"Selfie" is a modern spin on "Pygmalion," where a self-centered young woman tries to learn how to deal with people without using social media.

There’s nothing about Karen Gillan’s character, Eliza Dooley, in "Selfie" that’s hidden from the world. Her deepest thoughts are either sent out to her legions of followers on social media or she just blurts it out. It becomes the task of the social-network-inept and buttoned-up Henry Higgs (John Cho) to help her find a more acceptable filter.

Getting cast to play such a social networking diva is a big leap for Gillan. Not only did the Scottish actress have to perfect an American accent; she had to become more educated on the worlds of Twitter, Instagram and other social media outlets.

"She’s much more into it than I am," Gillan says. "I don’t understand hashtags. I don’t know what they’re for. I don’t know how to use them, so I don’t use them. Whereas Eliza knows exactly what they’re for. I should probably know that. Maybe I should do some research on that."

It wasn’t the social media aspect of the show that attracted Gillan to the project as much as it was the chance to play physical comedy. From a disastrous airplane flight to a surprising makeover, Gillan gets a lot of opportunities to generate laughs without having to use dialogue.

"I love physical comedy," she says. "For me to just like be myself seems to work in a physical comedy because I’m really talented at falling over."

And when her character falls over in "Selfie," Cho will be there to catch her.

Playing Higgs is an acting shift for Cho. He is better known for the bawdy "Harold & Kumar" movies or as Sulu in the "Star Trek" franchise relaunch.

It’s all a matter of just wanting to play a variety of roles for Cho.

"That’s the simple answer. The more complicated answer is it’s whatever I get offered and then look and see what pops out. For me it was a combination of the script on this one and meeting with (executive producer) Emily (Kapnek)," Cho says. "You read a pilot and you don’t know where you’re going, and you have to trust the person who is leading you there, and meeting with Emily really convinced me that I had to do it."

By Rick Bentley, Fresno Bee