Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we talk to actors about the characters who defined their careers. The catch: They don’t know beforehand what roles we’ll ask them to talk about.
The actor: Karen Gillan might not have known for sure which roles we’d be asking her about for this Random Roles feature, but she could have made an educated guess about two of them. And, of course, she’d be right. When you’re part of two of the biggest franchises in popular culture, those characters are bound to come up in a career-spanning interview. But if Gillan is tired of talking about either Doctor Who’s Amy Pond or Guardians Of The Galaxy’s Nebula, she doesn’t show it. And if she has any say in it, we haven’t seen the last of them.
The Scottish actress landed her first role at the age of 19 in the British detective drama Rebus. Two years later she appeared in a single episode of Doctor Who during David Tennant’s run as the Tenth Doctor. Little did she know she’d be returning to the show a couple of years after that, this time in a leading role as the first companion to Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor (a coincidence, she insists). That role not only made her a star, it turned out to be the ideal training ground for the kind of VFX acting that would be required of her when she joined the MCU as Nebula. She’s had her share of more grounded roles too, proving her versatility in everything from an American sitcom to a psychological thriller like her latest film, Sleeping Dogs. Here, she talks about her journey as an actress, the unique challenges of each project she’s done, and where she’d like to go next (including some places she’s been before).
Sleeping Dogs (2024)—“Laura Baines”
The A.V. Club: Thanks for joining us for Random Roles. We have a lot to talk about, but let’s start with your most recent film. Can you tell us about the character you play in Sleeping Dogs?
Karen Gillan: Yeah. So, I play a character called Laura Baines, and she is a psychology student, studying under this incredible professor, who is the victim of a brutal murder. And so that’s how she’s tied into the whole thing. She’s not happy with him because he’s been taking a lot of her work and not giving her credit for it. And then Russell Crowe’s character is a detective who’s dealing with Alzheimer’s, and he decides to reopen a case that he had previously closed. Because he thinks they convicted the wrong guy. And that kind of leads him down a path, and he meets me and that sort of opens up a whole web of lies.
AVC: This is a new kind of role for you, isn’t it? This kind of femme fatale.
KG: Yeah. I don’t think I’ve done anything in this space, actually. So, yeah, a little bit different.
AVC: Did you feel like you were stepping outside of your comfort zone a bit? It’s more grounded, more gritty than a lot of your previous work. She’s not the warmest, fuzziest person, is she?
KG: No, she’s not. She’s an interesting one, because she could pretend to be warm and fuzzy if she wanted to. And that’s what I was really drawn to about her. I think that she’s really performative and not authentic, actually, and probably studies people that she wants to be like, and takes on their vocal quality and their mannerisms and general demeanor. She’s the type of person that talks about Rachmaninoff at a dinner party. She’s like a performative person. And I had a lot of fun with that because I love the transformational aspect of acting. And so to kind of get to do that, like a character that’s actually doing that themselves was interesting to me.
Doctor Who (2008, 2010-2013)—“Soothsayer,” “Amy Pond”
AVC: So let’s go back in time a bit, if you’ll pardon the expression. I want to take you all the way back to Doctor Who. I know you’ve talked a lot about it already, but if you don’t mind I’d love to ask you about this character you played on the show. I’m of course talking about the Soothsayer in “The Fires Of Pompeii.”
KG: [Laughs] Oh, the Soothsayer! Where it all began!
AVC: Was that how you got the role of Amy Pond? Being cast in this one episode in a guest role?
KG: Actually, no. It was unrelated. Which is strange, but basically the whole team had changed over, both in front of the camera and behind the camera, between me playing the Soothsayer early on and then coming on as the companion. So, yeah, just a coincidence. But I do remember going to Rome to film that episode and watching David Tennant and Catherine Tate enter the TARDIS and going, like, “I want to do her job.” Like, I literally was like, “I want to do that.” And so I don’t know if I manifested it as a Soothsayer or what. But yeah. It was a really amazing moment to actually get to do that.
AVC: Wow. So then, when you got the opportunity to do it for real, were you immediately ready to jump in, knowing what was involved?
KG: Yeah, I felt a little equipped for it, having been there in a different capacity. Yeah. Plus, I had been through the audition processes and stuff like that. And so by the time I came to do it, I was a fearless 21-year-old. I think if I got the role now, I would be much more fearful.
AVC: Well, speaking of that, since they left the door open and have been bringing back former companions lately, would you be interested in returning as Amy Pond?
KG: Oh, absolutely. I would always love to go back to Doctor Who. That’s something that, I mean, it was just the best thing that’s happened to my career, and such a miracle. That’s what it felt like. And I love the show. And the new Doctor [Ncuti Gatwa] is so good. He’s so good!
Not Another Happy Ending (2013)—“Jane Lockhart”
AVC: So Amy Pond opened a lot of doors for you, and we’ll talk about some of the big ones in a bit, but first I want to ask you about this sweet little rom-com you did, Not Another Happy Ending. Did that come along after you finished filming Doctor Who?
KG: It would have been after, yeah. I think I probably finished on Doctor Who then went straight onto that, is my guess.
AVC: So in that film, you play an author, right?
KG: Yeah. I’m going into the archives of my mind.
AVC: That’s what Random Roles is all about.
KG: It’s fun! Yeah, her name is Jane Lockhart, I do remember that. And she is an author that writes really sort of like darker, emotional books, and kind of needs to be heartbroken in order to write. And then she falls in love with her publisher, and everything’s going great, and she can’t write. Am I right?
AVC: Yeah, the problem is that she can’t write when she’s happy.
KG: Yeah. That’s it. Yeah, yeah. And then it turns into, you know, a rom-com, and they’re very tumultuous with each other, and they end up together. I think it’s okay to say that, it’s not a spoiler. It’s a rom-com [laughs]. Despite the title.
Selfie (2014)—“Eliza Dooley”
AVC: Keeping in the rom-com space, I was a big fan of the show Selfie you did with John Cho. It only got one season on ABC, and later on Hulu, but I wanted more. It was too short-lived!
KG: Oh, I loved that TV show. Oh, that was so, so much fun to work on, and such a challenge. Like the amount of dialogue I had in a day that I had to get through was all-consuming. I remember, like, every night working for hours to learn it, and then just having to go to sleep and wake up and do it again. But it was such a good training ground.
AVC: Did you ever imagine you’d be working on an American sitcom? Or did you always want to do that?
KG: Oh, I did. I grew up like a massive fan of Friends. Like, that was the greatest. It’s still the greatest thing that was ever on television. And so to be filming an American sitcom across the road from the stage where they filmed Friends was like a sort of trippy moment in my life.
AVC: I must admit it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out that it was My Fair Lady, or I guess Pygmalion, right? It should have been obvious from the names, Eliza Dooley and Henry Higgs. I mean, come on. But you and John Cho had a lot of chemistry. You were both great in it.
KG: Oh, he’s the best. I love him.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 1 (2014), Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), What If...? (2021, 2023), Thor: Love And Thunder (2022), Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3—“Nebula”
AVC: So now we come to another big franchise, we’re heading into the MCU. Like Doctor Who I imagine the door is always open if you want to come back to Nebula at some point?
KG: It kind of feels like I’ve never left.
AVC: Right, because you’ve been doing the voice for these new animated episodes for What If...? How much do you love being able to play Nebula without all the prosthetics and makeup?
KG: Oh, that’s so much fun. It’s joyous. But, I actually prefer doing it with everything, because I realized something about myself—that I need more than my voice to do what I do best, if that makes sense, to do it to the best of my ability. I never realized that, but it’s like, “Oh yeah, I’m heavily reliant on facial expressions and eyes and all this stuff.” Because when I’ve done voiceover, it’s not the full experience for me.
AVC: So it’s not the full Karen Gillan experience?
KG: Yeah, no. Whereas some people are incredible at using their voice to convey everything, I’m like, “No, I actually need my face.”
AVC: You do have an interesting voice for that character. She doesn’t sound like any of the other characters you’ve played.
KG: James Gunn was the one who told me, “Can you play it like a sort of mashup of Marilyn Monroe and Clint Eastwood, vocally?” So that’s where the voice came from. And then it was fun to kind of inject her with all that sort of vulnerability that she’s so desperately trying to cover up.
AVC: I’ve heard actors say that the best way to get away from an iconic role is to jump into other iconic roles. So you did Doctor Who and then you did these Marvel movies, but you don’t seem like you’re stuck in a box in your career.
KG: I’ve been really lucky, getting to do that. And they’re so wildly different as well. It’s fun for me. But, you know, I thought I was signing up for eight days of filming, and then I was under the impression that my character died in the first film. I’m certain that there was a version of the script that I must have read where that was the case, and then it got changed. Because these things get changed all the time. And so as I was filming, they were like, “Oh, you’re going to carry on. And actually it’s not eight days anymore. It’s like 18 days.” And then you’re coming back for the sequel and you’re coming back for Avengers. And so it was like this thing where I never actually knew from the beginning what this would become. So it’s just been like the gift that keeps on giving.
Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2017), Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)—“Ruby Roundhouse/Martha”
AVC: In between all of that, you had the chance to go off and do other things, like the Jumanji movies. You play a character who’s supposed to be a sexy avatar being played by an awkward teenage girl, which must have been a different kind of challenge.
KG: Yeah, actually that one was easier for me than the other roles. Because I do still feel like a nerdy, uncool teenage girl. And so I think when you’re that uncool, it’s sort of like that person you were never leaves you. But I’m also, like, doing all these action roles and stuff. So it really mirrors my character in Jumanji of being this really awkward girl needing to do all of these kickass things all the time. And so I was like, “I relate to this one part.”
AVC: So you kind of fell into this groove of doing action in these movies, but it doesn’t come naturally to you?
KG: Yeah. There’s been quite a few of those, which is not something I ever anticipated. It’s not something that I was particularly good at. Like, I didn’t grow up doing martial arts. I was always a terrible dancer. So I kind of just had to learn on the job a little bit. Like, I was so bad on the first Guardians film they made me train every single day because of how bad I was. And then I got a little bit better. And then with each film I got better and now I can pick up an action sequence really quickly. And I was like, “Oh, I’m not terrible at this anymore!”
Dual (2022)—“Sarah/Sarah’s Double”
AVC: You’ve also had a lot of experience acting in VFX-heavy projects. I imagine that experience came in handy when you played opposite yourself in a double role in Dual.
KG: I loved it because, yeah, it was such a challenge to act opposite myself. Even though, weirdly, because of the time-travel stuff that I’ve done before, I’ve done that a few times in different projects. And so I have my system down of how I like to do that now, funnily enough. But it was still really cool. And it was directed and written by Riley Stearns, who’s got a really specific style. And it’s sort of the way he talks, actually. Like, overwritten, over-explained, just sort of an interesting, different style of writing. So that was actually really hard to memorize because it wasn’t a normal speech pattern. And I had to do that for two characters for each scene. So it was really challenging in that respect.
AVC: You mentioned you have a system. Can you share what that is and how you came up with it?
KG: I learned from past experience to get an actress I like to play the other part for me when I’m filming the coverage of one character. So I wanted to help pick the actress for Dual that I would be acting opposite. And she was amazing. I loved her acting so much because I watched her stuff, and she was able to give me a lot to react to. But then also when I’m watching her, I’m thinking, right, I’m going to take that choice that she made because I like that and I might do that one a little bit differently.
AVC: That’s so interesting. So you had someone who wasn’t just a body double but a scene partner.
KG: Yeah, I was adamant that I have an actor, because I’ve done it before where people stand in for me who are not actors, and they did a fine enough job. But it’s just different when you’ve got someone who’s an actor.
AVC: Is there anything you haven’t done yet that you’d really like to do? Any kind of role or project?
KG: Yes, I would like to do a little bit more dramatic stuff. I mean, there’ve been dramatic moments in all of the stuff that I’ve done, but maybe just like a drama. That would be cool. I want to do so much stuff. I want to direct more. I want to make a horror film. Definitely. So I will do that at some point as well.
AVC: So more drama, less action?
KG: I like both. But I’m more like, “Give me a monologue rather than a physical fight sequence.”
Sleeping Dogs opens in theaters on March 22, 2024