David Tennant on How Drama Ensures Alexander Litvinenko is 'Never Silenced'

Playing Alexander "Sasha" Litvinenko was an interesting challenge for David Tennant, but it was one that was important to take on because it ensured his real-life counterpart's voice is "never silenced," the actor told Newsweek.

When Litvinenko fell ill on November 1, 2006, he knew that he had been poisoned, and not only did he know how it had happened he also knew that his impeding death had been authorized by the Russian government.

Understanding that his time was short the British-naturalized Russian defector, who was a former Federal Security Services (FSB) and KGB officer, called the U.K.'s Metropolitan Police to tell them his story so that they could investigate his death once it occurred.

The investigation revealed that he had been poisoned with polonium-210, and in January 2016 a U.K. public inquiry found that the assassination was carried out by Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun under the direction of the FSB, and that Russian President Vladimir Putin had "a level of approval for the killing of Mr. Litvinenko."

Russia has denied any involvement in Litvinenko's murder, with Lugovoi and Kovtun also proclaiming their innocence.

But, Tennant explained that making a show like Litvinenko means that the case won't disappear from the public eye.

Ensuring Alexander Litvinenko is 'Never Silenced'

Litvinenko's death sent shock waves around the world in 2006, and Tennant remembered having "lived through the news story" and seeing first-hand "the bizarre, slightly unbelievable truth that was this story." For him it was part of the appeal of the four-part series, which also stars Margarita Levieva as Marina Litvinenko.

The Doctor Who star said he was interested in "the idea of telling that story, especially now, and the extraordinary bravery that Litvinenko showed, and indeed that Marina continues to show, in retelling a story and making sure the world is aware of what went on."

But it was meeting Marina that was key, because he understood the importance of her mission to keep her husband's spirit alive through retelling his story.

"I met Marina in preparation for playing him and then it becomes a story that isn't about politics anymore, it becomes a story about family and a human being, and a woman who has left this extraordinary legacy of this extraordinary man, which was not the life she ever imagined she was signing herself up for," Tennant said.

"I think ultimately it has become a sort of need to witness for her, to tell the story, to testify, and to remember, and to make what Alexander did significant. To make sure that he never is silenced, which of course was what he was supposed to be, he was supposed to be shut up.

"The more we can tell this story, the more he keeps shouting from beyond the grave—and Marina was so supportive and enthused by that—that I think, for all of us who were on the show and who met her, she became the reason why we're all doing it."

Having Marina Litvinenko involved in the drama did make the cast feel a level of responsibility when telling her and her husband's story, though, Tennant said.

"This is recent history, Sasha himself has gone but the victims of this are still around and are still living with the consequences of this and, of course, you feel a responsibility to be sensitive to that, to get that right," the actor explained. "You're carrying something very precious and you want to honor that as much as you can. It felt very emotional."

It was while filming a scene in a hospital bed that this feeling became most apparent, because the actor felt it would be "so disrespectful" to not consider the real events.

"There was one moment where I remember I just looked up and saw Margarita playing Marina," he said. "And seeing this woman at the end of the bed it just all felt terribly personal, terribly tragic, and awful.

"So, we thought we've got to get this right, we have a real responsibility to the memory of Alexander Litvinenko and we have to do that service as best we can."

On Learning a Russian Accent

To embody Litvinenko fully, Tennant had another challenge ahead of him: learning Russian and speaking with a Russian accent.

The actor said he "had to devote a number of hours" to learning how to speak like his real-life counterpart, but he was "helped brilliantly by [language and accent coach] Fabien Enjalric, without whom [he] wouldn't have had a chance" of getting it right, he said.

"There is a lot of material around, obviously you can hear Sasha talking," Tennant went on. "There's not a lot of recordings of Sasha speaking in English but there's quite a lot of him talking in Russian, and I could watch him and try and connect with him. I never had the pleasure of meeting him but Marina was very generous with her time and material to work with, and that's just part of the process.

"That's just something that you have a duty to get as right as you possibly can, it's not that it's about doing an impersonation or anything, I don't think that would be particularly relevant in something like this, most people wouldn't recognize what Sasha was necessarily like beyond that very striking image that went around the world back in 2006.

"And I was working with Margarita who, of course, is Russian herself and is a Russian speaker, so I felt like I had to do my homework."

Even so, learning how to speak Russian and use the accent proved a challenge, particularly "finding your way into that dialect and dialogue because it's so foreign to a British mouth, as it were," Tennant explained.

He said that he focused on practicing it to the point where it was less "like you're putting on a voice."

"It's just drilling it until it feels like it's part of you, rather than something that you're putting on, so that when you're in the midst of those very intense scenes you're not worrying about that, that's all sort of baked in."

Reflecting on his biggest challenge, Tennant went on: "I suppose it was probably just getting to that stage, and then you just have to kind of jump out of the plane really, you have to be in the moment.

"Like any kind of acting, but particularly when it's something that's so intense like this and you feel a personal responsibility to get right."

The Importance of Telling Alexander Litvinenko's Story

In September 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Russia was responsible for Litvinenko's death, the BBC reported at the time. The court also found that there was "a strong prima facie case that, in killing Mr. Litvinenko, Mr. Lugovoy and Mr. Kovtun were acting under the direction or control of the Russian authorities."

It was also found "beyond reasonable doubt" that Litvinenko had been poisoned while "drinking tea with Mr. Lugovoy and Mr. Kovtun" on November 1, 2006. The ECHR concluded that Russia had to pay €122,500 ($143,400) in costs and other damages to Marina, though this has not yet been done.

Tennant reflected on the 16 years that have passed since Litvinenko's death and the importance of retelling his story, sharing how it was an event that helped change the public's view on Putin.

"I think this was a significant moment in the way we, in terms of society, regarded Putin," he said. "I think until that point the rest of the world was so keen that Putin should be a world player that we can all do business with. It was such a need for that to be true that we were willing to overlook some of the less savory aspects of him as a world leader, and after this moment I think the scales fell from everyone's eyes to an extent.

"I think we, certainly my own point of view as a concerned citizen, you suddenly think 'hang on this has actually happened?' This extraordinary thing which seems to be from a bad spy novel is happening in the real world, it's state-sponsored murder across borders. Suddenly we couldn't pretend that it was an even playing field anymore, but I think this is the moment that the world woke up to the fact that Putin wasn't necessarily playing [on] the same team.

"Again, I suppose it was a mistake, because it was not meant to be like this, this was an extraordinary poison, had Sasha not survived as long as he did this would just have been some raving man who died in a hospital room and the world would never have known anything about it. They would have assumed it was some sort of radiation poisoning or it would probably never have been understood or uncovered.

"Putin should have got away with this, and the fact that he didn't is a testimony, certainly to the police who investigated the case but principally to Sasha, who refused to go down without a fight."

All four episodes of Litvinenko will premiere on Friday, December 16 on AMC+ and Sundance Now.