Her big break in Doctor Who led the Scottish actor to Hollywood. She talks her new film, Gunpowder Milkshake, the Jumanji hotpants furore – and why she worries she might be a bit, well, boring …
Karen Gillan’s house in the US is, she says, “like a little piece of Scotland in Los Angeles”. She is sipping coffee in her living room. The wallpaper behind her is a forest of brown, beige and mallards. When Vogue shot here last year, it described Gillan’s taste in interiors as “quirky”. “Yeah,” she sputters. “It’s all old trinkets.”
A piece of Scotland in Los Angeles is not a bad description of Gillan herself. Born in Inverness, she has lived in LA on and off for years. It’s a love-hate relationship. “I never feel settled here. It’s a real issue of mine.” Whenever she’s in LA, she gets the feeling that it’s not where she’s meant to be. Then she flies off and makes a film. “I come back and think …” – she does a cartoonish swooning sigh – “… It’s nice to be home. Then in a week I’m like: I’ve got to move.”
