Hi, sorry if this is weird and out of the blue, I just happened across your tumblr and... you played Antonia in the Twelfth Doctor Adventures. I loved her so, so much. She was the first sincere portrayal of an explicitly trans character I'd ever encountered, and was instrumental in helping me discover that I'm trans. Even setting that aside, I've never related to a companion as much as I did to her, ever. I just wanted to say thank you, and let you know how much your performance meant to me.
Me answering this a year and four months later is probably going to be a little weird and out of the blue for you so absolutely no need to apologise on that front <3 Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you, I'd largely abandoned this place and didn't know if I'd ever come back, and it was at the end of a very long year where it came out that creator and lead writer of 12DA Janine Rivers was actually David McCormack (aka Paul Cabria/Arthur Lockridge which we did already know was him), our 12th Doctor impressionist and also writer of one episode because he couldn't just credit himself as Janine for some reason. Janine doesn't actually exist, by the way. That's just an identity he maintained online in certain spaces for around 6 years. He was also quite abusive to me during the creative process, while writing aspects of Antonia's arc in ways that were quite chaser-y and fetishising towards me in particular. So, yeah, as you might understand my feelings on the subject are quite complicated! Having said that, I am still immensely proud of what I was able to do with Antonia, so much of me went into that character in both my script for episode 2 and my performance because I wanted her to be authentic and it feels like she belongs to me as a result (other cis writers who remain my friends also helped, and those were all great no disrespect to them or any of my other co-stars). I am so touched that I was able to help you, it genuinely does mean the world and I'm so happy to be for someone what Amy Pond was for me while actually being trans (and not just me finding myself in her). That really does make it all worthwhile and it's very sweet of you to say so. Congratulations to you by the way! I believe there may now possibly be a trans companion in Big Finish (I can't keep up with it) but fingers crossed that we both get that in RTD2.
