Karen Gillan claims financial barriers are stopping more people like her from becoming actors
She has risen from her working- class Highland roots to become a Hollywood A-lister.
Now Karen Gillan claims financial barriers are stopping more people like her from becoming actors.
She has first-hand knowledge of the issue having passed an audition for a performing arts academy in London at age 16, only for her parents to be unable to afford the fees.
But she later made her own way to the top and shot to fame in 2010 as Amy Pond on Doctor Who.
The 37-year-old has since helped establish a scholarship scheme for students at a performing arts academy in her hometown of Inverness.
Ms Gillan said: ‘I’m from a working-class background, which is rare in this industry. A lot of middle-class people go into acting. It’s such a competitive industry that most who pursue it are those with a safety net.
‘I want to encourage as many working-class people as possible to pursue their love of the arts and not let it become this elitist industry.’
Despite her fame and Hollywood lifestyle, the Guardians of the Galaxy star insists she is still grounded.
Karen Gillan with parents Raymond and Marie
Karen Gillan attends Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2025
Karen Gillan visits the IMDb Portrait Studio at SXSW in 2023
She added: ‘I don’t see myself getting carried away because of where I’m from – a really normal background with two stable parents. I’d be brought down to earth quickly.’
It was recently announced Ms Gillan will star in a remake of the 1986 action movie Highlander.
Ms Gillan, who is married to American actor Nick Kocher, said she plans to bring her baby daughter Clementine with her so she can visit her mother's homeland.
The original Highlander starred Christopher Lambert as 16th-century clansman MacLeod, Beatie Edney as his wife and Sean Connery as fellow 'immortal' Ramirez.
Ms Gillan joked that she will not need any accent training for the film, due to begin shooting in Scotland later this year. She said: 'My dialect coach can sit this one out - so excited to be an actual Highlander in Highlander.'
