Karen Gillan answers all our dumb questions about Gunpowder Milkshake

Netflix's newest action star Karen Gillan knows where all the guns are hidden in the Gunpowder Milkshake library

By Marah Eakin | July 19, 2021 | 4:00pm

Film Features Gunpowder Milkshake

Karen Gillan answers all our dumb questions about Gunpowder Milkshake

Note: This story contains spoilers for the movie Gunpowder Milkshake. You have been warned.

If you spent your weekend watching Netflix’s new smash-em-up-and-stab-em Gunpowder Milkshake, then you may have come away from the film with a few questions. How, for instance, did regular people not just wander into that library and find guns? How in the world did Lena Headey’s Scarlet stay hidden for all those years? And why didn’t Sam just go hang out with her cool “aunts” rather than weird Nathan?

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After spending a decent amount of time pondering all those issues ourselves, we took our queries to the expert: the movie’s star, Karen Gillan. She took all our silly questions in stride, answering them for the video below. If you’re more of a reading person, there’s a transcript below as well.

The A.V. Club: What’s the deal with that library? Does really no one go there? Is it always locked?

Karen Gillan: I feel like people must just go there for weapons. That’s probably why it’s locked. Maybe there are all these code words and stuff like that. That’s what I have in my head.

AVC: But there are displays for children…

KG: I know! Maybe the assassins are bringing their kids while they get the weapons that they need for later.

AVC: Speaking of your children of assassins, in this movie, your mom sort of moved away when you were 12. How do you think Sam was trained? Did she do it out of her own volition or was it a Stockholm Syndrome thing?

KG: I think there was an element of Stockholm Syndrome slightly. She was abandoned by her mother when she was 12, and so that was the biggest trauma of her life. So, as a coping mechanism and maybe to feel closer to her mother, I think she probably entered into the world, but she was already in the world because Nathan, who works at the firm, looked after her and raised her for years. And so she was already in the world. I think she probably just wanted to be like her mother because she probably was angry at her, but also had a little bit of hero worship toward her because she was absent.

AVC: Do you think Sam should see a therapist?

KG: Yes. I think everybody should see a therapist first, but especially Sam. She’s dealt with a lot of abandonment issues, and she’s killed a lot of people. That’s going to take its toll. I mean, maybe they could get like a group therapist. They could all use the same one.

Gunpowder Milkshake is streaming now on Netflix. You can find our review of the movie, which graded a B, here.