Gillian Anderson (2013)
Gillian Leigh Anderson is an American actress. After beginning her career in theatre, Anderson achieved international recognition for her role as Special Agent Dana Scully on the American television series The X-Files. Her film work includes The House of Mirth, The Mighty Celt, The Last King of Scotland, and two X-Files films, The X-Files and The X-Files: I Want to Believe. In 2013, Anderson was cast as Hannibal Lecter's psychotherapist, Bedelia Du Maurier, on the television series Hannibal and in 2014, she began starring in Crisis, which was cancelled halfway through its first season on May 9, 2014, with the final episode airing June 21. Anderson has received five Primetime Emmy Awards nominations winning one and five Golden Globe Awards nominations with one win.
Similar Interviews
• Vanessa Ray (Vanessa Ray Liptak, known professionally as Vanessa Ray, is an American actress and singer. She i...)
• Terry Crews (Terry Alan Crews is an American actor and former American football player. He is perhaps best kno...)
• Nick Offerman (Nick Offerman is an American actor, writer, and carpenter widely known for his breakout role as R...)
» All Actor Interviews
About the Gillian Anderson Interview
Hi guys. We're in New York for the 20th anniversary X-files Panel at the Paley Center this evening and NYCC the rest of the day and Victoria from reddit is helping us out. Come hang with us for the next two hours during our Ask Us (almost) Anything reddit!
twitter: https://twitter.com/GillianA/status/389014147511222272
update: thank you so much for coming by to ask us questions. We know it's early. See you next time. We're going to take a proof photo since so many of you have asked for it.
Gillian Anderson Oct 12, 2013
-
my favorite would be Flukeman because Darinn Morgan was in the suit, one of our great writers. And I had never met him, and I never did meet him, because he was in the suit and it took so much time in makeup. So when we did that show, I never actually saw Darin's face. A couple of months later I was on a flight from Vancouver to LA and a guy sat next to me and started asking me a bunch of inane questions. I thought "Oh my god, I have 3 hours to sit next to this guy." And I was despairing. ANd then he handed me a book and said "will you sign it to my nemesis?" and I said "what do you mean" and he said "I'm Darin Morgan, I'm Flukeman."
DavidDuchovny_
-
My favorite Monster of the week used to be, well I would normally answer that it would be Tooms. But on the first episode that we shot, Tooms 1, It was my birthday when we were shooting it. I turned 25. And Doug offered me a birthday present. To come to my hotel room. And I did not take him up on it. And I'm very grateful now that I did not take him up on it.
Gillian Anderson
-
-
You'd have to watch the pilot even though the clothes and hair are so bad.
DavidDuchovny_
-
it's so true, forgive the clothes and the hair.
Gillian Anderson
-
Some of the one-offs. Like the killer cats episodes. Todos los Bichos. They were domesticated killer cats.
DavidDuchovny_
-
So there's a scene where Scully is attacked by a killer cat. So they had made up a cat on a stick that had moveable arms and legs, but I'm allergic to cats, so they made it out of rabbit fur instead. The fur kept coming off and sticking to my lipstick, and I was peeing my pants laughing. So we were either cutting because I couldn't keep a straight face, or we had to keep re-applying my lipstick because the fur kept sticking to my face.
Gillian Anderson
-
No! That's the only time Mulder and Scully officially intersected!
DavidDuchovny_
-
No, William...
Gillian Anderson
-
Are you believers? (In UFOs, aliens, etc)
68024
-
It wouldn't surprise me. It's just the fact of it. The Universe is bigger than big.
Gillian Anderson
-
My son has watched a couple a few years ago, and it scared him. They don't generally like to watch, they're not fans, it's weird for them to watch their parents. He does like to play the X-files Pinball machine.
DavidDuchovny_
-
My daughter asked me if she could borrow some DVDs and I dug them out, and then she asked me which ones she should watch, I think we watched a few of them together a few years ago. It occurred to me that there will be a point when my boys will find out about the show, they are 7 and 5, and it will be so much fun to share it with them.
Gillian Anderson
-
If you guys could switch bodies for a week, what would you do?
josephgordonreddit
-
I would masturbate in a red speedo.
Gillian Anderson
-
Yes.
DavidDuchovny_
-
No. That dog killed people with its farts and it deserved to die a nasty death in the mouth of that alligator or whatever it was. Ugh. I had to shampoo it, or walk away every few seconds, because these puffs of nastiness kept happening.
Gillian Anderson
-
Gillian, you voiced a wolf in one of my favorite movies, Princess Mononoke. Can you talk about how that was? I really enjoy Miyazaki films, so just curious.
PS David, I love the way you say "muthafucka" in Californication.
awgl
-
I love Miyazaki films too! The original voice in the original Japanese version of the film was played by a famous Japanese transvestite, so as you can imagine they had a very deep voice. I tried to emulate that voice, miserably. So I always feel like I failed.
Gillian Anderson
-
(for both of you) Of everyone you've worked with, who is most likely an alien/working for a shadow government organization?
[also, I'm a tremendous fan. You two are gorgeous and you're absolutely legendary in X-Files, and still brilliant beyond. Thanks so much for doing this, hugs hugs hugs.]
JeMappelleRaven
-
Brian Thompson.
Gillian Anderson
-
What are your drinks of choice/brands at a bar?
StarFist
-
Coca-Cola straight up.
Gillian Anderson
-
You know, I know it shouldn't be, but I think pineapple is ok. At first I thought I didn't want any topping on my pizza, but now, pineapple is not bad.
DavidDuchovny_
-
There was a pizza they used to order late at night on the X-files that all they used to order was extra garlic, extra olives, extra anchovies. SO many people wanted it.
Gillian Anderson
-
Remember when we got on a green apple and tuna kick?
DavidDuchovny_
-
It's very good for you.
Gillian Anderson
-
Who amongst the both of you, should I have with me to have a better chance of surviving a zombie/alien apocalypse?
raidmyminibar
-
David, definitely. No, you would. I just saw World War Z. You'd win, I'd die in a second.
Gillian Anderson
-
Well I think I told this story at Comic-Con but we were shooting an episode in LA, we were shooting Arcadia, and so they were flushing all of their garbage psychic and otherwise, and there was this monster that was made out of all of that. And we had a bit of a crowd watching, just because we weren't locked up in a McMansion, and I hadn't seen the monster, and I shot my reactions of being terrified first and girding myself to battle it, and then the poor guy came out in the monster suit, and Michael Watkins had the best line because I said "That's not a scary looking monster" and he said "He looks like the guy who fucked Mrs. Butterworth." Mrs. Butterworth is a maple-syrup bottle. That was embarrassing for me to react in front of spectators at nothing as if I was terrified.
DavidDuchovny_
-
I can think of plenty outside of the show. In retrospect, embarrassing was my pastel purplish pantsuits, they weren't even natural, like Lycra. Or the fact that we materialized the cell phones out of midair because they wouldn't have fit in our pockets. Or where would we get the giant flashlights from?
Gillian Anderson
-
Hi Gillian and David!
Quick and dirty question: who was the guest star on the X-Files who most blew you away with their performance and made you say "wow."?
JoelPilgrim
-
Brad Dourif as Luther Lee Boggs.
Gillian Anderson
-
I'm in touch with Chris and Howard Gordon I see occasionally. Maybe Bowman, he calls every now and then, he works on "Castle."
DavidDuchovny_
-
I talk to Kim Manners sometimes in my sleep.
Gillian Anderson
-