David Tennant (Doctor Who) is an established actor and has a full team as a support system, but that wasn't always the case. When he first started out, he needed an assistant to help with negotiating his terms.

But, he didn't have an assistant. So what did he do? He handled the back-and-forth with people in the biz by creating a fake persona, even giving her a name, which was... Melissa Von Stressel.

We like how he tagged a "Von" onto her surname, making her sound very posh.

In a recent recording of the BBC radio show The Confessional, Tennant came clean. He explained to host Stephen Mangan (Episodes), who is also an actor and friend, how this came about, saying, "For several years I needed a personal assistant, but I didn't have a PA."

His faux assistant was "a buffer to have awkward conversations I didn't want to have. Melissa Von Stressel took some of the stress. The clue was in the name."

We suppose he's referring to the word "stress," which is a part of the made-up name, having her cut down on the anxiety of sometimes having to say "no" to offers.

"It was a way of communicating with people who wanted me to do things I didn't want to do, going to do's, giving speeches… I have a terribly privileged life, so there's a feeling that you should spend every waking minute opening fetes, writing forwards to books or giving ten-minute inspirational talks. I didn't know where to begin. I just pretend to be people on the television."

Tennant's plan seemed to work. He didn't have to politely decline invites, because he had Von Stressel do it for him.

But, eventually Von Stressel was let go, with Tennant explaining how things unraveled, saying, "When an email chain got three or four emails long, I started to panic. Someone was so persistent, and in the end, I gave in and did this thing. Then I had to have conversations with this person about how lovely Melissa was. That was the beginning of the end for Melissa."

We can see how that would get uncomfortable, with him having to talk about someone who doesn't actually exist.

You can listen to the full interview over at BBC Radio 4. 

We're glad Tennant was able to get that off his chest. Whew!

Do you like him even more for being so concerned about hurting people's feelings?