Karen Gillan

The fan favourite talks biceps, burgers and the Doctor’s binoculars…

What’s the first thing you do when you get to set?

When I was shooting Jumanji: The Next Level, the first thing I would do is an arm workout. When you’re in a film with The Rock, you’ve got to do at least five minutes on the biceps! When I directed The Party’s Just Beginning, everyone was looking at me for all of the answers. It was just surreal. So cool. And basically I had all the answers, because I wrote the piece, visualized it, and storyboarded the whole thing.

What on-set superstitions do you have, if any?

I actually really try to stop any superstition from getting too powerful in my life. If I allow it to build, then it could take over. I’m prone to that. I’ve definitely had things in the past, like an old pen from a script that someone had given to me because I was nervous and he was like, “I always have this with me when I do nerve-wracking things. You can have it.” So I took it, and it went really well, and I was convinced that the pen was the source of all my powers. So I got rid of it [laughs].

Do you take your phone on set?