Karen Gillan on Working With Karen Gillan in Dual

In Karen Gillan’s newest film, Dual, the Marvel star performs two variations of the identical character, each trying to kill one another. On paper, which may seem to be a brand new, distinctive problem. Only… Gillan has executed it earlier than. A couple of instances the truth is. One was even within the second highest-grossing film in historical past, Avengers: Endgame. As a outcome, very like being forged on Doctor Who earlier in her profession, she one way or the other retains taking up tasks that solely make her subsequent movie or present that significantly better.

“I think when I was making Dual, I was like, ‘How many times have I done this now?’” Gillan stated to io9 over video chat this week. “I mean, it must be on my fourth time playing opposite myself. I was like, ‘That’s the weirdest bit of typecasting I’ve ever heard in my life.’ But I think actually, through working on the other projects and on Avengers, I kind of figured out how I like to do it.”

In Dual, Gillan is Sarah, a younger girl who’s recognized with a terminal illness. As a outcome, she decides to make a clone of herself in order that her family and friends gained’t know she’s gone. However, Sarah miraculously recovers and now, with two Sarahs working round,, the principles of society dictate there could be just one. They should duel to the demise. It was written and directed by Riley Stearns, who beforehand made The Art of Self Defense and Faults.

Gillan approached each Sarah and Sarah’s clone as separate characters, writing out detailed lists of traits every embody based mostly on Stearns’ script. But enjoying each lead roles led to far more work than standard. She needed to act either side, bear in mind the strains for either side, and, nearly most crucially, react believably to that efficiency—with assist from actress Katariina Havukainen, who performed reverse Gillan on-set.

“I like to make sure that I have an actress I can do this with because it’s definitely a team effort,” Gillan stated. “So that was really important to me, and I got to help choose the actress that I would be acting opposite for Dual, which made me really happy. And [Havukainen] is an amazing actress because I knew that I wanted to be able to react off of something. I didn’t want to just fully imagine what I would be doing with it in the future when I film the other side. I wanted it to feel more real than that. And she gave me a lot to work with, so I was really happy with that.”

However, Gillan admits protecting all of that in her thoughts directly was at instances tough. “It was challenging because it’s kind of a lot to take on,” she stated. “There’s certain element of like, I would be playing opposite this amazing actress and I would kind of watch how she’s doing it. And I’m thinking, ‘I like that. I’m going to steal that.’ And then I think, ‘Oh, I’m not going to do the line like that.’ So let me react appropriately to the way I’m imagining myself doing it in the future when I get to it. So it’s a lot of multi-tasking.”

One little bit of multitasking that Gillan didn’t essentially take into consideration was Sarah’s physicality. Once the duel between Sarahs is ready, the movie follows the primary one by means of her coaching, which occurs with a person named Trent (Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul). The downside is, Gillan is used to enjoying a superhero and Sarah has by no means skilled a day in her life. She mainly needed to unlearn needed to be Karen Gillan.

“I have been playing really physically capable characters for years now,” she stated. “So I’ve perfected the art of running like an action hero. All of that. And I had to undo everything for this character because she’s training for the first time in her life. So I remember I got on the treadmill and I was running like an action hero and I was like, ‘I need to be way worse.’ So then the arms started to flail. I looked a bit more winded.”

Playing two Sarahs in Dual after two Nebulas in Avengers: Endgame is just not the primary time in her profession a serious position ready her for what’s subsequent. When requested concerning the affect Doctor Who had on her profession, Gillan talks concerning the stunning hyperlink between that position and her subsequent. “[Doctor Who] was one of the most important things that happened to my career, still,” she stated. “It was the first big thing I’d ever gotten. It was an amazing role and an amazing TV show that I loved so much. And also, I had a lot of sci-fi training.”

That sci-fi coaching helped her settle into her subsequent large position, in a film referred to as Guardians of the Galaxy. “I was extremely nervous to start on Guardians of the Galaxy because it was like a big American film, and I had done British television up until that point,” she stated. “So I was like ‘What’s this going to be like? Is it going to be all the Hollywood stuff I imagined?’ And then I actually got there and I was on a spaceship and I was like, ‘Oh. Wait a minute. This is my environment.’ I can show you guys a thing or two since I spent the last three years on spaceships.”

Dual doesn’t see Gillan on any spaceships however she does assume it’s helped what’s already been a dynamic, stunning profession get even higher. “[Working on Dual] really expanded me as an actress,” she stated. “Just to even figure out how to deliver that style of writing in that style of delivery. it was just so unique and I loved it. It was so cool. I think [Stearns] really helped me develop as an actress and I think I’ve gotten funnier from the film too because he really taught me how to not play the funny, and in turn, make it a lot funnier.”

Which, it seems, may even affect her subsequent time enjoying her Guardians of the Galaxy character, Nebula. “We’re definitely going to see a new version of the character [in future movies], Gillan teased. “Maybe a looser version of the character, maybe a little more levity.” Levity she actually honed in Dual.

Dual is in theaters Friday.

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