Behind the 'Jumanji' dance fight: How 'terrible dancer' Karen Gillan mastered her moves (exclusive)
Karen Gillan is a terrible dancer. The Scottish actress will be the first to admit it. “I’m not coordinated, so it’s just limbs everywhere,” the Scottish star explains in the making-of doc Surviving the Jungle: The Spectacular Stunts from the Blu-ray release of the holiday hit, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (watch exclusive look above).
So mastering “dance fighting,” one of the key strengths of her video game avatar character, Ruby Roundhouse, inevitably proved challenging for the Dr. Who and Guardians of the Galaxy star.
Gillan expressed her self-doubts to M. Hynes, the film’s stunt coordinator, who was dealing with his own set of challenges. “We’ve done dances and we’ve done fights, but we’ve never combined the two,” he says.
Hynes, however, was ultimately able to draw the best dancing and fighting out of Gillan. “We worked her into the fight, and she really embraced it,” he said. “She just pulled it off with flying colors.”
The sequence, which finds Roundhouse “unleashing holy terror” on two henchmen guarding a helicopter hangar, all set to Big Mountain’s 1994 cover of “Baby, I Love Your Way,” proves to be one of the best moments in Welcome to the Jungle, a sequel to the 1995 Robin Williams favorite.
“I feel like we created something quite specific and unique,” Gillan says. “It was this fun little dance routine, and then she just takes out these two guys. And it’s insane.”
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is now on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital HD.
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