Karen Gillan: Obsessive fans, short skirts and life with Doctor Who

Karen Gillan: Obsessive fans, short skirts and life with Doctor Who
Interview by Gerard Gilbert
Saturday, 7 May 2011

The boiled down bits...

Matt Smith has playfully likened his co-star to a praying mantis.

Gillan's audition for the role involved a clandestine visit to BBC Television Centre, where she had to give the receptionist the password "panic moon" ("it's an anagram of companion").

She didn't tell her mother that she'd won the role because her mum is a "proper diehard Whovian. She's got a Tardis money-bag, and Dalek bubble-bath" and might have blabbed.


A happy redhead.

Her main memory of school is of being teased for being a redhead. "I don't know why, though, there are loads of us in Scotland. It's almost a majority," she laughs. "I was teased but it's OK, because I used to like my hair even at that age." In fact, Amy Pond has become something of a role model for young redheads. "I get letters from them – it makes me really happy."

The Pilgrim in Kennington will perhaps one day live up to its name and become a destination for Whovian tour groups, Gillan having worked behind the bar there for a year.


Karen in her pub working days. Or is that a club?

Her innocence in such matters as obsessive fans will eventually wear off, no doubt...

Life in Cardiff sounds almost monastic, even with the odd jaunt such as a recent one to see Arcade Fire in concert (Smith was mobbed apparently, but Gillan left to dance unmolested). "Filming the show becomes your life in a way and I really worry that I don't have anything else to talk about," she says. "Everything's Doctor Who. We don't have a social life or anything, because you just can't, and film the next day.


Karen, presumably snapped in her empty bedsit in Cardiff. Poor, depressed struggling actress needs cheering up. Call...


"I watch stuff on YouTube every night – that's what I do in the hour that we have between filming and looking forward to our houmous and Nairn's oatcakes. That's what Matt and I have in the evenings... it's depressing," she laughs.

Source

Sounds like Karen doesn't watch cooking clips on You Tube. I'm a bit worried about those two living like a pair of pikey students in Cardiff. So worried I might start making my own cooking lesson vids for them and post them on YouTube. If only I could cook. Or had a video camera. Perhaps they should do a 'Come Dine with Me' Who Special and share the cooking amongst them. I bet Rory's an untamed force in the kitchen.

Anyway, glad to hear Karen's not out and about in Cardiff on school nights. Guess she learnt that during her first season.

Oh, and I missed out the bits about her boyfriend - we're gonna carry on pretending he doesn't exist...

'Drunk giraffe' bangs head... and knocks over coffee (alot)

From Combom, who I've ripped this whole post off (as its so good), with the usual thanks...

Having been called "a drunk giraffe" by Steven Moffat and just plain clumsy by others, Matt Smith is known for frequently tripping up on himself. Early Sunday morning, however, this humourous trait of Matt's led to the actor falling over and splitting his head open.


Matt, 28, had been celebrating with his BBC1 show co-stars on Saturday night after they had finished filming the second part of the programme's current series. Medics patched up the gash with three stitches at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.

A Beeb insider said: "Matt tripped over in his flat and sustained a minor head cut. He went to A&E as a precaution. He is very, very clumsy so nobody will be surprised."

The accident failed to dampen Matt's fun though - after treatment he went straight back to his pals to carry on partying.

Another source said: "It looked really painful but Matt didn't seem to care. Luckily they had just finished shooting scenes - if not his bosses would have been fuming because it didn't look too pretty."

Not only has Matt Smith broken his screwdriver multiple times and made a light fall on his head—now he's split open his own skull! "Clumsy" doesn't begin to describe him.

Source credit goes to The Sun (let's hope they didn't hack Matts phone to get the story!).

In fact (continues Combom), one of the best stories about Matt Smith comes from Steven Moffat, who was talking about how scared he was about Matt holding a torch for "The Pandorica Opens".

Look, Matt’s lovely, he’s a magnificent, brand new, hilarious, heartbreaking, heroic Doctor — but the fact is, if that man walks into a room with a coffee then it’s only so long before you’re wearing it. No, really, clumsiest man on earth. He walks like he’s in a constant state of surprise at his own limbs.

I remember when he turned up at a Worldwide meeting really early on, and the first thing he did was spill a cup of coffee over a rather lovely woman. Naturally she giggled, flushed and introduced her mother. (Ahh, life when you’re Matt ! I accidentally made eye contact with the same woman — she phoned the police and shot me in the face.) On the way out he apologised to a completely different woman for the coffee incident. “That was the wrong woman,” I said, as he went out the doors. “Nope,” he replied, “That was the second cup.”

Dr Who for Little People

Just what we like. More damn things to collect. Not that I'll be collecting these, but you know what I mean, one day you'll be rummaging through a box in a car boot sale and you'll find one of these and think to yourself, mmm, is this a worthless freebee given away with Doctor Who Adverntures Magazine or something worth spending 50p on. Only time will tell. As ever. As if it wouldn't.