Karen Gillan has had a lot of faces throughout the course of her career. She has played many different characters and established just how talented she is as an actress. She has gone from horror movies to blue aliens and even got transported into a game. However, her fans may have never seen her in a film like 2023’s Late Bloomers.
Rather than playing a confident character like she usually does, the film places her in the shoes of Louise, a 28-year-old, who is trying to figure out her place in the world and with her family quite late in her life. The film adopts quite an awkward tone, and often, it can be almost impossible to watch because of how good it is at making audiences uncomfortable.
This feeling can perfectly be encompassed in one scene from the film, which happens to be inspired by something that actually happened with Gillan.
Life Imitates Art
Recently, Karen Gillan gave an interview with Collider, where she went into great detail about her film, Late Bloomers. She was specifically asked about one kissing and intimate scene that encompasses the awkward energy the movie has throughout its runtime.
Compared to other scenes of its kind in Hollywood, it is much more laid-back and awkward than sexy and engaging. Interestingly enough, the actress revealed that the scene was a direct inspiration from her personal life.
That’s what I loved about them so much. I had so much fun with them.The kissing scene was actually based on a story from my life.
Gillan once told Lisa Steen, the director, and Anna Greenfield, the writer, a story about the first time she kissed her husband. It would seem that she ended up making quite an embarrassing sound when they first kissed.
When I first kissed my husband, I made this weird noise before doing it. And then, I was like, “I don’t know why I’ve done that.” And as soon as Lisa, the director, and Anna, the writer, heard the story, they were like, “That’s going in the movie. It has to.” So, that’s where that weird choice came from.
Although it quickly turned humorous, both Steen and Greenfield felt like the story had to make its way into their movie in some way or another. It is safe to say that many fans would be surprised at the story and the origins of the scene.
Karen Gillan Enjoyed Filming Freely
Karen Gillan then went on to reveal that she found the filming of the scene in Late Bloomers to be almost liberating. When it comes to filming intimate scenes in films, it is safe to say that environments can be quite tense and stressful.
Those featured in the scene have to constantly be mindful of every move they make, being sure that it is attractive and fits the tone of the scene. However, if the tone of an intimate scene is already awkward and full of insecurity, one can have a lot more fun with it.
The s*x scene was as written. It was fun to have license to make it as awkward and unsexy as possible. There was something really relieving about that, actually. We weren’t trying to make something that looks incredibly sexy. It was the opposite.
Gillan spoke along the same lines, revealing that she quite enjoyed not worrying about looking sexy and simply having fun. Purposefully looking awkward and ‘unsexy’ became quite fun for her, as it is something one does not get to do frequently.
Late Bloomers is available for rent on Apple TV+.
