Guardians of the Galaxy Star Karen Gillan Sings Campbeltown Loch

Guardians of the Galaxy star Karen Gillen showed her musical talents in a new video released on Twitter. Gillen asked her fans to take a survey, and as a reward, she agreed to perform a song of their choice. Out of the songs suggested, she chose “Campbeltown Loch,” a Scottish folk song about a city at the center of the whisky distilling industry. It took Gillen two videos to get the entire piece out, but you can watch both of them below. Gillen is herself Scottish, though she keeps the accent in check while playing the cyborg Nebula in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. During a recent virtual convention appearance, Gillan talked about she broke down and built up Nebula’s personality through her relationship with her adoptive father, Thanos.

“I was able to use a lot of psychology essays on that character because she’s someone who has dealt with abuse from her father from such a young age,” Gillan said. “Not to make it too heavy, but he pitted the siblings against each other — she would be inferior and the scapegoat, while the other one was the golden child. It’s actually a quite common thing to happen within families and siblings. I don’t have any siblings, so it’s something I really had to read up on.

“In Avengers, she had to face the source of her abuse, then actually watch him get eliminated from her life. I’m sort of thinking about future Nebula in the sense like, ‘What is she going to be like now that that person’s abuse has gone out of her life? How is she going to build herself back up again?’ Because it’s an odd feeling, I think, for someone who’s been abused by a parent, because they still love them and they’re sad that they’re gone, but also they hate them and they’re glad that they’re gone.”

Gillan will return as Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. She hopes the film offers her a chance to explore Nebula’s relationship with Gamora outside of the shadow of Thanos. “I don’t know. I think I would love to see what their relationship is now that their father, the source of the abuse, is out of the picture,” Gillan said during a convention appearance. “I think that would be really interesting to see if they can form a normal, sisterly, loving relationship.”

In December, she spoke more generally about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. “I think it’ll be in the next couple of years, but I’ve read Vol. 3 and I think it’s the best of the trilogy,” she said. “I know that we’re all really excited to have James Gunn back as our fearless leader. So we’re all just really looking forward to getting back together.”