Actor Peter Capaldi tells Entertainment Weekly that there was a simple reason he thought he would be turned down for the role of the title character in “Doctor Who.” EW.com’s Inside TV reports that the actor who plays the new Time Lord felt he was too old to get the job.

“I wouldn’t have thought I would be the guy,” Capaldi said. “I wouldn’t have thought it would be me.” Asked why he thought that, he responded, “Because of my age. I would have thought they were automatically heading younger.”

Capaldi, who is 56, is about the same age as William Hartnell when he originated the role of the Time Lord in 1963. But with the BBC’s new take on the classic series, the actors portraying Doctor Who have been younger, such as Matt Smith, who was 26 when he was cast, and David Tennant, who was 34.

Executive producer and head writer Steven Moffat said Capaldi’s age was an asset. “I did say, ‘No, we probably won’t end up with another quirky young man,’” he said. “I didn’t think there was any space around Matt to have another Doctor of that kind, because he sort of sums up what you could do with that. I very very quickly, very quickly just thought about Peter. There is no right age to be the Doctor.”

Peter Capaldi as Doctor Who