HOW JUMANJI STAR KAREN SPICED UP HER LIFE
Geri Halliwell was my role model. She had spirit, ambition & drive... even if she was a fake ginger!
With a string of huge Hollywood hits to her name, actress Karen Gillan is definitely no Wannabe.
Since finding fame alongside Matt Smith in Doctor Who, the ginger-haired Brit has had roles in the Jumanji, Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers films.
With the sci-fi adventures raking in a combined €6.4billion, she is inarguably one of the biggest female stars of the past five years at the box office.
And with new film Jumanji: The Next Level out now, Karen reveals she is living the girl power dream thanks to another great British redhead – for she was inspired to aim for the stars as a youngster by singer Geri Halliwell, now Horner.
Karen, 32, said: “I think my role model as a ginger was probably Ginger Spice from the Spice Girls, even though she is a fake ginger!
“Truly, I love her so much, because she was like the driving force behind the Spice Girls. She was the one who really took them to the next level and she was so strategic about it.
“She’s so driven and she’s not the most talented of the girls but she makes up for it in spirit, drive and ambition, and that’s something, you know? It’s amazing. I can’t believe how passionately I am talking about this. I love her!”
Having enjoyed a meteoric rise since quitting the Tardis in 2012, Karen is still stunned by her success.
She remembers herself as a little girl with a video camera who used to play at making horror films at home in Inverness with her dad – who was regularly cast as the victim who met a grisly end.
Karen laughed: “There was one where I was this really nice schoolgirl during the day, like ‘How was work, Dad?’ And then at night, I would put on a long blonde wig and take out a knife and go out on a killing spree.
“And then it all sort of culminated in this big finale sequence where I revealed my true identity to my father and then killed him. Poor Dad. We’re fine. We have a brilliant relationship. We do. It wasn’t symbolic!
“It was just funny. There was ketchup everywhere and he was just so encouraging and so was my mum. And so they were just like, ‘Yeah, make all of this stuff. Get ketchup everywhere’.
Referring to her return as Lara Croftesque Ruby Roundhouse in the Jumanji sequel, she adds: “So when I made this, it kind of felt like the same thing but on a bigger scale.” K
aren, who now lives in New York, was an only child growing up in Inverness, where her parents still live. She would point at the TV and ask: “How do I get there?”
By 13, she was scouring the internet to find auditions and studied acting after school, first in Edinburgh and then briefly at the Italia Conti stage school in London, before landing a part in Rebus in Scotland.
She admits she was never a wild child, always knowing exactly what she wanted to do. But she has no idea where in her family the acting bug came from – her mum worked in Tesco and her dad worked in a centre for people with learning difficulties.
Yet they never doubted her or dissuaded her from chasing her dream.
Karen admits that while she could be “quiet and introverted”, she had all the confidence in the world when she was acting. Landing the role of Time Lord’s assistant Amy Pond in Doctor Who in 2009 was her dream come true.
Her mum was a huge fan – she even had Dalek bubblebath – and took the day off when Karen told her the news.
Karen said: “I did one audition with the casting director and then for the recall I had to go into the BBC for an audition with Matt.
“And it was amazing, suddenly everything came to life, all my nerves dissipated and I thought, ‘Yes, I can do this’.
“It is not something I want to disassociate with, because it was my break as an actress and I am just so grateful for it. Doctor Who is going to be on my obituary, I know that.”
Karen also insists Amy is still her favourite role and Matt Smith the most “influential” actor she has worked with.
She said: “It was my first big role and it was so special, and so cool and exciting. I was 21 and I was like, ‘I’m on top of the world’. Matt is the best actor ever. Like, truly, he’s extraordinary. He’s so inventive. Not one take is the same.
“He kind of encouraged me to play around and we were just always pushing each other’s buttons and surprising each other, and making each other laugh if we needed to, or making each other cry.
“It became such a good partnership and I really took that into the rest of my career.”
Unsurprisingly, she also raves about her current co-stars – Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jack Black and Kevin Hart.
Comedian Hart has just recovered from a near-fatal car crash in LA this summer.
Karen revealed: “He’s got a whole new approach to life and he’s stronger than ever. It really does feel like a family.
“I don’t have any brothers but now I know what it feels like and they torment me relentlessly. But it’s just so much fun and they’re all hilarious.
“It’s so funny, because we don’t even notice when the cameras have started rolling. This is the most fun job ever.” O
f all her big-screen pals, Karen reveals former wrestler Johnson is especially charming, saying: “The Rock is as charismatic in person as he is on screen – maybe more so, irritatingly.
“I’m like, ‘How are you doing that and how can I be able to do that?’.”
One skill set this film and many of her other blockbusters have required is stuntwork.
And Karen boasts one stunt skill in particular now – wielding the martial arts weapon nunchucks.
She said: “I get nunchucks now. I mean, I can actually use them and I own some – I really hope I have the opportunity to use them.
“Maybe if somebody attacked me on the street, I could see if I have the reflexes and the skills to react in the moment. But that’s not an invitation to attack me, so don’t do that.
“I get so terrified doing stunts, I cannot even tell you – as in heartpounding, like, ‘Please don’t throw me off of this bridge again’.
“And I’m always having to do them, because I’m always in action roles and I’ve never understood why. It just kind of turned out that way.”
So could future roles involve taking a step back from the stunts?
Not a chance, as Karen’s dream would be to play The Joker.
“That’s my dream role right there, because it’s just weird and unhinged.
“It would be such a challenge for me to play, because I’m hopefully nothing like that!”
As a child I made horror films with my dad... there was ketchup everywhere!