Hollywood Q&A
Q: I love Karen Gillan, but I’m not sure which accent is her natural speech. She is British in “Doctor Who” but not in “Jumanji.” Not a lot of people can pull off accents like that, so I’m curious which is real.
A: The Scottish brogue she has in “Doctor Who” is the closest thing to her real, natural voice.
Gillan was born in Inverness, Scotland, the largest city in the northern Highlands region. “Doctor Who” made a big deal of her character’s Scottishness throughout her time on the show, occasionally contrasting it with the Englishness of the Doctor himself (when he was played by “The Crown” star Matt Smith, at least).
Playing Amelia Pond, the Doctor’s companion in the fifth to seventh seasons of the modern “Doctor Who” reboot, was one of Gillan’s first big roles. And she says that, since then, she’s become more comfortable acting with accents other than her own.
“It’s very rare that I’m acting in my natural accent,” she said in an interview with Wired magazine, “and honestly, it’s gotten to the point now where I’m more comfortable acting in a different accent.”
She also joked that her accent’s changing as a result of her work, and she now sounds “like a Scottish person that’s maybe been on holiday in America.”
But it’s not nearly American enough for Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, her co-stars in “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” (2017) and “Jumanji: The Next Level” (2019). She said, in an interview on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” that the two superstars frequently walked around the set doing bad versions of Scottish accents to “torment” her.
For the record, she doesn’t think much of their impressions. “It’s a travesty to listen to. They sound like someone doing a bad impression of Dick Van Dyke in ‘Mary Poppins.’” (Incidentally, Van Dyke was actually supposed to be doing a London accent in that 1964 classic, so apparently, Johnson and Hart were very bad indeed.)
Q: Is “Ghosts” coming back for another season? Also, why do I know the actor who plays Jay?
A: Good news! You’re going to get to know Utkarsh Ambudkar even better when he returns, likely next fall, in Season 3 of “Ghosts.”
His role as Jay, aspiring chef and coowner of a haunted bed-and-breakfast in the CBS sitcom, is his highest-profile one yet, but he already knew his way around a hit comedy series going in.
You probably know him through his two collaborations with sitcom it girl Mindy Kaling. He played her younger brother, Rishi, in the long-running hit “The Mindy Project,” which she starred in and produced. And he landed a recurring part as a teacher in her big follow-up series, “Never Have I Ever,” which is still ongoing on Netflix.
Though it’s also possible you know him, or at least the sound of him, from his prolific voice work. He’s had roles on series such as “Mira, Royal Detective,” “Harvey Girls Forever” and the innovative YouTube series “Force Grey.”
On “Ghosts,” Ambudkar has teamed up with a different gang of
sitcom superstars. The series was created by Joe Port and Joe Wiseman, an established writing duo who have worked on hit series such as “New Girl” and “The Office” (with, incidentally, Mindy Kaling).
“Ghosts” got a third-season renewal before the second was done airing. And given that the first and second seasons debuted in the fall, it’s likely that the third will do the same.
Q: Is it true that Julia Roberts almost wasn’t in “Steel Magnolias”? I can’t imagine it without her.
A: Can you imagine it with Meg Ryan instead? How about Winona Ryder?
Julia Roberts, a couple of years before her star-making role in “Pretty Woman” (1990), was actually the third choice to play Shelby in the landmark 1989 dramedy “Steel Magnolias.”
Reportedly, the filmmakers first wanted Winona Ryder, who was coming off a big 1988, having starred in hits “Beetlejuice” and “Heathers.” But the producers figured she was too young for the part.
And so they offered the part to Meg Ryan. Unfortunately for them, they did it on the same day she got another offer — the lead in what would become her own star-making film, “When Harry Met Sally” (which also came out in 1989).
It was only then that they gave Julia Roberts her shot. But as soon as she arrived for her audition, the film’s writer, Robert Harling, who had based the story partly on his own sister’s life, was sold. “She walked into the room and that smile lit everything up and I said, ‘That’s my sister,’ so she joined the party and she was magnificent.”
He wasn’t the only one who fell in love with Roberts in the role. She was eventually nominated for an Oscar for the role and won a Golden Globe, among other accolades.