On A Role
KAREN GILLAN IS MADELINE CROWE
THE ACTOR STARS AS A PRESENTER EMBROILED IN CONTROVERSY IN PROVOCATIVE TV DRAMA DOUGLAS IS CANCELLED
WORDS BETH WEBB
Karen Gillan as Madeline
THE POISE
Karen Gillan was first introduced to Douglas Is Cancelled when Steven Moffat, with whom she had worked on Doctor Who, sent her the script for a proposed stage play six years ago. When the play didn’t happen he pivoted to a TV show, and asked Gillan to star. “It felt really relevant all those years ago, but it feels even more relevant now,” she tells Empire about the story of Madeline, a popular TV presenter and her hapless co-host (Hugh Bonneville) whose career is threatened after he makes an ill-advised joke. Having known the character for so long, Gillan instantly began working on suppressing her “own nerdy, frantic energy” in order to portray this “cool-as-a-cucumber, unshakeable woman” on TV.