We'll Take Manhattan
Romeo and Brittney
A three-minute promotional clip from We’ll Take Manhattan has been found over at Play.com – it’s been uploaded to our Youtube page!!
EDIT – Just realised that this clip has no sound unfortunately 
Am trying to fix this, and find a new copy, but until then, it’s still some nice clips to look at!
More photos from Karen’s appearance at yesterday’s Ovation panel for the TCA’s have been added to the gallery, plus the rest of the photoshoot from yesterday’s posted article!
Gallery Links
Events and Appearances > 2012 > January – Ovation at TCA’s Winter Tour
Photoshoots and Sessions > Professional Shoots > 016
PASADENA – Karen Gillan came to press tour to discuss her new TV-movie “We’ll Take Manhattan,” but as often happens at this event, the first question for her was about her more famous role on “Doctor Who,” which she will leave sometime during the British sci-fi series’ next season.
“I feel sad,” she said of saying goodbye to the role of Amy Pond, “because I am gonna leave, but with any story, it has to come to an end. It was a mutual decision with me and (‘Doctor Who’ showrunner) Steven Moffat. We had this lovely dinner and decided when the best time for me to go was, and it’s been decided. So I’m excited and slightly scared.”
Asked later how much of the new season she would be in, she laughed and said she couldn’t tell us, but, “There’s going to be a few episodes. A few really good episodes.”
“We’ll Take Manhattan,” which will debut on Ovation on March 3 at 9 p.m., stars Gillan as Jean Shrimpton, who was discovered by British Vogue photographer David Bailey (played by Aneurin Barnard) in the early ’60s. The duo traveled to Manhattan for what became an iconic photo shoot involving Shrimpton, a teddy bear and various New York buildings.
Gillan is a former model herself, and says she knew of Shrimpton well before she was approached about the film, discovering her while reading up on Bailey as part of her interest in photography.
“My boyfriend at the time showed me this picture,” she recalled, “and goes, ‘This is the most beautiful woman that’s existed!’ And I thought, (sarcastic) ‘Oh, that’s great.’ So when this came along, I went, ‘Yes!’”
And the movie not only allows her to lean back on skills from her former career, but provides her with a clear break from time travel, Daleks and Oods.
“What’s really nice is it’s such a contrast to the character I play in ‘Doctor Who,’ Amy Pond. It’s completely different. This is a coming-of-age story, and it’s about a girl figuring out life, and then something completely extraordinary happens to her. It’s just so different, which is what I want. I want variety.”
Today, Karen attended the Ovation Panel at the TCA’s in California, to discuss We’ll Take Manhattan. I’ve only found the 1 MQ image to add so far, but I think you’ll agree that she looks absolutely stunning in it!
According to Matt Smith the actor is Doctor Who’s ‘sexiest companion ever’ and now she is to play Jean Shrimpton. Here, she talks about her obsession with the 60s – and why she wishes she could make everyone fall in love
One freezing week in 1962, David Bailey took 18-year-old Jean Shrimpton and a sad-eyed teddy bear to Harlem, where he shot a Vogue fashion story that would change fashion photography for ever. The pictures still look modern: a glossy black-and-white spread of the Brooklyn Bridge, raw and stark and angry, with that innocuous yet sinister teddy bear underlining Shrimpton’s innocence. That week, Bailey (an arrogant, married 23-year-old) and Shrimpton (a flighty Buckinghamshire farm girl) fell in love – this month BBC4 airs We’ll Take Manhattan, the dramatisation of that affair. Karen Gillan, best known as Doctor Who’s sidekick Amy Pond (Matt Smith pronounced her “the sexiest companion ever”) plays “the Shrimp”, and she plays her with jutted elbows and a determined stare. In real life, Gillan has the energy of a soluble aspirin – she fizzes. She squeaks.
Born in Inverness 23 years ago, Gillan moved to London to study drama; before Doctor Who she worked as a model after being spotted working behind the bar of a pub. “But I never cared about modelling,” she says. “As a model you’re powerless.” In a rare interview last year, Shrimpton herself (now, at 69, the owner of a hotel in Penzance) said a similar thing: “I never liked being photographed. I just happened to be good at it.” What Gillan likes is acting. “Seeking a live response,” she says, and flutters her hands near her mouth as if to waft away any perceived pretension.
She is aggressively tall and ceramic-pale; her eyes widen to round plates when she’s excited, and she holds eye contact instinctively. “I’m obsessed with the 1960s,” she says, “It was the last revolution!” and her eyes expand, greenly. As well as playing Shrimpton she recently appeared at the Donmar in John Osborne’s Inadmissable Evidence, written in 1964. “Back then women had the crazy notion that they should just work until they had a baby. Like they were just killing time, dedicating their lives to marriage. I’m interested in that bit of time before – the bit when they were expected just to hang around, waiting…”
We’ll Take Manhattan explores the explosive love affair between Sixties supermodel, Jean Shrimpton, and photographer, David Bailey.
Focusing on a wild and unpredictable 1962 Vogue photo shoot in New York, the drama brings to life the story of two young people falling in love, misbehaving and inadvertently defining the style of the Sixties along the way.
Set predominantly in 1962 but also exploring the story of how Bailey and Shrimpton first met, this one-off drama reveals how a young, visionary photographer refused to conform. He insisted on using the unconventional model Jean Shrimpton on an important photo shoot for British Vogue and, over the course of a freezing week in Manhattan, went against the wishes of fashion editor, Lady Clare Rendlesham, and made startling, original photographs.
We’ll Take Manhattan is the story of that wild week, of Bailey and Jean’s love affair, and of how two young people accidentally changed the world for ever.
We’ll Take Manhattan is confirmed to air on Thursday 26 January, on BBC Four at 9pm (till 10.30pm) – as confirmed by the BBC Media Centre!
Thanks to John McKay (We’ll Take Manhattan/Not Another Happy Ending Director, and writer for the former) for posting this!!
Over 300 HD screencaptures have been added to the gallery from Karen’s ever-so-adorable appearance on The Graham Norton Show last night! These include several We’ll Take Manhattan captures (as from the clip previously posted), in which Karen looks stunning! I’ve also added several HQ stills from last night’s show too!
Gallery Links
Television Appearances > 2012 > January – The Graham Norton Show – Screencaptures
Television Appearances > 2012 > January – The Graham Norton Show – HQ Stills
Doctor Who star Karen Gillan admitted it was “a massive relief” to be able to tell people she was leaving the hit show.
The actress, who plays the Time Lord’s sidekick Amy Pond, told Graham Norton she did not know if her character would be killed off.
She said: “I have known for ages that I am leaving and it’s such a massive relief that it is out and I can speak freely about it. I’m back next year for a few episodes but it’s not actually confirmed when I go.”
The actress, who is appearing on The Graham Norton Show on Friday night on BBC1 with actors Gerard Butler and Martin Freeman and musician Noel Gallagher, said her latest role as 1960s model Jean Shrimpton got a vote of approval from the woman herself.
Karen said: “She gave her consent to having it made but then didn’t want anything to do with it because she is quite reclusive. But she saw it and she really liked it and left a voicemail saying she thought it was really accurate. That was the best compliment I could have got.”
The red-haired actress said she used fake tan to look more like Shrimpton with unintended consequences.
She said: “I went into film the first day and I was the same colour as my hair. You couldn’t tell where my hair ended and my skin started, so I had to exfoliate several times to get it off.”
Don’t forget The Graham Norton Show airs at 10.35pm on BBC1/BBC1HD in the UK tonight!
Thanks to the lovely Jess, I’ve been able to add some additional photoshoot images!
Gallery Link
Photoshoots and Sessions > Professional Shoots > 013
