Interview – Karen Gillan

Interviews are best when they take a surprising turn, but I really wasn’t expecting Karen Gillan to be interested in my relationship with my sister.

“I don’t really get siblings,” the only child tells me, quizzically. “You have funny relationships with each other.

“You can be really mean, hardly talk, but then you are always there for each other when it really matters.

“I guess it’s like any other family relationship but it was something I’ve had to talk to people about to help me understand this character.”

That character is Nebula, who appears in the latest Marvel Comics blockbuster, Guardians Of The Galaxy.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=B16Bo47KS2g

She’s the jealous rival of Gamora (played by Avatar’s Zoe Saldana), two orphans from an alien world who are brought up as sisters by the evil supervillain, Thanos of Titan.

When Gamora joins up with the Guardians of the film’s title to safeguard an orb that, if opened, will give its possessor unlimited powers, Nebula is sent by her father to exact punishment.

“She is very sadistic and evil, but I like to think for a very valid reason,” reckons Karen. “She’s always lived in her sister’s shadow, which I’m sure a lot of people can identify with.

“It’s just that her feelings manifest themselves in a really extreme way.”

You could say that’s an equally extreme case of trying to see the best in people but it is a typical response from Karen, who emits an infectious energy throughout our interview.

The Inverness-born actress hasn’t been resting on her laurels since leaving her role in Doctor Who. Moving to Los Angeles and being cast in a £105 million comic book movie was a huge leap forward for her career.

Not surprisingly, Karen was eager to please, shaving off her distinctive red hair for the role and being on set at 5am every morning to have Nebula’s blue make-up applied.

“I started working out four times-a-week and did martial arts training as well,” says the 26-year-old former model. “I can throw a mean punch now.

“The make-up took five hours and the first thing they did every morning was Bic my head to remove what little stubble I had, which was very depressing.

“When it came to the stunts, I wanted to appear really tough so I said I didn’t need knee pads or anything like that but it turned out I really did need them.

“Because I was the new girl who had never worked on a film like this before I was keen to do anything they asked but I just became a walking bruise after a while.”

Although her dad, John, a care home manager, has been known to grab the microphone at the local pub’s karaoke nights, Karen had no family members in the industry she could seek the advice of when she decided she wanted to be an actress.

She wrote letters to actors and researched what was required to get into the profession. She lists fellow Scot Tilda Swinton as the actress she’d most like to emulate going forward.

“Acting was all I ever wanted to be. There was no plan B,” she says.

Plan A may or may not include a part in the Guardians Of The Galaxy sequel, which has already been commissioned and pencilled in for a 2017 release.

“In one graphic novel, Nebula tries to take over the universe,” Karen smiles. “That’s what I want her to do.”

In the unreal world of Hollywood, Karen is well on her way to doing the same.