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Gillian Anderson

Full Name:          Gillian Leigh Anderson

Date of Birth:       August 9th, 1968

Hospital of Birth:  St. Mary of Nazareth

City of Birth:        Cook County, Chicago

State of Birth:      Illinois, USA

Hair Color:          Ash blond

Eye Color:           Blue

Height:               5'3"

Husband:            Clyde Klotz (divorced)

Children:             Piper Maru

Parents:              Edward & Rosemary

Siblings:             Zoe & Aaron

Profession:         Actress

Personal Profile: 6/6/96

Gillian Anderson, like most people, started her journey by being born in a hospital on August 9, 1968 in Cook County, Chicago -- The Windy City -- with large (or were those broad?) shoulders. Soon, after giving up all hope on the Chicago Bears, Black Hawks, Black -- I mean White -- Soxs, Cubs and the Bulls (Of course that was the pre Michael Jordan era) Gillian and her family headed south to the sunny beaches and hurricane-prone island of Puerto Rico. Why and where in Puerto Rico I don't know -- you'll have to ask her. I think it had something to do with a job -- which is always a nice thing to have, especially if you like eating. Although it wasn't Gillian who had the job, I think it was her father. I do believe it is illegal for a 2 year old to work, even in Puerto Rico.

After successfully avoiding a major hurricane, surviving the heat/humidity and possibly even picking up a few good dirty words in Spanish along the way, the Andersons moved to London, England. I guess they really wanted to meet the Beatles. Gillian spent the next nine years in England before returning to the States and for some unknown reason choose Grand Rapids, Michigan to call home. Of course the nine years in England weren't a total waste, even though she had bare witness to one of most horrific crimes of the century -- The Beatles broke up. God, the sorrow! God, the therapy bills (I still haven't quite recovered)! She did come back after all with a cool accent and not to mention a taste for punk music. Hey, that stuff has a way of growing on you; one day you're normal, then you put on a Sex Pistol's CD and BAM! you get a nose ring, wear combat boots, dye your hair many different colors, and walk around giving people 'the finger.' I know it happened to me once, minus the nose ring of course (okay, and the hair) but I do wear combat boots and I have been known to give 'the finger.'

In Grand Rapids, Gillian attended City High School, graduating in 1986, and like most American youth from her generation had absolutely no clue what to do with her life. Although she did say something about wanting to become something that's name ended with an "ology," i.e. Marine Biology, Archeology etc... It wasn't until after probably being really bored (come on, let's be real here, Grand Rapids isn't exactly hot spot USA) that she tried her hand at acting. Acting, in her own words, "saved her life," (yes, and that's the only quote from her in this profile but I'm sure if she ever reads this there will plenty of quotes from her -- mostly along the lines of, "Blanking bleep! Who the blank does bleeping think she blurbing is! Writing bleeping blank about me! Bleep!") and whatever other aspirations she might have had soon evaporated. So began the long and winding road (Hey, isn't that a Beatles song?) of her acting career.

First stop? You guessed it, more school. Gillian returned to where it all began -- Chicago, but a much happier Chicago. Michael Jordan now lived there. In Chicago, Gillian studied acting at DePaul University's Goodman Theater and earned a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts. Eventually someone (an agent, but not with the FBI) noticed that she indeed could act and offered to represent her, but she would have to move to New York. Well, thanks to Henry Ford and his invention, Gillian, at the ripe old age of 22, loaded up her car and made a bee-line straight for the Big Apple -- New York City, the city that never sleeps. But I've never been there so what bleep would I know? In New York, Gillian was able to put all that education and training in acting to good use as a waitress. I think it's some kind of law Moses brought down from the mountain just for actors: Thou must wait on tables before becoming an actor (or in this case an actress, if you want to be politically correct).

Gillian's first success came in 1991 when she won a Theater World Award in an off- Broadway play, 'Absent Friends.' Followed by more waiting on tables and a low budget feature 'The Turning' -- which is a now classic by the way, even though it isn't a very good movie, it's still a classic 'cause she's in it. Gillian did one more play, 'The Philanthropist,' before doing what most theater actors say they would never do, but do anyway -- she moved to LA (It's another one of those laws that Charlton Heston, I mean Moses, brought down from the mountain... only these start out with, "I will never do.").

Ah LA, the movie Mecca of the world, home of the Lakers, Kings, Clippers, Dodgers and... hey, wait a minute! All the football teams left! Living in LA sucks -- earthquakes, smog, traffic, the LAPD, no football -- but it would especially suck if you were an actress who didn't have a job, like Gillian. So the next step in the long and winding road (there's that bleeping song again) was making an audio tape version of Anne Rice's novel Exit to Eden (I bet you thought I was going to say Interview with a Vampire). Then it was time to break another one of those "I will never do" acting rules again. This time it was the "I will never do TV" one and Gillian promptly began doing auditions. After several auditions, Gillian landed her first TV role: a guest spot on a very, very, very short-lived series, "Class of 96." It was a good thing, too, or the Fox big wigs wouldn't have anything to watch while endlessly debating if Scully should have big tits or not. Shortly thereafter or sometime soon (I'm pretty sure it's a blur to her too), her last unemployment check arrived. But it didn't matter -- because karma works -- Gillian found out that she got a new job as Special Agent Dana Scully on a new TV show, "The X-Files."

At first nobody noticed The X-Files except for people like me (who, with no social life, were stuck at home and damned in TV hell to watch Urkel for the rest of their worthless lives). Ah, but karma struck again -- this time, for me. The Fox Network slated a new show for their Friday night line up: The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. (which nobody watched, but I liked anyway) followed by The X-Files. Slowly, especially during the summer when it was rerun season and people were bored bleepless out of their minds (some even thinking about spending time with their families instead of watching TV), The X-Files started amassing a following. It started out as a cult hit -- that's what you call a show whose ratings suck but sells merchandise and has a huge internet following. The X-Files slowly made the jump from cult hit to mainstream TV when, after winning a Golden Globe for best drama series and being nominated for numerous other awards, America went on-line. Of course, two unknown actors got caught up in all this madness and became virtual Gods, I mean stars (okay, everyone get up and stop your groveling). Their names are already etched in sci-fi folklore -- see, Clyde Bruckman was right! Scully will never die.

From here everybody knows the rest, but I will go ahead and write it anyway. After a very long courtship (a whole four months), Gillian flew to Hawaii and on the 17th hole (I think it was the 17th hole) of a golf course, she married Clyde Klotz. It was New Years Day (January 1, 1994) and the ceremony was performed by a Buddhist Monk. Clyde Klotz worked as an art director for The X-Files during the first season but now works as freelance artist. Ah, but what came next was the biggest and best surprise of all -- the real reason why Scully was abducted by aliens. On September 25, 1994, Gillian gave birth to her pride and joy (no, not a Stevie Ray Van song) Piper Maru. Piper is the light in Gillian's life, the apple of her eye, and also a permanent fixture in The X-Files studio. Yeah, and they hang her next to Chris Carter's surf board and David's red speedos! I bet she even looks forward to playing the "daughter of the flukeworm" role in a future episode someday.

So finally this long and winding road brings us to the present (Yes! That dang- blasted song can finally stop playing in my head, but unfortunately another one will start soon so I should wrap this up or the new song might leads us to paths down which we don't want to go). Gillian, Clyde, Piper, Cleo and any other pet or person they may have picked up along the way currently make their home in the forever rainy but lovely city (and home to The Cunucks, just in case you were curious or thought I might not know that one -- hey, I get 'The Sporting News' and read it even) of Vancouver, British Columbia. 1996 seems to be turning into a great year for the cast, crew and production staff of The X-Files. As the show will be entering its fourth season and getting a new time slot (What, did Fox Network finally come to its senses and realize that this show might actually be good and give it a better night, or do they just hate me and want to make my life miserable by taking the only thing worth watching on Friday night and moving it to Sunday when football is on?!). But the most important thing -- awards. Well, Gillian is finally getting them and that is all that matters. This year The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awarded The Best Actress in a Television Drama to Gillian Anderson -- and there was much rejoicing. See some of these award people do have brains (and you thought they were all mindless fools who just Christmas-treed their ballots like the people that vote for the Oscars!).

New York Film Festival
Question & Answer Session
September 23, 2000


Key:

- GA = Gillian
- TD = Terence Davies
- ES = Eric Stoltz
- LL = Laura Linney
- AP = Anthony LaPaglia
- NYFFS = Film Festival staff member
- Q = Question from audience

WARNING: "HOUSE OF MIRTH" PLOT SPOILERS

NYFFS: I want to begin with just a little introduction from everyone about the incredible precision... and physical, the acting and filming, it's very strict and vocal and from each actor what they do is extraordinary and also physically, and I'd like to have the actors comment on that and Terence comment on that too and what it was like to make the film. Anthony?

AP: I knew you were going to say that. [audience laughs] Um... Terence is very specific in direction, which for me was really helpful because this is the first period movie I've ever done. So um, it was a whole new field for me, and truthfully a lot of it stemmed from discussions that I had with Terence from pretty much the first time I met him. And um.... Next!

LL: For me, in opposition to Anthony, I had done a great deal of classical work before this movie but never for film, always on stage. So I was rearing to go and go with one of the opportunities to be in a period piece. So for me, I had to regress to from what I had done in the past, but also, corsets will do an awful lot. [audience laughs] Corsets and a wig will make you move in ways you never thought possible.

TD: That's true! Mine really hurt. [audience laughs]

NYFFS: Eric, how was your corset?

ES: My corset... suddenly I have nothing to say, for the first time ever. It was uh, a truly extraordinary experience, I must say. I think we all knew from the moment that we met Terence, certainly all through filming, that it was his passion that was going to determine every single shot and the way we moved and looked and spoke, and it was just an incredible experience, an incredible way to work. I can only say for myself, as an American actor, I'm used to doing whatever I want a lot. [audience laughs] That didn't happen with Terence. Gillian?

GA: Um, from the moment that I read for Terence, it was very clear that, I mean, in writing the book or adapting the screenplay, he had obviously spent a great deal of time and energy in adapting the novel to screenplay, and also in working with him that first time, I could tell that he... that it was, the lines were in his mind and they were in his body in the way that he felt that they needed to be in order to pay homage to this magical writing. And it was his passion to see it actualize in this way that had been in his mind and in his screenplay that we did the same, and it was an extraordinary experience in the ways that we, in reading the screenplay, had the same vision for it, or at times not the same vision but coming to it eventually in the place that we felt was the truest for the script. And um, it was very different than I had ever worked, also coming from doing whatever I want, and wearing a badge, and.. [audience laughs] Um, and then there was something else that I was going to say that was very important...

ES: What was it??

GA: Um, um, I lost it!

AP: I just wanted to say that the key to any material is always the script and I was familiar with that book before I ever read the screenplay, being a fan of Edith Wharton. And I thought it was, when I first heard about the script, sorry Gillian, when I first heard about the script, I actually thought it would be impossible to do an adaptation of that book. And I actually thought that the script was one of the best adaptations I'd ever read. [applause]

GA: What was difficult, and I'm sure you'll attest to trying to do this, was the brilliance of Edith Wharton's novel and especially from Lily Bart's perspective is that it's all in her mind. Every perception that she has about the world around her and peoples personalities and the etiquette, everything is filtered through her mind and not necessarily the dialogue. So it was Terence's task, in a sense, to somehow, without the luxury of those words, embody that feel and that essence within the screenplay, and I think he absolutely did that. And also, I think that he did that visually as well, that the poetry that was unable to be said in words was done visually with camerawork. [applause]

TD: Well, apart from anal retention, which is one of the most important parts of my life... [audience laughs]

GA: I'm not sure you should be saying that to them! [laughs]

TD: Why not? Anything for sympathy!... The novel has a formality which cannot be denied. It has to be respected. Every great novelist has a tone, and she has a tone. And what you cannot do with any period piece is try and make it modern. It kills it [stone?] death. Because there's enough modernity in the book for that. What is the book about, apart from the obvious story of the destruction of Lily Bart by her peers? It's about money, power, and the way we look. And what is modern culture about? Money, power, and the way we look, now laced with narcissism, which is really repellent, and I say this from a position of complete envy [audience laughs]. But, when you see something, when you read something, that creates a word which you know nothing about, and you feel, "I think I can do it." The only other novel that had this effect on me was when I was fourteen and someone said, "You should read Jane Eyre." And I read it in a single sitting. It absolutely knocked me out, because of that world that is created with such white heat that you never, never forget it. You never, never, forget that opening. "There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. The cold November weather had brought with it clouds so somber, and a rain so penetrating, that further out-door exercise was out of the question. I was glad of it: dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddened by the chidings of Bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed." And you're in her world. You're in her world! And you're in the world of Edith Wharton as soon as you read that opening. You know where you are, and you have to be true to that. And that's what I did try and do. I did my best, but I have to say, I have a wonderful crew and a wonderful cast. At the risk of embarrassing them, they all understood not only the text, as written, they understood the subtext, which is really really crucial. And they were eloquent in the way they moved. All of the auditions were electrifying. And I thought, "I found the people I want. I found the people I want!" I'm immensely proud of them. All of them. [applause]

Q: This is for Mr. Davies. Since the movie centers on Gillian Anderson, what qualities did you find in her that the other actresses who may have read for the role didn't have that she had, that you were looking for?

TD: Well, I was looking at Singer Sargeant paintings, and I wanted those faces because those were the faces of the American aristocracy at that period. And Gillian's photograph came into the office and I said, "That's a Singer Sargeant face. Can I see her?" She happened to be in London, and we went for a cup of tea, I think...

GA: As one does. [audience laughs]

TD: And then I sent her the script, I came over to Los Angeles, she read for me, and I knew she could do it. Because there is that luminosity in her face. And it's not always necessarily beautiful, because I think- [audience laughs] No, no, I really don't mean that as frivolous or hurtful, because what I was about to say was, what Bacon says is that there is no great beauty that hath not some flaw in it. And because of those little tiny flaws, she is absolutely luminous. And I knew that she was right, and you look at that face on screen, and you feel that she's Lily Bart. I knew she would be. I knew she would be, so it was not a kind of back-handed compliment at all, because I think she's extremely beautiful [Gillian makes face and looks down, audience laughs], she has a period beauty that is not modern. Modern beauty is very anodyne. When you see those kind of porcelain skin, perfect teeth, all that hair that always looks as though it's been done with the egg mixer [audience laughs] and it is not period. Well I did warn you, I am anally retentive.

Q: What do you find more uncomfortable - running in 3-inch-heels or wearing those corsets?

GA: Umm.. [audience laughs]

ES: Can't believe you didn't ask me that question!

GA: Um, I think ultimately the corsets were more uncomfortable. One's back does begin to hurt after a while, and you have to find particular ways of sitting and lying. Over a ball is really good sometimes after you've been in it four about six hours. Um, yeah, is that a sufficient answer? I choose corsets. B!

Q: How did you prepare for the role of Lily Bart?

GA: I read about the politics of the time and social climate and etiquette and all of that. I found a lot of old books that addressed those particulars and scoured them. And then I dove into the novel. I started to realize, and I keep saying this, I felt like for my first "real" film and role in my experience that I couldn't have had a better writer to follow in that the way that Edith Wharton writes Lily Bart, it's like having cliff notes. It's like an entire book of cliff notes because she describes every single moment that the character is going through and all the characters are going through, from what's taking place around them physically to what is going on in their mind and their perception of the world around them. And I literally just soaked in this book. I was sitting in Scotland for the last part of it, and I would call friends of mine and I would call friends of mine and say, "Would you listen to this paragraph? I have to share this with somebody!" Because it was just such exquisite writing, and of course, you know, they were like "Uh huh, that's really nice..." But um, it was the book mostly. I mean, I would just write down notes. And as I was talking before about Terence's challenge as well is that so much of it takes place in Lily's head that a lot of our doing of it was being familiar with those silences and being familiar with that which is going on in one's mind, so that even though one doesn't have the words to speak, that stuff is churning in that mind.

Q: This is for Eric and/or Terence. I don't want to invade the privacy of your process, your subtext, but Selden is probably the most enigmatic character in the film, and if you have anything to say about the subtext I'd be interested in hearing that. If not you do not, I, I respect that [audience laughs] Terence, I'd also like to know about your subtext for Selden...

ES: Terence?

TD: You played it!

ES: So did you.

TD: Better, I might add! [audience laughs] I'm sorry! The great thing about these super-civilized people is that they're exquisitely attuned. But if you're that exquisitely attuned to nuance, and you get it wrong, it's disastrous. And I always thought when I was reading the book and writing the script, they're like inept teenagers. When they can be clever or cruel, they can be open, but when they are actually speaking what they feel, they cannot say it. And in a way that's not changed. Imagine, even today, where we have complete freedom, it's so difficult to actually say to someone, "I love you" and "Do you love me?" It's really hard because the other person may say no, and how do you bear that? In their case, one ambiguity leads to another, and it's always misunderstood. "Do you want to marry me?" "No, I should if you did." And once you set that kind of dynamic up, you don't know where you are emotionally. So you're constantly fencing. When she says to him, "Why, when we meet, do we always play this elaborate game?" Because they've learned the game too well. That society learns the game too well. Unfortunately, she as a character has not learned it well enough, that you don't marry for love, you marry for position and power. This she doesn't understand. And she has an integral kind of integrity, but so does he. He thinks, he sees her in the box with a married man, what is he supposed to think? It's constantly ambiguous, and that constant ambiguity underlines his character, which is also ambiguous. There are delights and dangers in ambiguity, but I love the fact that it's ambiguous but it's also erotic as well.

ES: I.. agree with Terence. [audience laughs]

Q: What was your best memory from filming this? Funniest moment, something you really enjoyed...

AP: I had a lot of great experiences, actually. I really enjoyed Scotland. I really enjoyed my cast members and I made some great new friends. That's one of the greatest things about working on movies, that you get to meet a whole group of people who you become very tight with in a very short space of time. As for funny anecdotes, I can only say, "You'd have to be there." Won't think they're funny out of context.

LL: I think definitely to be.. [??] we felt unusually close. The fondness that we have for each other is legitimate in ways that a lot of times it just isn't. You get together and you make a movie and you have a good time, but you're just fond of each other and that's about it. But we all... the hours were long, we were in a foreign country, we had lots of dinners together and really good trickle [?] tarts. I think it was just the comradory that we all had and watching Terence work. I mean, it was just unforgettable. To be around passion like that on a daily basis is really a huge [???].

ES: [smiles at audience]

TD: He agrees with us. [audience laughs]

GA: There was a bed and breakfast that we stayed in that was on the border...

LL: Oh yeah!

GA: I actually went back there!

LL: Did you really?! [audience laughs]

GA: Um, this bed and breakfast that we stayed that, they're wonderful and they're closing!

LL: NO! [audience laughs]

GA: Um, there was a bed and breakfast that we stayed at that was actually in Scotland, and there was this couple, one of the most eccentric couples, Ronni and Mari. And they had a parrot that sang opera and they had a big shaggy dog that would lie on its back with its legs and its arms open like that for like hours, just splaying itself on the floor like that. And they had a little dog, and the parrot would say to the dog, the dog would come up to the cage and the parrot would go, "WALKIES? WALKIES? WALKIES?" and the got would be, "Heh, heh, heh." [Gillian imitates parrot in high voice and dog panting, and the audience laughs] "WALKIES, WALKIES?" So the parrot would torture this dog who wanted to go out for a walk. So, um, and they were just the most- he was a- they were both terrible alcoholics, and she's the most amazing... [audience interrupts with laughter] She's the most amazing cook, but she cooks like all day and she cooks like these seven course meals that are incredibly fattening but wonderful, and then they'd drink all night. And he recited the same poem [looks over at Laura] when we went back again, and he does all the sound effects. [Gillian blows into the microphone, sounding like wind, and the audience laughs] This is two o'clock in the morning, I'm trying to sleep upstairs, and he's downstairs with his friends... nevermind. But he was um, it was, that was great.

TD: Well they stayed somewhere that was much more interesting than where I stayed.

GA: You could recite the poetry to yourself...

TD: Where I was staying, I wasn't allowed anything sharp. In my bedroom, there was just a bed, a stand, and a mother of pearl throat spread. [audience laughs]

GA: Throat spread?

TD: I'm not going to go into it any further...

ES: You didn't hear about my bed and breakfast! [looks at questioner in audience] Can I call you up and tell you?

Q: This is for Gillian. You once said that you would never take a role that wouldn't affect others. What effect do you want this role to have on the audience?

GA: I had such an extraordinary response to the story as a whole and identification with the story… and I'll tell you what that is. That is, what I found most profound about the character of Lily was that, it's an aspect that I think is a very human aspect, which is that as much as we may try to do that which is our truth and the best in life and morally sound and paying attention to values and everything, how much of our ego is still involved in that investment. And that's a curious dilemma that I've found in my own life and that I've witnessed around me. There's something that's actually in the novel which is not in the movie which is when Lily Bart… she makes a donation to a woman who is less privileged as she is, I'm not sure who she actually makes a donation to but it ended up helping this woman who is less privileged than she is. And she says, as she's making this donation, to herself in her mind that she will be perceived as being a better person because she is making this donation. And that is what is so extraordinary about the honesty that is in this book, because you see someone who yes, she doesn't necessarily agree with the fact that women all around her are only marrying into money and wealth and social standing, and she can't quite bring herself to do that, but she can't quite bring herself to do the other, either. There's still… her ego is still involved. And it's not until the end of the film that she is, that it is finally squashed to the point that there may be redemption. And there's also something that is not in the film which is in the novel which is that she ends up on a park bench at the end of the story after she's lost absolutely everything, and this woman that she has given this donation to finds her on the park bench and says, you know, "Oh my God, you were… you were Lily Bart. You were up here, and now you're on a park bench. What happened? Come to my house. Come stay with me." And Lily is led into this tiny home that I think Edith Wharton says is just like seconds away from tumbling over into the abyss of life. But she's hanging on like a nest hangs on to the limbs of a tree or the edge of a cliff or something. But she sees firsthand how this little bit of generosity that she gave helped to start someone's life over again. And her perception of it at the time was, "Oh, everyone's going to think so fondly of me and that I'm such a great person, giving away this little bit of money," but it actually ended up saving this woman's life. And she had a baby and allowed Lily Bart to hold this baby at the end of the novel and it's the first time truly that Lily feels a sense of hope, feels a sense of what life is about, feels the essence, the spark of life in holding this child. And it is at that moment that it makes sense to her and sees a glimmer of hope and then she goes back to her apartment and she takes chloral to quiet the voices. She's always trying to quiet the voices, and just the nagging and the depression and sadness, but she ends up taking just a little bit too much. It's like, for the first time in as long as she has known, at this point, that she doesn't really feel like dying because she has seen this sense of hope, she has seen this child and this spark of life. But she just takes a little too much. And she's lying in bed, and she's starting to fade, and she's starting to go out, and she imagines herself holding onto the baby on the bed. And she's holding this child, and she's just about to slip into unconsciousness and she wakes up. And she thinks that she's dropped the child and she scrambles to try and grab on to the baby again and she realizes that she has purges of this imaginary child. And she's calm, and she's comforted, and she slips into death. And um… what was your question? [laughs] I hope that answered it.

Q: What were the most challenging parts of the process and do you feel that you adequately overcame those challenges?

TD: Um, to keep to the truth of the narrative and take out things which I thought I couldn't actually make true, real. The sequence that Gillian has talked about was to sentimental, it was a throwback to the nineteenth century novel, which I couldn't make real. Equally, I couldn't actually do the anti-Semitism incident. It was just too offensive. And those were the only two things, which, for me, disfigured the novel. And I think it is a great novel. That element of sentimentality which the English are incredibly embarrassed by, we just are, and anti-Semitism which is unacceptable now. The difficult thing is actually to get to essence of the book as well as the tone. There are certain things you can do in a novel that you can't do in a film. The internal narrative… there's no film equivalent except a voiceover, which is crude. In cinema, there's no [????]. All you can do in a book is change tenses, which is actually not [????]. So it's trying to make that story true and powerful and cinematic. Watching images at twenty four frames per second is not the same as reading a novel. It is a completely different experience. So you have to keep true to the essence, the tone of the narrative, whilst trying to make it cinematic. And all I can say is that I was backed up by a wonderful cast and a wonderful crew. I have to say that. I have to keep on saying that, because you need that. You need people to believe in it, that when that take is right, and you say "Yes! That's it," that the crew smiles as well. That's equally important. It's very, very important. But it's a difficult process making a film, especially in England. It's just hard. It's very difficult with the money - we had nine different finances - that's difficult. And you've also got to contend with the bloody weather.

GA: Um, I just realized that I brought up two aspects of the book that aren't in the film, and I didn't mean to…

TD: Nevermind! There, there, there. [audience/Gillian laughs]

GA: For me, one of the biggest challenges was keeping a character that I've played non-stop for the last seven years out of the movie. I mean, you know, one laugh and it feels like I'm laughing like Scully. I cry, it feels like I'm crying like Scully. So it was challenging to one, not, and two, trust that with the research that I did and being in the moment and working with such wonderful actors that I wasn't, and not be too paranoid or self-depreciating. [audience cheers, yells, "You weren't!" "You succeeded!" Gillian smiles]

NYFFS: I'd like to thank you all for coming today.

New York Times
March 2000
"Gillian Calls The Shots"
By Ian Spelling


Gillian Anderson is a Leo.

As such, the actress says, she's "good at being bossy." And that came in handy after she convinced creator/producer Chris Carter to let her make her writing and directing debuts with "All Things," an episode of "The X-Files" that will air April 9.

"What happened was that I sat down right after a conversation with my manager and started writing an outline for the entire episode," Anderson says. "I didn't plan on that all the characters came out. All the beats came out, and everything just flowed onto the page. I guess it was needing to get out there somewhere.

"The next day I went in and pitched the idea to Chris Carter," she recalls, "and I told him that if I were going to write it I also wanted to direct it. He said, 'Great. Begin, and show me what you have when you have it.'

"And I kind of started from there."

Anderson's story -- which writer/producer Frank Spotnitz helped give that "X-Files" touch -- finds Scully (Anderson) grappling with sins from her past when she encounters Dr. Daniel Waterston and his daughter, Maggie. It seems that Scully and Waterston had an affair years earlier, a dalliance that wrecked WaterstonOs family and compelled Scully to join the FBI.

As the hour unfolds, it explores issues of fate and faith vs. unpredictability and doubt, love of family vs. emotional escape into loneliness and the clinical vs. the beautiful. Amid all of that, fans of the relationship between Scully and Mulder (David Duchovny) are in for a tasty treat. There's even a visit of sorts from God.

"One of the concepts I wanted to imbue the script with is the idea that we are guided, in a sense, through our lives," Anderson says during a conversation from her "X-Files" trailer on the Fox lot in Hollywood. "There are reasons for so-called coincidences."

"That was the initial concept behind the script," she says, "and it's hard to say where all the other aspects of it came into being, from Scully's relationship with a man from her past to the man's relationship with his daughter."

"I can't even say how those came up," she concludes. "I don't know I just don't know."

Anderson overcame serious jitters to discover that directing wasn't quite as tough as she had anticipated.

"I was terrified beforehand about how I was going to figure stuff out in terms of what shots I needed and how one melded into the next, what lenses to use and all of that," she says. "I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much had just sunk in over the last seven years.

"I also had one of our regular directors, Kim Manners, as my right-hand man, to lead me through it," the actress adds. "I was able to prep, do shot lists and then show up and actually know where we were going to go, how many shots we needed to do, how I wanted to see it visually and everything like that."

Directing her co-star worked out perfectly well, too.

"David only worked a day and a half on the episode," Anderson says. "It went fine. He showed up and he was prepared."

Anderson believes she got the episode she sought to achieve, but will reserve final judgment until after she completes the editing process.

By that time, however, another unknown -- the future of 'The X-Files' itself -- will likely have been decided, perhaps distracting from "All Things."

The actress reiterates that she does not want to return for an eighth season, but has two new points to add: She wouldn't be interested in forging on without Duchovny, nor in playing Scully as a recurring role on the possible Lone Gunmen spinoff, the pilot of which recently wrapped production in Vancouver.

"The dilemma we're in right now is we've got four more episodes to shoot, and we may not know if it's going for another year until we've got two more episodes to shoot," Anderson says, sounding both forceful and sad. "For them to suddenly come and say, 'You know what? You're not going to do this anymore,' would be a blow to the stomach.

"That would give us two episodes to go through a mourning process that we should have had at least six months to go through," she says. "At that point, when it becomes, 'Oh my God, do we let this go or do we go on?,' of course we're going to not want to let go of it.

"We'll feel, 'We've been doing this for seven years, and we've only got two more to do together,'" she says. "We'd want to extend it a little bit more."

Anderson pauses for a moment, searching for the right words.

"It's kind of an awkward and unfortunate situation that everyone is in right now, not the least of whom is Chris Carter," she says. "If this is the last season, he has to wrap it up in two episodes. "It's going to be insane."

The Times (UK)
October 22, 2000
"Playing with Fire"
By Grace Bradberry


Gillian Anderson is in her trailer wrestling with a punch bag. It stands on a spring-loaded base, next to the exercise bike, and for some reason she considers it to be in the wrong place. She is not happy about the lighting either - the power is off, and the place is lit only by dim, yellow emergency bulbs. "Ambience is everything," she quips, poking her head around the door to call for help. Finally she sits down and discovers a rip in her shirt, just beneath the arm. "Sorry...." she says distractedly, tugging at the scratchy blue threads. "There's something very strange going on here." Then she laughs.

I had expected many things of Gillian Anderson. Aloofness. Caginess. Even hostility. But one thing I did not expect was giddiness. It is so much the reverse of what she projects on screen. As Agent Dana Scully, her character in The X-Files, she rarely smiles, let alone laughs. There is sexual tension, but it is of the buttoned-down variety - Scully never flirts.

It's early evening when we meet at The X-Files set, on a dusty ranch owned by the Walt Disney Company. It is north of LA, in a remote canyon beyond the San Fernando Valley. Signs at the entrance threaten trespassers. The X-Files crew have set up by a ramshackle wooden house next to a lake. Anderson has already been transformed into Scully - her naturally unruly amber hair has been dragged straight and she wears a black trouser suit. A production assistant interrupts her conversation with her hairdresser to introduce me, and my first thought is that she is small (5ft 3 in) and extremely beautiful.

She apologizes for the fact that I have been "waiting around so long with so little action," and looks around for another chair. Then she films a scene with a burly man, who is so familiar towards her - putting his arm around her at the end of the shot - that I assume she knows him well. But as she walks towards series creator Chris Carter, her back to the actor, she smiles and cringes. The man, it turns out, is merely a bit-part actor.

"He told me some stuff he shouldn't be telling anybody, says Anderson, as we walk back towards her trailer. On the way, she talks about how she used not to drink any coffee, but now has the occasional decaf. She took it up again because after she quit smoking in May, she began sucking lollipops and now wants to substitute decaf for candy. The punch bag is another way for "getting out the extra stuff," of which there is a lot right now: "I would slam my head against the wall if I didn't have to worry about bruising my forehead," is how she puts it.

Professionally, though, it is restraint that has again defined Anderson's work. She has delivered a revelatory performance in Terence Davies's masterful adaptation of the Edith Wharton novel The House of Mirth (On nationwide release from Friday). As Lily Bart, a beautiful but impoverished socialite trying to put aside her emotions as she searches for a wealthy husband.

Gillian Anderson brings a combination of poise, self-containment and intensity. When she smiles, it is a deliberate act, produced for decorative effect. As the film takes a dark turn, Anderson becomes stiller than ever. There has been talk of an Oscar nomination for Gillian Anderson. And why not? Before Boys Don't Cry, Hilary Swank, crowned as Best Actress in March, was best known for a stint on Beverly Hills 90210. Anderson, on the other hand, already has an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of Scully in a series that has won critical acclaim. She has also appeared in Peter Chelsom's The Mighty and Playing By Heart.

As a teenager, Gillian Anderson was a punk - a fact that has turned into a cliche since she hit stardom - and despite the New Age music that periodically rises above our conversation, she still loves the realease of more anarchic music. "I recently went to a [Red Hot] Chili Peppers concert, and I was like a good little celebrity, standing to the side of the stage. And I regret not being in the mosh pit and I wish that I'd just f****** gone down there. Right now I want to be in a perpetual mosh pit."

This was not what Terence Davies perceived in her when he met her at London's Covent Garden Hotel in the summer of 1998 when she was on holiday in England. Having only seen photographs of Anderson, and never having watched The X- Files, he perceived in her a modern-day Greer Garson, with the luminous beauty he wanted for Lily Bart. Gillian Anderson, in turn, was prepared to break off from a holiday in London to meet Davies beause she had loved The Long Day Closes, the directo'rs evocation of his deeply troubled childhood in Liverpool. Davies subsequently flew to Los Angeles to hear Anderson read. Afterwards, Davies, known for his eccentric manner, offered her the part in the most formal terms.

Despite being set in turn-of-the-century New York, it was shot in Glasgow (a City she scoured for low-grease restaurants). Anderson read and reread Wharton's novel, making copious notes on her script, constantly fretting that she would reproduce Scully in Lily Bart. "Every once in a while I'd see something and go, 'Oh was that the way Scully would be?" I'm so bloody judgmental," But Scully never seems to fall in love, nor does she descend on a tragic spiral. This time Anderson was able to draw on some parts of her life that just don't get plumbed in The X-Files. "I can say that I have experienced that depth of love and yes, I am sure that an aspect of me drew on that," she acknowledges. "The wretchedness certainly I have felt at times in my life."

In one of the most powerful scenes, Lily Bart and the man she really loves, the equally impoverished Lawrence Selden, steal some time together beneath a tree. They merely touch hands, then kiss, but the charge between Gillian Anderson and Eric Stoltz, playing Selden, is greater than if they had made love. Anderson agrees: "There's an element of awkwardness, and there's an element of exposing oneself so tremendously in a way, even though we're all corseted up and everything," Intimacy and touch are not easy subjects for Gillian. When she first arrived on the set of The X-Files, aged 24, she found the physical contact of the crew hard to take. I'd always been such a private person, such a loner, and such a non-physical person, and all of a sudden hair, makeup, wardrobe were here at the same time. At the beginning, I couldn't take it. I think I had some tantrums... somebody would come from behind and brush my hair and I'd literally be like, 'Ugh', I felt violated, it was that strong. It must, from the outside, have looked as if I was just a spoilt bitch. And I probably was."

For whatever reason, Gillian Anderson spent most of her adolescence feeling alienated. She has given a variety of explanations, but has never been specific about the troubles that beset her. From the age of two to 11 she live in London, where her father took a course at the London Film School and a variety of jobs. Her mother operated computers at the Daily Mirror. Thean an old child (her brother and sister are still teenagers), she lived in flats in Clapton, Haringey and Crouch End. She smoked for the first time at eight behind the railway line, and hung out with the local children. "There was a crowd that was really rough and would beat up on people, and I went in and out of being one of them, and one of the ones beaten up by them."

When she moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, "My accent was so thick, they couldn't understand it," she says, falling into a mimicry that could bag her a job on EastEnders. She was admitted to a high school for highly motivated children - "I swear to God the only reason they accepted me back then was because I had a British accent." But the initial interest generated by her north London intonation soon fell away."I think I was disliked a lot When I was younger I think I showed off and I fed off the attention. And to a certain degree that has been satiated in this job, just in doing what I do. I think it's enough that I don't need to then push it."

Then, in her mid-teens, she got into an alternative-music crowd and acquired a boyfriend ten years older. "We were an active, known couple in the scene. And he was in a band." It was at this time that she dabbled in pain-numbing behaviours. Alcohol? Drugs? Anything that you can think of, some more than others, and some for longer tperiods than others," Her one moment of mainstream triumph was when she mounted a production of Edward Albee's A Dog's Story, and won an intershcools best actress prize. "I was the girl with combat boots and hair dyed pink, a nose-ring and dresses that were way too big stolen from thrift stores," she says. Couldn't she at least have raided the local department store? "I should never have said that," she says, half -wailing, half-laughing and covering her face. "I didn't want anything expensive, It wasn't of interest to me."

At 17, she left home to study drama at Chicago's DePaul University, deliberately eschewing the student dorm to live in a low-rent artists' district. She is still in thrall to some of the problems that plagued her as an adolescent. She has been in therapy in every city that she has live in, including Vancouver, where The X-Files was first shot, and now Los Angeles.

At one point I mention her temperament, and she corrects me and says it is much deeper than temperament. "My life has been devoted for a long time to - it's a very dramatic word but I have to say that it's true - survival. It's so easy and sometimes so welcome to take another path and to just go downhill." What ultimately precludes any self-destructive binge is her daughter Piper, now six, the product of her marriage to Clyde Klotz, a set designer whom she met during the first season of The X-Files. They were married after three months, and subsequently separated.

"People would say, 'You've had such a whirlwind life, y'know. The show, the pregnancy, the divorce'. And I'd be like 'Yeah, and so?' It was only afterwards that I thought, 'Holy mother of God'." The pregnancy causes consternation among the show's executives. There may even have been people wondering why she didn't have an abortion. "I think there were people who wished that I had. I am prochoice but I knew that I could not do that. I know that there were people saying, 'Why the f*** didn't she use a condom?" Her ambition did not run to abortions. "And on top of that, I didn't want another burden to carry around," she says, smiling. It was only a coupld of years ago that it hit her -"Oh my God, how could I do that? It was the first season. Things were so wharped and distorted I had no sense of anything."

She returned to the set just ten days after her caesarean section, carrying huge feelings of guilt both about the show, and about her daughter, whom she feared was bonding more with the nanny. Yet during those first three years, Gillian Anderson went from unknown actress to a cover star. I want how she had dealt with this literal ego-trip, and she tells a rather uncomfortable story. "There was a period going through my divorce when for weeks I was in tears, I was on the phone constantly to him, with lawyers, and we were constantly having to touch up my make-up just to get through.

"One of the producers pulled me aside and tried to tell me an analogy about an actress he had worked with who had started to do the covers and had started to get very full of herself and so she would show up to work late, and she was on the cellphone a lot. And I was absolutely appalled that he would think that was what was going on with me ... I mean everybody knew that I was going through a divorce. It made me more hypersensitive to not behave that way."

On the other hand, she has sometimes gone into battle to be treated as the equal of her co-star David Duchovny (who has more or less left the show, to be replaced by Robert Patrick). "There have certainly been times where I have felt incredibly taken advantage of, where I have put my foot down about some things that may look as if I'm being a bitch." In the first series, she was always to walk a few paces behind Duchovny. Like an orthodox Muslim wife? "Exactly." As her celebrity grew, Gillian Anderson wasn't having any of it. That she and Duchovny did not get along is well known. "We were friends during the pilot," she says. Then seems to think better of such a blunt statement and adds, "In a different way than we were through the rest of the show." Was there antipathy or just distance? "To be hones, a bit of both - yeah."

She refuses to give details, and instead becomes philosophical. "What is fascinating to me about life," she says, "is that the most important people in our lives are those who bring us the most pain." Ouch. "There were aspects of him that were very uncomfortable for me. And by the same token, I think, that under it all there was a great deal of mutual understanding with the situation that we found ourselves in. And by the grace of God, no matter what, we showed up and there was chemistry."

Gillian Anderson is sticking with the show for two more seasons. Her shooting schedule has been worked out so that she can regularly fly up to Vancouver - where Clyde Klotz still lives - to spend time with her daughter. Until now, it has been Piper who has travelled between Canada and California, spending three weeks in each. Her parents, now on amicable terms, decided that she should go to school in one place. In Hollywood, this is not nearly as obvious a choice as it might sound. There are some notable actors who put their children into school wherever they happen to be filming.

You wonder if her daughter will inherit some or any of Anderson's tempestuous nature. "She is a very precocious and rambunctious child," she says, rooting out a photograph. "This is not an example of her being precocious - but look at that pose!" Her daughter is standing on the beach, her hair blown askew by the wind, a hand clasped to her bosom as though she were about to orate. "She's got seaweed on her head and she was probably throwing rocks in the water. I am a good mother, but I know that genetically she's gonna have some stuff to work out.

"She's very stubbon. I try to have the conversation with her about her feelings and is she angry, is it something I've done? And she refuses to have that conversation. It's very challenging. I imagine that there will be a day when she comes to me screaming, saying, 'You f****** worked for the first seven years of my life. "Why?' The first nine it will be. But it's a choice of necessity, and it's a choice of human need to feel fulfilled in one's life." There is no doubt that Anderson is an intense person, but there's also a reckless joie de vivre that is very appealing. She likes to drive her Porsche fast, and last summer went on a course in Atlanta, learning to spin it on wet roads. 'I'm not afraid in that way. The fear that I have experienced in life, on emotional and psychological levels, is far greater than any fear I could experience from driving at 130mph in a car."

She owns a horse, practises pilates and has a spaniel puppy called Happy, who on the evening we meet causes her a certain amount of unhappiness by chewing the straw covering from one of her flip-flops. She also has a boyfriend whom she will not discuss, except to say that she has more or less cured herself of her addiction to what she has described as dangerous men." It's changed from being attracted to a dangerous man who might be an addict and completely self destructive to, lets say - though this is not what's happening now - a very grounded, intelligent, sexy photo-journalist who goes off and almost gets killed. Somebody who could actually have a pretty healthy relationship but, ooh,he's ....you know."

We may yet get to know the identity of her shadowy boyfriend. There is every possibility that Anderson's performance in The house of Mirth will win her awards. For years now, she has eschewed the various openings of envelopes that go on for months. But the walk down the red carpet could soon become a necessity, and she is unlikely to want to make that trek alone.