having also featured in the BBC's new adaptation of Dracula – played villain Davos/Steel Serpent in the Netflix series, and there's one particular thing Sacha believes the Marvel character shares in common with The Doctor's nemesis.

Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, he said: "They're similar in one aspect – there's such a huge fandom around them. The fans are very loyal. At the same time, they know what they like and what they don't like. So that was the similarity. The parts were very challenging in different ways."

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He continued: "So with Iron Fist, it was challenging in terms of the physical sense. I had to learn martial arts from scratch, which I'd not done before. But then with The Master, it was a challenge, emotionally, because the character – his brain works so fast, and there are so many different personalities to him.

"My take on the role was to embody different traits and different time periods. So those were the two kind of different challenges. But they were both villains as well, which I'm starting to get cast a lot for now.

"But I really love it as well, because I find that the villains are always the more complex characters, and I never like to see them as the bad guy – but just more complex human beings. It gives me a lot to play for."

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Sacha went on to say that he 'really enjoys' playing the villain, and getting the audience to sympathise with him in some way. "I think that's when it becomes really interesting, and you get to mess around with the audience's psyche a little bit," he said.

On having fun in both roles, he added: "I do, I really do. I think that's the thing as well, that it's a bit different to me. I guess it sounds really self-indulgent, but for a small period of time, on set, in a certain environment, you get to be someone who's totally different to you, and do the most horrific things."

Doctor Who airs on BBC One in the UK and BBC America in the US.

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Chris Edwards

Chris Edwards is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy.

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