Karen Gillan Reveals The Avengers: Endgame Sequence That Was Completely Improvised
As someone who just rewatched "Avengers: Endgame" and sniffled through a number of scenes, I love this story. Karen Gillan was promoting her new film "The Bubble," and spoke to The Wrap about the upcoming film "Guardians of the Galaxy 3." She spoke about improv, and even gave us a peek at the improv scene she did in "Endgame."
The scene in question is the one at the beginning on the ship with Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark. She calls this game football, though I remember calling it Trapper Keeper soccer as a kid. (Children, Trapper Keepers were a type of folder in which we all kept our papers in school. Paper is pulped wood made into sheets that we wrote on with a pen, which is a stick full of ink ... never mind.) Gillan said:
"I will say, I've improvised a fair bit of Nebula because I don't know if you saw 'Endgame,' which seems like — (laughs) — That's a ridiculous question. But basically, all of the stuff with Robert Downey Jr. at the beginning was like, that whole montage was improvised. Because all that was written was oh, they play football. They eat, they do this. And then we kind of ended up getting to improvise because he's an amazing improviser."
Gillan continued: "And so there was all this stuff about them playing the game and how much it meant to Nebula that she actually got to win something. And so she's been slowly getting more improv-y."
This scene could have been three times as long and I'd watch
That particular scene was so lovely. It was the epitome of what happens to you under great stress. The intense focus on a small thing, the way you can take a game that seriously, just to not think too hard on what's really happening. Adding in the fact that for Nebula, this is really still the early days of her social interaction in terms of making friends, it's a sweet moment. These two actors are so good that I didn't think for a second that it was all improv, making the knowledge even better.
Gillan also told the site that there is more improv to come (if it stays in the film) in "Guardians of the Galaxy 3." She said, "This time around in 'Guardians 3', she's, yeah, she's improvising a lot more lines. I don't know if they'll make the cut but I hope they do."
I hope so, too. I've been a fan of Gillan's since "Doctor Who," and I still lament the cancelation of her short-lived TV series "Selfie." "Guardians of the Galaxy 3" will feature the return of Gamora (Zoe Saldaña), Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper, motion-captured by Sean Gunn), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Groot the tree (voiced by Vin Diesel), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), and Drax (Dave Bautista). Sylvester Stallone will return as Stakar Ogord, Sean Gunn will once again play Kraglin, and Chukwudi Iwuji (recently seen in Gunn's TV series "Peacemaker") is playing an as-yet-undisclosed role. Will Poulter is set to play Adam Warlock.
The Guardians will return first in a holiday special on Disney+ this December, and "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" is set for release on May 5, 2023.