Karen Gillan talks about her brand new role in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle movie, relating her to her character in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, Nebula. The upcoming flick is a sequel to the first film released in 1995 starring Robin Williams, Kirsten Dunst, David Alan Grier and Bonnie Hunt. But instead of setting the narrative from the same board game used in the original film, this new one takes the adventure to a whole new level of gaming -- by using a video game as the backdrop of the project's narrative.
The film is set 20 years after its predecessor and follows four teenagers who were in detention. While cleaning the school's basement, they discovered a vintage video game that catapulted them into a virtual reality adventure. Gillian plays Ruby Roundhouse in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle -- the avatar of Martha, one of the kids, while Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black and Kevin Hart each takes the role of the remaining three players. Together, they need to finish the game in order to get out of it, otherwise, they will be stuck inside of it forever.
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We recently sat down with Gillan and talked about Ruby during our Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle set visit, where the Scottish actress gamely opened up about seemingly always nabbing roles that demand extreme physical preparation for action sequences. Nebula, of course, being a skilled fighter in all her years trying to survive on her own falls in the category and, Gillan shares that Ruby does too.
"I don't know why I keep on getting cast in roles where I have to do so many action sequences. Because honestly, I've got two left feet and I look like a piece of spaghetti trying to fight people. But it keeps on happening, and I feel like I'm getting better with each film that I do that involves this sort of stuff. But I mean I really enjoy it, I enjoy doing it. And then my stunt double makes me look much cooler than I could manage to make myself look."
While the two roles have similarities, Gillan is actually thankful for the training she received for her Marvel gig as it helped her in preparing for Ruby. There is a specific sequence in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle that needed extra effort to flawlessly perform - something that was as demanding as her choreographed fight scenes in Guardians of the Galaxy:
"Well, I definitely learned a lot from playing Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy, in terms of combat and fighting and stunts... But the dance fight [in Jumanji] was kind of up there! I had to do the whole thing, and it was a long routine, and I was on guys' shoulders cracking their necks and stuff. So it rivals Nebula's stuff in Guardians of the Galaxy, for sure."
With two trailers and a slew of promotional materials already released for the movie, Columbia is already working harder on selling the idea of a new Jumanji film to the audience, especially with its release date drawing near. If anything, the latest preview we have gotten from Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle looks like a lot of fun, which is something very pivotal if the new iteration wants to perform (both critically and at the box office) at least near the same level as its predecessor.
