In terms of good people to have on your side, God is probably the best result. Or, in lieu of that, someone who played God. Your own personal God, even. At GQ's Men of the Year party in London (in association with Boss), Jodie Turner-Smith, who played a vision of God for Ncuti Gatwa's Eric Effiong in Sex Education season four, toasted her co-star as he was named one of 2023's honourees.
“He’s not just a Ken” Turner-Smith joked, a nod to Gatwa's breakout year, which included playing one of the Kens in Greta Gerwig's Barbie, before praising his run as Effiong in the recently wrapped-up Netflix series.
Of course, eyes are on Gatwa even more now as he prepares to take over the mantel of one the country's most iconic institutions, playing The Doctor in Doctor Who. Turner-Smith said “Has there ever been so much anticipation around a new era of television? We know he is going to be an inspiration to a whole new generation.”
“Ncuti Gatwa has only just begun,” she finished, before handing the mic to the main man himself.
“It has been a crazy year,” Gatwa said, taking to the stage. “ An absolutely crazy, crazy year.”
“I shouldn't say this, but there was a scene that I somehow shot with the first Doctor, William Hartnell. We ended up in the same scene together and to see that history, and now a Black man as the doctor…," he said to a swell of thunderous applause. "I'm very very, very grateful".
As Turner-Smith said, 2023 has been a massive year for Gatwa, wrapping up the show that made him a household name, starring in one-half of the year's biggest cinematic cultural head-to-head and landing the lead in the biggest legacy property of British TV this side of a Morecambe and Wise Christmas omnibus.
"I almost forgot about [the audition] as soon as I left the room, because there was just no way,” says Gatwa about his test for Doctor Who in his Men of the Year cover story. “I’m a good actor [but] this is a 60-year-long British institution and I’m a Black man, so I never thought that I’d be chosen to front something that is basically the heart of the BBC,” he adds. “Your existence when you’re a marginalised person is political. So you, and the world, are aware of that, and people make decisions accordingly.”
Gatwa also reflected on talking more openly about his queerness now that he's such a fixture in the public eye. “I’ve never been in the closet, you know. I just never talked about it. The work I do is what’s important," he says. "It sort of became a more complicated issue than I ever wanted it to be. It became a situation that kind of ran away from me.”
Still, he's reluctant to give in to the public pressure to label himself further, saying “What is the point of putting a label on anything? I’m not going to do that for people that I don’t know." He points to the stigma that still exists around queer identity and deciding to come out, be it personally or under the glare of the spotlight. “If you think it’s that easy, I’m happy for you. That’s a very privileged position to be in," he says. "To think that sexuality is so easy, and talking about sexuality is so easy and existing with one’s sexuality is so easy. I’m so glad that you think it’s that easy, because the world isn’t like that.”
Elsewhere as part of GQ's Men of the Year celebration, Jeremy Allen White, Andrew Scott and Boygenius were honoured.