Dual star Karen Gillan on playing twin roles and exploring "a post-Thanos version of Nebula"

Thanks to the Guardians Of The Galaxy franchise and its subsequent intersections with other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Karen Gillan has become one of the most recognizable actors in the world—well, whenever she’s covered head-to-toe in a patchwork of blue body paint.

Perhaps that’s why in her new film Dual, Gillan plays not one but two roles that require a degree of nuance and specificity, but little discernible makeup of any kind. Playing Sarah, a passive, unhappy young woman who decides to clone herself after being diagnosed with a terminal illness, Gillan explores the differences between a life that’s lived and one that’s inherited while writer-director Riley Stearns (The Art Of Self-Defense) provides a remarkable showcase for the depth and subtlety of his lead actor’s talent.

Ahead of the release of Dual, Gillan spoke to The A.V. Club about the (literal) twin roles she shouldered with Stearns’ guidance. In addition to talking about the little details she pinpointed to distinguish a world-weary Sarah from her fresh-faced double, Gillan discussed her preparation for the film, and finally, explored the ways that her ongoing gig as a member of the MCU has shaped and sometimes even comforted her in the midst of making tough choices and tackling new challenges elsewhere in her career.

The A.V. Club: There’s a funny moment in Dual when you watch the fictional film You Only Kill The One You Love to prepare to kill your replacement. Have you ever watched a film that prepared you for an experience you hadn’t encountered before?

Karen Gillan: Does it count if it’s like I watched Jumanji and that prepared me for Jumanji?

AVC: Yes, it does.

KG: It’s funny because that was in my top three films of all time, Jumanji. I had the board game and everything. I loved that movie. And so I guess that prepared me for my audition for the remake which is just still so crazy to me that I’m even in that, because I am just such a fan of the original.

AVC: This is not the first time you’ve played two versions of the same character. As an actor, if you’re not going for the full “evil twin” character, how do you decide what differentiates one from the other to make sure the audience can tell the difference?

KG: That was definitely one of the bigger challenges within the film was how do I differentiate between two characters that are built from the same toolkit? I mean, they have the same DNA, all of it, yet circumstances can completely inform a person and the way that a person behaves. So for me, I was kind of looking at it like the main character Sarah has been beaten down by life and then she has this clone made and the clone emerges and it hasn’t experienced anything at all. And so there’s no fear. There’s no insecurity. Nothing has happened yet. And so that was probably one of the most fun ways to differentiate that I found. [Sarah] was a person who doesn’t want to take up space, is uncomfortable doing so, has low self-worth because of situations that have happened in their life. Then bring in this version of them that is completely comfortable taking up space, taking a long time to talk, and just invading other people’s personal space. That was kind of a fun contrast for me.

AVC: Your character discusses the difference between herself and her replacement’s body. Did the shoot allow you to get into different levels of shape, or was there any real preparation involved to physically differentiate them?

KG: It was a smaller film, so we didn’t have that many days. But I did try to change my shape in a very short space of time. I remember I wanted Sarah to be out of shape or not look her best at the beginning of the film, and by the end of the film, through these experiences decided that she does value her life and wants to live it. And so she’s working out a lot with her personal trainer, getting ready for the big duel. And so I’m thinking, “OK, the only way I can really track this is to just go with the main character’s physical journey.” And so I ate a lot and then I started training as we kind of progressed throughout the film and just tried to get somewhat into better shape by the end of the movie.

AVC: What was the through line for you, particularly because there are these interesting choices that both versions of the character make that lead them to their fates?

KG: It’s really interesting. Sarah begins as a character who does not really value her life or her existence. She’s just coasting day to day. And only when faced with the threat of another version of her taking her life away, does she realize that she actually does value her life. And actually her self-worth goes up in the face of this other better version of herself which is a really cool arc for the character. And then for the double, she comes out much more unaffected by all of the trials of life and then gradually gets more beaten down and they sort of eventually just swap places. And then by the end, the double is a little miserable and more beaten down, but still determined to kind of live the life. But she’s kind of morphed into the original version of Sarah that we met at the beginning.

AVC: Riley has such a unique sensibility as a storyteller. How difficult or easy was it to find the balance in your performance so that there’s a humorous edge to these life and death stakes?

KG: That tone of the movie was the hardest thing to nail, I would say. It was like, how do I pitch this? I mean, there’s a version of a scene where you find out you’re dying where you have an extreme reaction, and there’s a version in this particular movie where she doesn’t have any reaction at all and she’s even questioning, “Why aren’t I crying?” And that was just completely the collaboration between me and Riley and me looking to him for guidance on that, because this movie is his tone and vision and the epitome of his style. And so I just had to follow his lead a little bit there. And we tried different versions of things. So I tried a really deadpan delivery of one scene, and then I would ask for a fun run where I got to do whatever I wanted to do. And I was like, “No notes in the fun run. That’s my time!” I’m pretty sure none of that’s in the movie, but at least I had my moment to explore. But the collaboration was really brilliant with Riley. I really, really enjoyed working with him and I feel like he really helped me expand as an actress. And I’m really grateful for that.

AVC: I’m not going ask specifically about Guardians Of The Galaxy because I know you’re just going to volunteer all the plot details, but is it exciting to know that you have Nebula to come back to after tackling other acting challenges? And does that long-term character exploration teach you anything that you’re able to bring to a character like this?

KG: Yeah. It’s so nice to have this character that I get to return to every so often. It’s really nice to have that stability, I guess, in this industry, but also the chance to have more than two hours to show the audience all of the different aspects of this character. Like I’ve had eight, nine years to evolve this character now, which has been so amazing to me. And she’s one of my favorite characters I’ve ever played because I’ve just had all the time with her and I just think her upbringing is completely fascinating and her family dynamic with Thanos and Gamora. So I’ve just loved the whole experience. And this time around, she’s really fun to play around with because Thanos has been eliminated from existence. So we get to see a post-Thanos version of Nebula, which I’m excited for people to see. But it’s been really, really wonderful to have this actually for the last almost decade.

AVC: Prior to Guardians, were there things in your career that even remotely resembled that kind of challenge for you, or has that experience been very unique?

KG: Yeah, totally. I mean, the one thing about working in television is you do get more time than a movie to kind of get this character across and play around with them and evolve them. So that was really nice, but I don’t think I ever really considered that I would ever get to play a character in a huge blockbuster six times. I didn’t even see that around. I do think that’s probably of this era, because Marvel movies have been around for a while, but maybe they were just getting started [when Guardians debuted]. But this is the gift that keeps on giving. It’s amazing.