Gillian Anderson takes a walk down memory lane as she rewatches scenes from her classic works including 'The X-Files,' 'Sex Education,' 'The Crown,' 'The Fall,' and her newest film 'Scoop.' Gillian dishes on realizing how big 'The X-Files' was after seeing a tattoo of her face on a buttcheek, being blown away in the moment by Rufus Sewell's acting in 'Scoop' and so much more.
Director: Adam Lance Garcia
Director of Photography: Jack Belisle
Editor: Cory Stevens
Talent: Gillian Anderson
Producer: Madison Coffey
Line Producer: Romeeka Powell
Associate Producer: Lyla Neely
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi
Production Coordinator: Elizabeth Hymes
Talent Booker: Meredith Judkins
Camera Operator: Christopher Eustache
Gaffer: David Djaco
Audio Engineer: Mike Guggino
Production Assistant: Sonia Butt
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Additional Editor: Paul Tael
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
00:00 Gillian Anderson
00:29 The X-Files
04:03 Sex Education
07:13 The Crown
09:31 Hannibal
11:36 The Fall
13:18 Scoop
Director: Adam Lance Garcia
Director of Photography: Jack Belisle
Editor: Cory Stevens
Talent: Gillian Anderson
Producer: Madison Coffey
Line Producer: Romeeka Powell
Associate Producer: Lyla Neely
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi
Production Coordinator: Elizabeth Hymes
Talent Booker: Meredith Judkins
Camera Operator: Christopher Eustache
Gaffer: David Djaco
Audio Engineer: Mike Guggino
Production Assistant: Sonia Butt
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Additional Editor: Paul Tael
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
00:00 Gillian Anderson
00:29 The X-Files
04:03 Sex Education
07:13 The Crown
09:31 Hannibal
11:36 The Fall
13:18 Scoop
Category
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Actually, I'm looking forward to working with you.
00:03I've heard a lot about you.
00:04Oh, really?
00:05This is probably the most cringy scene I've ever done.
00:08When I look at it, it just looks awful when I see it.
00:13Hi, I'm Gillian Anderson,
00:15and today we're gonna be watching some scenes
00:19throughout my career.
00:20♪♪
00:28♪♪
00:34I was under the impression that you were sent to spy on me.
00:39If you have any data about my qualifications or credentials...
00:42You're a medical doctor.
00:43You teach at the academy.
00:45You did your undergraduate degree in physics.
00:48Einstein's twin paradox.
00:50A new interpretation.
00:52Dana Scully's senior thesis.
00:53Now, that's a credential.
00:54Rewriting Einstein.
00:55This is in the pilot episode.
00:58This is the first time that Scully and Mulder meet.
01:02It was my first series.
01:04It wasn't the show that Fox thought was gonna be
01:08their popular show.
01:09They had all their eggs and their money
01:11on something called Briscoe County or something like that.
01:14And this crazy, strange, unique, dark show
01:19ended up the number-one show.
01:20It would get 42 million viewers on a Friday night.
01:23Did you bother to read it?
01:25I did.
01:26I liked it.
01:27It's just that in most of my work,
01:29the laws of physics rarely seem to apply.
01:31Mulder's pinboard behind him became as famous
01:35as almost anything else in the series,
01:38and particularly that I Want to Believe poster.
01:40I probably have signed about 6 million
01:43I Want to Believe posters in my life.
01:45This is the substance found in the surrounding tissue.
01:50It's organic.
01:56I don't know.
01:57Is it some kind of synthetic protein?
01:59It's me.
02:00I've never seen it before either.
02:01I don't think it was maybe until the second season
02:05that we realized how big it was,
02:07and I went from complete obscurity to,
02:12I mean, I don't even know how to talk about it.
02:14We won't talk about it right now.
02:15We're just gonna watch.
02:16Watch.
02:17Watch this scene.
02:18And my squeaky voice.
02:19I'm a baby.
02:20This is me, the baby.
02:21Do you believe in the existence of extraterrestrials?
02:25Logically, I would have to say no.
02:28David Duchovny and I met while we were auditioning
02:31for the pilot episode.
02:33There were a few actresses for Scully,
02:35and there were maybe three actors for Mulder.
02:38In the first week, Mulder was cast,
02:41and it was David,
02:42and so in the second week,
02:43they were gonna cast the actresses
02:46to match up with David,
02:48and they weren't satisfied with the ones that they had,
02:51including me.
02:52They flew in some actresses from New York City
02:56to audition,
02:58and that included Jill Hennessy and Cynthia Nixon,
03:02who ended up on Sex and the City.
03:04What I find fantastic is any notion
03:07that there are answers beyond the realm of science.
03:10The answers are there.
03:12You just have to know where to look.
03:14We shot the first five seasons up in Vancouver, Canada.
03:18I think that fact went a long way to keeping us sane.
03:25When we would come down to Los Angeles,
03:27we couldn't go anywhere.
03:28We couldn't go to restaurants.
03:30We couldn't leave our houses.
03:31There was paparazzi everywhere.
03:33In the summers, I would sometimes go
03:35and do press around the world,
03:36and there was one year where I showed up
03:39at these book signings.
03:42I mean, thousands and thousands,
03:44like 15,000, 20,000 people in each of the malls.
03:47I became aware of how big the show was.
03:51Well, that and when somebody came up to the desk
03:54that I was sitting at and dropped his trousers
03:57and showed me a tattoo of my face on his butt cheek,
04:00and David was on the other butt cheek.
04:03♪
04:09Jesus Christ, Mum! Get out, please!
04:12While you are still under my roof,
04:14you are not to shut me out.
04:16♪ Thought that it would change your mind,
04:19but I have said too much.
04:21Stop!
04:22Why are you so angry?
04:23You're a hypocrite!
04:25What? How?
04:27This was the first time that I was offered
04:31a role that was comedy.
04:33It's always a shock when people offer me comedy
04:35because my resting face is serious.
04:38I really appreciated the fact that
04:40they thought that I might be able to play
04:42Jean Milburn, who is a sex therapist.
04:44She is a single mother of Otis, her son,
04:47and she is a bit morally ambiguous
04:52and a bit chaotic,
04:54and proceeds to get more and more chaotic
04:56as the season goes on.
04:58You say you're all about honesty
04:59and clear communication,
05:00but you're not honest at all.
05:01You invade all your way into everything I do
05:03and then act like it's an accident.
05:05You cross multitudes of parental boundaries
05:07on a daily basis.
05:09You are a sneaky, sneaky woman.
05:13Asa Butterfield, extraordinary young actor.
05:15I think he was already 30 at this point
05:17when he was playing 16, I don't know,
05:19but he was a child star
05:21and just a phenomenal actor.
05:23And so any time that we actually came together
05:25to shoot scenes, it was just,
05:27it was such a joy to just
05:29throw everything at the wind
05:31and just be as inappropriate
05:32and as big and as crazy
05:34and, you know, slightly over the top.
05:36I'd never been asked to be over the top
05:38before, I think, in my career,
05:40so that was fun.
05:41I thought you were finally listening to me,
05:43that you were letting me be independent,
05:44but you just can't help yourself.
05:47It's like you want to consume me.
05:49You're like the spider mums
05:50that eat their own offspring.
05:51Like you think I'm somehow part of you.
05:56Well, you are part of me.
05:58I remember Asa and I were sitting in L.A.
06:00doing press for it,
06:01and the woman who was interviewing us
06:03was Polish, and she was saying
06:05that there was no sex education
06:07in schools in Poland
06:08and that this was her sex education.
06:10You know, that's quite a big bit of information.
06:14That's a big responsibility,
06:15and I don't think any of us necessarily,
06:18when we took on these roles,
06:20thought that a responsibility of that kind
06:22would be ours in saying yes to this,
06:24but because of the nature of the series
06:26and the fact that everything was on the table,
06:28it was so frank, it was bold,
06:30and we talk about pretty much
06:32everything to do with sex,
06:34and it shows the pain and the sorrow
06:36and the heartbreak and the joy
06:38and the messiness of life
06:39in a way that I don't think
06:42we'd ever actually really seen before on television.
06:45Playing Jean Milburn,
06:46her influence on my life as an actor
06:49and on my conversation
06:51started to influence my Instagram feed
06:53and I started to post penis of the days
06:56and yonis of the days,
06:58and people would send images from nature
07:01to me that I would post about,
07:04and so it started this ongoing conversation
07:07that was embracing all kinds of sex
07:10and all kinds of human beings.
07:18Thank you.
07:21The way those men patronize me,
07:24lick to me,
07:26the squires and grandies.
07:29Upper class bastards.
07:31I was cast in the show about a year
07:34before I was going to be acting in it,
07:37and in wanting to get it right
07:39and the pressure of playing somebody
07:41who is both revered and despised,
07:44particularly in the UK,
07:46an incredibly divisive character
07:48that people feel very strongly about
07:50and know very well
07:51because of their strong feelings.
07:53And their ideas,
07:55their solutions to the problems
07:58this country faces,
07:59so unimaginative
08:02and cautious
08:04and wet.
08:07It was important to me
08:08that I try and make it
08:10as accurate as possible,
08:11so I started a year in advance probably
08:14reading everything I could.
08:16She has a very compelling book
08:18that she wrote,
08:19but she also reads it herself,
08:21so there's an opportunity
08:22to hear about her life
08:24through her own words,
08:25which I found fascinating.
08:27My father used to give a sermon,
08:30God needs no faint hearts
08:33for his ambassadors.
08:37They are faint hearts,
08:40and I should have kicked them out
08:42when I had the chance.
08:44The degree to which religion played
08:46in her and her sister's lives,
08:48all of those things
08:49I found fascinating,
08:50and so I really kind of started
08:51from the beginning
08:52and then started working on physical
08:55and working on Thatcher's voice,
08:57and one of the best pieces of advice
08:59that I got was to not try
09:02and disappear too much into her.
09:05It was important that I keep
09:06an aspect of myself
09:08that makes sense for my casting
09:11and makes sense for the character,
09:12so to not try too hard
09:14to force myself into something
09:16that might become
09:18either rigid or inaccessible
09:20because it was trying
09:22to be too perfect.
09:23I could let it go a bit more
09:25and maybe be a bit more spontaneous.
09:27I found her incredibly fun to play.
09:36Observe or participate.
09:46What?
09:47Are you in this very moment
09:48observing or participating?
09:53Observing.
09:55I played Dr. Bedelia de Maurier,
09:58Hannibal's psychiatrist.
10:00I was just going to come in
10:01and do three episodes
10:02in the first season.
10:03Ended up doing a few episodes
10:04of the second season
10:05and then did the third season,
10:07and it was just fun to play
10:08this very enigmatic, odd, sexy,
10:12possibly complicit psychiatrist.
10:16Did you know what he would do?
10:23I would prefer you answer honestly.
10:25I was curious.
10:26We didn't know the direction
10:28that the writers were going
10:30to take our relationship.
10:32Every time a script came,
10:34it was new information.
10:35I think the writers
10:36were just having a ball.
10:37Brian Fuller, the exec producer
10:39and creator, said to me at one point
10:41that they would come up
10:42with the craziest paragraphs
10:44for me to say out of fun
10:47to see whether I could make sense
10:49of the gobbledygook.
10:50Is this what you expected?
10:53Yes.
10:58Important to get across
11:00was the degree to which
11:02she is aroused
11:03by what is happening.
11:04Why on earth is she there?
11:06I mean, I know she's titillated
11:08by him, but the fact
11:09that she got on a plane
11:10and went to Italy with him
11:12implies that there is something
11:14deeper between them.
11:16This is the first time
11:17he commits a murder
11:19in front of her.
11:20It was important to see
11:21the degree to which she is,
11:23on the one hand,
11:24completely terrified,
11:25and on the other hand,
11:26there's part of her
11:27that is definitely turned on by
11:30and enraptured by
11:33the danger and him.
11:41Drop the charade, Peter.
11:44Own your confession.
11:46Have the courage
11:47of your convictions.
11:49I'd admit that you
11:50remember it all.
11:51We did three seasons.
11:53I play Detective Superintendent
11:55Stella Gibson.
11:56We finally have caught
11:57the serial killer
11:58called Spectre.
11:59I want to know the real name.
12:04Then stop hiding behind
12:06the mask of amnesia.
12:09We're all wearing masks
12:11to some extent.
12:12In the series,
12:13Stella and Spectre
12:15don't really cross paths.
12:17I am as obsessed with Spectre
12:21as he is obsessed
12:23with the act of killing
12:25these young women,
12:26of not getting caught
12:27so that he can continue,
12:29and of teasing me,
12:32in a sense.
12:33It's time to take responsibility
12:35for what you've done.
12:38Now stop this pathetic charade.
12:41I was an exec producer
12:43on the series
12:44and involved in hiring a director,
12:46and casting,
12:47and had seen
12:49a lot of audition tapes,
12:51and Jamie Dornan's
12:53audition tape for this
12:54was above and beyond
12:56the most compelling.
12:57A lot of the series,
12:58he doesn't talk very much,
13:00but this was going to be
13:01his first scene
13:03that would potentially present
13:05his acting skills.
13:06It was amazing
13:07because he's so good,
13:09and he's so good in this scene,
13:10and it was incredibly satisfying
13:13being involved in the process
13:14to see him unveil himself.
13:22Am I right in thinking
13:24you threw a birthday party
13:26for Epstein's girlfriend,
13:28Galen Maxwell,
13:30at Sandringham?
13:32No, it was a shooting weekend.
13:35A shooting weekend?
13:36Yes, just a straightforward,
13:38straightforward shooting weekend.
13:40I play the journalist
13:42who interviews Prince Andrew,
13:44Emily Maitlis,
13:45and Emily is very well known
13:47in the UK.
13:48She's an incredibly formidable,
13:49very intelligent,
13:50very prolific journalist,
13:53and the fact that
13:55the BBC was able to
13:58secure an interview
13:59with the royal family,
14:01who rarely do interviews,
14:03and had never before
14:04done an interview like this,
14:06but Prince Andrew
14:08agreed to do it
14:09thinking that he would be able
14:11to clear his name
14:12from his relationship
14:14with the sex offender,
14:16Jeffrey Epstein.
14:17It went incredibly wrong,
14:20and he put his foot
14:21in his mouth so many times
14:22during the interview
14:23that he ended up having to
14:24step down from public office.
14:27But during these times
14:30that he was a guest
14:31at Windsor Castle
14:33at Sandringham,
14:34the shooting weekend,
14:36we now know
14:38that he had been
14:40procuring young girls
14:43for sex trafficking.
14:45Emily is very much
14:46a part of life in London,
14:48and she's in my proximity.
14:50She has a particular way
14:51of dressing.
14:52Her hair is known.
14:54Her constant tan is known.
14:56You know, they're all part
14:57of the news cycle somehow.
14:59And so taking her on
15:01when she's in my midst
15:03felt like it was
15:04even more risky potentially
15:06than Margaret Thatcher,
15:07who was deceased.
15:09Once I said yes,
15:10obviously the biggest part
15:12of this job
15:14was the interview itself.
15:16We now know that.
15:20At the time,
15:22there was no indication
15:25to me
15:27or anybody else.
15:28The director had asked
15:30Rufus and I,
15:31Rufus Sewell plays Prince Andrew,
15:33if we would do it all in one go.
15:35This is Rufus's
15:36first day of work.
15:38They had recreated
15:39the south drawing room
15:41at Buckingham Palace
15:42to the T.
15:43We walk into this room.
15:44It is massive,
15:45and it is identical.
15:47We sat down and got mic'd up
15:49and made sure that legs
15:50were crossed in the right way
15:52and paper was on the lap
15:53and pen was in the right hand.
15:55And then, you know,
15:56we were ready,
15:57and he said action.
15:58And what was crazy
15:59in the moment,
16:00it was the first time
16:01that I was hearing Rufus
16:02playing Andrew.
16:03And so as I'm saying
16:04my lines and asking questions,
16:06he is responding as Andrew,
16:08exactly as Prince Andrew had.
16:12I'm inside my head
16:13looking at him going,
16:15holy fuck,
16:16like it's really good.
16:18It's like identical.
16:19I'd seen this interview
16:20so many times,
16:22and it was identical.
16:23But I can't react to it
16:24because what I have to focus on
16:26is doing exactly what Emily did
16:28and looking down
16:29at the right times,
16:30looking up, gesturing, writing,
16:31all that kind of stuff.
16:32I wonder if you have any sense
16:35of guilt, regret, or shame.
16:42Because we were held
16:43in this framework,
16:45essentially the real interview,
16:47the boundaries around that
16:48didn't allow me
16:49to fall off the side of it at all.
16:52There were moments
16:53where I felt so in it
16:55because I was being supported
16:57by, you know,
16:58this actor on the other side
17:00who was feeding me
17:01exactly what you would
17:02have wanted him to.
17:04It enabled it to just kind of
17:06turn over and turn over
17:07and keep going,
17:08and you could stay in it
17:10and ride this scene
17:12as if it was something
17:13that you had been
17:14rehearsing together
17:15and there was an audience,
17:16and it just kind of
17:19flowed and carried itself.
17:21It's like we were on a wave
17:22that rolled all the way
17:23to the shore,
17:24and it was really cool.
17:26Thank you so much for watching.