Interview: Karen Gillan on Sleeping Dogs, Russell Crowe, and Directing Horror

In Sleeping Dogs, Russell Crowe plays a retired cop who is battling Alzheimer’s. He receives a revolutionary treatment that helps him slowly restore his mind, but as this happens, a face from his past dredges up a murder case he was involved with and questions if the right person was convicted. as he investigates a past he’s forgotten, he comes into contact with a woman central to the case played by Karen Gillan.

This woman, Laura Baines, has an interesting past and appears to be hiding something. But is that murder?

ComingSoon’s Neil Bolt spoke to Gillan about her role in the film, working with Russell Crowe, and what her plans are for her next directorial stint.

Neil Bolt: The concept behind Sleeping Dogs is quite intriguing; what about it caught your eye?

Karen Gillan: I think the story was just so interesting, and I didn’t see all the twists and turns coming. So that kind of caught me off guard and was fun to read. And on top of that, the opportunity to play this character who wears all these different masks and kind of adjusts herself depending on what she wants, that kind of character was appealing to me.

That’s understandable. I was going to say that about your performance, where it plays with the perspective of who Laura actually is, which allows you to change aspects of the character’s personality throughout. Do you find that kind of acting role fascinating to tackle?

Yes! That is what I live for! Like I could be a nerd about that for hours, but we don’t have hours. Yeah, I loved researching it. I had weirdly been researching this personality type a lot prior to being sent this script. Doing a deep dive into this particular disorder where people feel they need to wear these masks and play these roles and not be their authentic selves because maybe they don’t know who they are underneath it all.

Then this came along and I was like, ‘’I can put all this to good use!’’ because I think she is a person that changes herself depending on the situation. On top of that, this story is told from multiple perspectives and from people’s memories, which afforded me the opportunity to play her in slightly different ways.

So one of the aspects that I wanted to ask you about is that it felt like there was a bit of classic Noir femme fatale in the way you played the role. Was that a reference point for you, or was it something else?

It actually wasn’t, but thank you! No, my reference point was actually people on TikTok with personality disorders talking about what it’s like to have their personality disorders and live in their minds. So that’s where I started, but then I decided that she was the type of person who would watch YouTube videos of intellectuals and emulate them. So that’s where the affected voices and mannerisms came from.

How was it acting opposite Russell Crowe? I know he’s been seen as being quite intense and serious about his work, but he also seems a bit more mellow in recent years.

It was great! It was really cool. I mean, it was sufficiently trippy to be in a scene with Russell Crowe because he’s one of these classic movie stars that I grew up with. I feel it’s so different now; it’s so fragmented. My parents haven’t heard of the big movie stars of today, whereas back in the day you knew everyone, and Russell Crowe was part of that. So that was really cool to work with him and he’s just a  brilliant actor. Just watching him and be like, ‘’Oh, that’s why you’re a movie star, because you’ve got that ‘thing’.’’

He’s got a subtlety to it where he conveys a lot with a little.

Yeah, it’s like he’s not doing anything, but he’s doing everything.

So to round this out, a slightly off-topic question. You’ve written and directed several horror shorts, any plans to tackle a feature-length horror behind the camera?

Oh yeah! Big plans. Big plans! I have a couple in development right now that I’m really excited about. I think horror is my area as a filmmaker, and I have always felt that way, but directing those shorts cemented that for me, but the next thing I direct will definitely be fully in that space.

Sleeping Dogs is in theaters on March 22, 2024.

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