LOS ANGELES — Doctor Who alum Karen Gillan may have had to shave her red locks to play the villain in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, but luckily her pals at Marvel had a solid post-head shave plan: Make her hair into a wig.

"They took it strand-by-strand and put it into a wig," the still short-haired Gillan revealed Tuesday to reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour panel for her upcoming ABC comedy Selfie. "So I’m going to be wearing that [on the show]."

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On Selfie, Gillan plays a self-obsessed social media maven who's looking to reform herself. In real life, Gillan said she had little pause about losing her locks to play Nebula in Guardians, which opens Aug. 1, but admitted that part of her enthusiasm came from her doubts about her chances at the role.

"I was like ‘Absolutely’ — because I didn’t think I could get it," she said with a chuckle. "But I wanted to do it, though, because to transform for a part is the reason I’m acting."

Karen Gillan in the pilot of ABC's "Selfie." Image: Eric McCandless/ABC Television Group

Selfie is a bit of a transformation once again for the former Who companion. On the show, premiering Sept. 30, Gillian uses an American accent, which she says she developed by watching American TV and by signing up for SoulCycle and listening to fellow classmates' accents.

Using Gillan's native Scottish tongue was never an option, according to creator Emily Kapnek, as she says, it would have set up a very different story than the one she intended to tell. "It was just important to the material that she be American. I actually think Karen did a pretty fantastic job."