As part of the Guardians of the Galaxy cast, Nebula actor Karen Gillan has become an MCU movie star. It turns out we have Clint Eastwood to thank for it all.
With her performance as one of the best MCU characters in the Guardians of the Galaxy cast, Karen Gillan has cemented herself as an MCU movie highlight. But it turns out she used the star of many of the best Westerns ever made, Clint Eastwood, as a major inspiration.
Gillan made her debut as Nebula in 2014 when the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie introduced director James Gunn and his array of colourful heroes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The star explained in an interview with BBC Radio 1 that a single piece of direction from Gunn, with an Eastwood edge, completely changed her approach to the character in the Marvel movies.
She said: “He created my whole character with one single note. On my first day of filming, I came in and I was doing my generic villain thing. He was like: ‘Let’s mix this up, let’s try something else. Speak like Marilyn Monroe/Clint Eastwood, try that’.
“And then it created the entire character. The voice, it informed the way I moved, I started slinking around more. That is a piece of direction that is the best I’ve ever heard.”
So there you go. A big slice of Gillan, mixed with flashes of Monroe and Eastwood – two of the best actors of all time – created a Marvel character we’ll never forget.