Karen Gillan and Adam Cooper on the Shifting Perspectives in Sleeping Dogs

We were delighted to be joined by Karen Gillan and Adam Cooper to discuss their crime thriller film Sleeping Dogs. Both Karen and Adam emphasized that their focus was on portraying the truth of the characters in each scene, rather than attempting to guide the audience to solve the mystery. To emphasize this, Adam said they leaned into the idea that memory is a point of view and used shifts in light, shadow, and color to suggest emotion or a character’s duplicity. Since her character is introduced through the eyes of other people, Karen wanted to add an extra layer by playing around with different voices and took inspiration from real people. She also noted that she enjoyed exploring both the past and present versions of Laura and unraveling her mysteriousness by finding the threads that connect the two.

Watch the full conversation below.

Q&A on the film Sleeping Dogs with director & co-writer Adam Cooper and actor Karen Gillan. Moderated by Mara Webster, In Creative Company.

An ex-homicide detective with memory loss is forced to solve a brutal murder, only to uncover chilling secrets from his forgotten past.