"It
won't be what people expect"
Doctor Who
star Karen Gillan has been chatting to Total Film about her début as a leading
lady – and her departure from the sci-fi series.
The Amy Pond
actress is currently in Cannes to promote her upcoming role in Glasgow-set
indie-com Not Another Happy Ending.
“I play a
successful writer called Jane Lockhart,” Gillan told us. “Who writes best when
she’s unhappy. She’s feeling good about her life and therefore can’t write her
next novel, so her publisher Tom goes on a secret mission to make her unhappy
to get the book written.”
Filming’s due
to start in Glasgow in July, co-starring Emun Elliott (Game Of Thrones), with
John McKay (who directed Gillan in recent Beeb drama We’ll Take Manhattan)
taking the reins.
Gillan last
week wrapped a three-year stint as The Doctor’s companion – and promised that
her character’s exit will be “unexpected”, as well as emotional.
“I literally
couldn’t read it without crying,” she confessed. “It was the most highly
charged read-through I’ve ever experienced. But I couldn’t have asked for a
better exit. I don’t think it’ll be what people expect.”
She also
shared her thoughts on the prospect of a Doctor Who movie. “I think it would be
great in a franchise-y sort of way. I’d look forward to sitting down and
watching it.”
But would she
get involved if made an offer? “Oh, who knows. I guess you can only cross that
bridge when you come to it!"
Interview: A Happy
Ending?
Doctor Who
actress Karen Gillan is in Cannes to promote her first feature, the Glasgow set
indie romantic comedy Not Another Happy Ending, directed by John McKay and
produced by Claire Mundell of Synchronicity.
It’s been a
pretty big week for Scottish actress Karen Gillan.
On Saturday
she filmed her final ever Doctor Who episode for the BBC and now she’s in Cannes
for the first time to talk about her first feature project (first as the lead),
Not Another Happy Ending, directed by John McKay and produced by Sychronicity
Films, in which she stars as a writer who can only write when she is unhappy,
much to the despair of her publisher.
Shooting is
due to begin in July.
Gillan
describes the Glasgow based feature as “an indie, quirky, artsy film” which was
what also attracted director John McKay to the project. “I really liked the
fact it was about likeable neurotic middle class people. We are very hung up on
certain styles and genres in the UK. I really like American indie movies which
have no problem portraying the city dwelling I know,” says McKay, who directed
Gillan as Jean Shrimpton in TV movie We’ll Take Manhattan and decided to cast
her in this latest project.
“She is a bit
like a young Diane Keaton. Really bright and really good at falling over,” adds
McKay.
The film is
being backed by Steve Milne of the British Film Company and Creative Scotland.
LevelK are handling international sales.
“There are
two Scottish stereotypes on film - hills and glens and monsters. And there are
the very gritty, violent, dark films. As
a producer living and working in Glasgow, I thought, why do we never see the
other representation. I see an incredible amount of creativity and energy
around me, but you don’t see that represented cinematically very often,” says
producer Claire Mundell, who is next producing genre thriller The Devil’s
Staircase and Marianna Palka’s latest film, Glasgow Kiss.
Meanwhile,
Gillan has “absolutely no idea” what she is doing after Not Another Happy
Ending. “And it’s the best feeling. I’ve put all my possessions into storage so
I don’t even have a house. I’ll just see where I end up!”
She plans to
“talk her way onto a yacht” during her short trip to Cannes “I think it’s all
in the conviction”.
