One of the most popular Guardians of the Galaxy characters has very little in common with the actress who plays her.
Nebula has been a staple of the Guardians franchise from the very beginning, as she made the slow transition from enemy to ally over the course of several films. She entered the MCU as a loyal lackey to Thanos—the big-bad of the MCU’s Phase Three—and soon established herself as one of the more nuanced characters in the entire franchise.
In no time, Nebula was an easy crowd favorite. Her brash, emotionless, and quick-to-violent personality has just enough humor and charm mixed in to transform the character from humorless villain into ruthless hero, so long as she has some friends nearby to check her more brutal tendencies.
The woman behind the character, Karen Gillan, has almost nothing in common with the blue-skinned Marvel favorite. This isn’t necessarily surprising, given the many complexities of Nebula’s character, but a recent tweet from Hollywood Horror Museum is catching attention anyway.
The Twitter account for the nonprofit organization noted that it’s “hilarious” that someone like Gillan plays Nebula, because Gillan is “one of the funniest, sweetest, wackiest people you’ll ever meet, with a zany sense of humor.”
People in the comment section quickly seized the opportunity to poke fun at Hollywood Horror Museum for seemingly pointing out that Gillan is actually good at her craft. It is called acting, after all, and Gillan wouldn’t be very capable at it if she only played characters with her same personality.
All those sarcastic responses were stopped in their tracks when Gillan herself responded to the tweet, however, proving that even she finds the dichotomy amusing. She planted a trio of laughing emojis above her retweet of Hollywood Horror Museum’s original, and quickly turned the conversation on its head. Commenters rushed to compliment the 35-year-old actress on her many accomplishments, and all talk of “acting” was left in the dust.
The rush of compliments only serve to highlight the popularity of Nebula’s character even more. Particularly in the wake of the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, people have a huge amount of love for the dry and complicated character. She’s increasingly rising through the ranks of favorite MCU characters, despite a relatively small role, and one that is largely communicated through furious stares and cranky grunts.
Now that’s acting.
