Gillian Anderson Interview

Q: What were your early thoughts when you first came on the show?
GA: I didn't even really think too much about the fact that it was about aliens. I was intrigued by that aspect of it, but I was even more intrigued by the relationship between Mulder and Scully and how intelligent this woman was--and how she would stand up in the face of his intelligence and feel comfortable with stating her beliefs. I was really impressed by that. As soon as we started the series it became very clear what the show was really about and what I was being called on to do. It's always had an element of fun for me and an element of enjoyment and adventure.

Q: Why do you think The X-Files has been so phenomenally successful?
GA: I think it's a mixture of all the elements of [the show]. And I think that if one of the elements was taken out or lessened in quality in any way, the show as a whole would suffer. I think that it's from the writing to the cinematography to the camera work to the co-stars to the other character actors that we work with. I'm proud to be involved in something that has such high production values and is so intelligent.

Q: How has playing Scully influenced how you tackle other characters?
GA: In the movie that I'm presently doing called Dancing About Architecture, the character is probably the closest to Scully than anything I have done. And she's not like Scully at all, but just in the sense that she's not a caricature, which I am more familiar with doing. The difficulty is in making her not like Scully, even though there are some similarities. So I find that no matter how I respond to something as the character, if it's even remotely like Scully, I freeze. It's even difficult to make the choice to allow myself to be myself--which is a part of Scully--and allow that to come through if it has to, or to get incredibly, incredibly nitpicky about every single second and moment and beat within the character's life. I'd rather be more spontaneous than that. So it's been kind of an experiment in a way, and we'll see.

Q: Are you going to miss Vancouver?
GA: I am, yes. I still have my house up there, so we'll be going back periodically. It was a wonderful place for us to spend the first couple of years, and they were very good to us. I couldn't have wished for a better experience.

Q: Are you flattered or alarmed by the number of fans you have thanks to the show?
GA: The only time I ever think about it is when it's brought up to me. What impacts me the most, what gives me cause to think about it is that so many young women see Scully as a role model. People have said specifically that her strength and her drive and her passion have helped them get through difficult times in their lives.

Q: Are you on the Internet at all?
GA: I would like to be, but I'm not. I don't have the time to be. If I log onto the Internet at some point, it will be to learn another foreign language or to look up a butterfly. It's not going to read my fan pages.

Q: Do you look forward to the opportunity to do another X-Files movie?
GA: If it's successful, I hope we do another one. Hopefully, we're not going to be doing the series for the next ten years, and doing the movies on the hiatus. Hopefully, the film will be so successful that the series will trail off, and we'll just be doing the movies once in a while.