Gillian Anderson Panel Fan Expo Canada

Gillian Anderson had a great panel at Fan Expo. Sadly, my tech failed me again, so I don’t have video to share with you. What follows is a fairly faithful – but not quite word for word account. She was clearly in good spirits, having just wrapped The X-Files. She arrived with an X-Files hat signed by herself, David Duchovny, and Chris Carter that she auctioned off for charity at the end of the panel, netting $1000 for the charity.

Teddy: Can you take us back to first getting the role of Scully in 2003?

Gillian: 1993…

Teddy: It ended in 2003.

Gillian: In 1993, I don’t think you were born yet. I remember I was in flannel pajamas when I read the episode and the walls were line green – not my choice – and I wasn’t in the habit of auditioning for tv. It was the second thing that I auditioned for, I might be lying, I can’t quite remember, but the first thing I did a guest role on a thing called Class of '96, which lasted for a few minutes, and that’s the only other tv thing that I’d done. Oddly, in that, there was a plot point that that my character was reading Moby Dick. Did anybody see that episode? No. But in that, my character is reading Moby Dick which, of course, becomes a plot point in The X-Files.

         So back to the flannel pajamas. I was just going in for an audition. That’s what it was. And then it turned into being asked back and then it turned into being asked to Network, which I’d never done before, which is a terrifying experience, for every actor to sit in a hallway with the other actors who are auditioning for the same role. And you are released when they want you to be released. So you get called in, somebody else gets called in, they come out with a smile on their face, you think she got it… and you’re there for hours.

         And apparently, the story goes that Chris wanted me that first day for Scully. The network did not. (groaning) I know! Poor me, poor me. (joking - laughter) So I went away and didn’t have a job and quite a few days later, it wasn’t immediate, I was called back for my second network appearance. They had flown in other actresses from New York. Who I knew from New York because I’d just moved to LA from New York who I used to go and audition for theater with. Cynthia Nixon and Jill Hennessey  and all these girls that I knew, and obviously later, went on to do extraordinary things, but they were all sitting in the hallway with me, auditioning. I was driving my boyfriend’s white convertible Mustang at the time and before I left after the second audition, the casting director pulled me over to the side very naughtily and told me that I had the job. But I’d already offered to give Jill a ride back to her hotel. That was a very uncomfortable ride. So how do you think it went? I don’t know… (laughter) fingers crossed… (laughter)

        Did I even answer the question? I have a tendency to run off at the mouth… most of the time I don’t even make sense.

*There was a question from the floor, but Gillian was distracted by what the questioner was wearing – she was dressed as what we’re supposed to wear in 2015, according to Back to the Future 2.

Gillian: I was so excited to show my little boys – 6 and 8 – Back to the Future 1 and then I put in 2 and I was like, no, no, no! So inappropriate! Three is alright, but 2…. Do you have a hover board? (she asked her to turn around to see her whole outfit)

*Do you personally think that Scully was abducted or was it the government?

Gillian: She had been abducted by the government? (shrugs her shoulders) We might find out in season ten. Might. Does anyone have a glasses cleaner thing? My skirt isn’t doing the job. I can’t see a thing and they’re filthy! (several people come up to stage to help her out) My boys used to be obsessed with these things. They used to want to sleep with them like mini-blankets. They had a name for them. They called them squinchies or something…. One of them at age 2 made up a name and they became obsessed with them… anyway that’s completely beside the point. Do we have another question?

 *The X-Files started airing in South Africa when I was 13 and it was the first time there was a strong, independent woman…

Gillian: In the entire universe…

*Yes (laughter). Dana Scully inspired me to become a scientist.

Gillian: Cool. Congratulations. Do you do that for a living now? What area are you in?

*Molecular biology and space (didn’t catch it).

Gillian: Hot damn! I bet you get paid a shitload for that! (laughter)

*The show was incredibly scientifically accurate…

Gillian: It’s just because my education was so good they always just came to me to say Gillian, is this right? Does this look right to you?

*Were you given scientific research by Chris Carter or the writers?

Gillian: No. They hire very, very smart people for that kind of stuff. We’ve usually got scientists and people in medicine. There’s a lot to do with hospitals in season ten. So there’s a lot of medical jargon and a lot of doctors standing around to tell us what the heck we’re doing. I’ve never said heck in my life.

Teddy: How gratifying is it for you when young women come up and say you inspired them to get into their fields?

Gillian: It’s not me. It’s Chris Carter who had the foresight and the genius to come up with this character at this particular time when there was such a need for it. I could do that well, and that’s what I often get hired for often, to play the smart woman or the boss. But my brain is very small. (laughter) There are other things that are big…

*You did a video for Cheetah conservation. How did you get interested in the project?

Gillian: A friend of mine who is a fashion photographer, in his spare time, he takes photos of cats. He’s obsessed with big cats. He travels around the world and met her and this organization. It’s an incredible organization and they’ve brought a particular kind of wild dogs from Australia who are good at reining in the cheetahs, so they stay in particular areas, encouraging poachers not to kill them because they’re going on to the farms. They’ve created this system that actually helps the farmers and helps the cheetahs to stay alive. He asked if I would meet her, and she asked if I would do a video, and I said yes, and that’s how that happened!

*Do you think that Stella and Scully would make good partners?

Gillian: You know, somebody asked me that at another comic con about whether they would hang out, and I thought that maybe Stella would have a few things to teach Scully about drinking. But partners as in life partners or working partners?

*Whichever one you want.

Gillian: They actually might make good life partners. I hadn’t thought about that before. I want to see somebody doing an After Dark sketch of Scully and Stella. Do you know about this site? David just introduced me to the site. That’s all I’m going to say. There was a very hot picture of Mulder and Scully After Dark.

*If they were to do musical episodes of The Fall, X-Files, and Hannibal, what song do you think each of your characters would sing and why?

Gillian: If there was a musical version of The X-Files, Scully would sing “Jeremiah Was a Bullfrong.” Because that’s all she can sing. If Bedelia was to sing… Jesus Christ, what would she sing? “Let’s Get This Party Started” – yeah, let’s see Bedelia sing Pink’s “Let’s Get This Party Started” and then Hannibal could come in and do some dance moves. Stella. Any suggestions? (an hilarious exchange during which a guy tries to shout out a song and can’t be understood)

*Which one of your characters would you like to meet?

Gillian: Good questions today! Um. Maybe Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. It would be kind of fascinating to meet her and really weird.

*How do you feel about being such a strong, independent woman in The X-Files?

Gillian: Good question. I feel pretty cool about it actually. How old are you?

*12.

Gillian: Well, in the olden days (laughter), in 1993 when this started, there weren’t really any strong independent women on television. And I’m serious. I’m not exaggerating, there weren’t. So there was Baywatch, do you know what Baywatch is? What else was there at that time? It was slim pickings… (the crowd shouts out Murphy Brown and Designing Women). Oh… then I’m wrong. But there weren’t that many and there are today. So I think that women at the time appreciated that and were like I see someone that I actually recognize because I don’t usually look like that in a bikini. And so, it started a trend and I feel very proud and grateful to have been one of the first strong independent female characters on television and have since then been cast as strong independent women and sometimes stronger and more independent characters than Scully was. And it’s pretty cool to be a part of that trend. Thank you. Pretty strong independent female to get up in front of 8000 people to ask the question.

*You brought a lot to the role. In the beginning Scully was walking behind Mulder and you were instrumental in bringing her up beside him. Do you think there would be a Stella Gibson on today if it wasn’t for the Scully-effect?

Gillian: That’s a good question. I don’t know. I’d have to imagine that at some point somebody else would have done it along the way. Somebody would have seen the gap and the need. So it’s possible, but I can definitely see the trajectory there. But also Alan the writer of The Fall, which is where Stella Gibson resides, wrote that with me in mind and had I not done The X-Files, he probably wouldn’t have written it with me in mind, so I guess the answer would be no.

*Shouted from the crowd – Could you bring Streetcar Named Desire to Toronto?

Gillian: Aw. New York’s not that far from Toronto. I know that for a fact in my small brain. And there are still tickets available. So please come.

*Who was responsible for bringing The X-Files back, and what was it like when you found out, and what was it like going back there after so many years?

Gillian: Well, it wasn’t like they said it’s coming back and you’re coming with us, and I went oh, okay. It was kind of like they said we’re thinking about this. And my reaction was oh, what a bad idea. Initially, because my experience of doing The X-Files as doing 24 episodes which in my current life, living in the UK with 3 children is not a do-able thing. In those days, that took us 9 and half months a year, and this year, our episodes took longer to shoot individually. So we did 6 episodes in three months.

         So my initial reaction, because I was doing a lot of tv at the time and I like to shake it up and do theater and film. And then when they said it could be a small amount, and that’s the time when we were starting to talk about, it was at the very beginning of networks, like Fox, opening their minds to the idea of doing shorter amounts. Even at the time when I was doing Crisis on NBC that was 12 or 13 and that was quite a big leap for them to make to just do 12 or 13 at a time. And that was only a couple of years ago. It’s a whole new idea for networks to do short stacks. And it wasn’t until they could agree to do that that either David or I could commit to it.

Teddy: This mini-series that we’re going to get is it one story in the sense of one continuous arc?

Gillian: It is not. It’s exactly what you used to get. There is a couple of comedic episodes. There is a couple of monster of the week episodes. And there are a couple of mythology episodes.

Teddy: Were you happy about that that it was going to retain the DNA of the original series?

Gillian: Extremely. At the beginning, I was thinking what is it that we’re putting out here? Because we were at the forefront of new tv back then and it was the first series that was lit by flashlight… we were a lot of firsts, having that much money up on the screen. Those big production values up on the screen. We were the beginning of that. So did that mean what was expected of us was to come back and match that and basically be the new version of how tv should be today? So when the first episode wasn’t that, my first reaction was… man, is this enough? And then, the expert in all things, Simon Pegg, said to me, what they want is exactly what they got to begin with. It’s like comfort food. They want what you originally gave them and that will be enough. And that’s what you’re gonna get. (cheers) And I think in all respects, so I think, hopefully, you guys will be happy.

*Everyone knows that your favorite episode of X-Files is “Bad Blood”…

Gillian: Can I tell you something? Sorry to interrupt. Oh, get it out cause I’m sure you’re nervous to ask the question, and I’ll interrupt later.

*I was wondering if you’re familiar with the Taylor Swift song, “Bad Blood,” and if you think it’s worthy of sharing the same title as your favorite episode.

Gillian: I don’t know that song, but would anyone like to sing it for me? (a group in the song start singing the song – pretty well too!) But no. Because it’s not really appropriate for the episode. It needs to be Shaft! That needs to be the soundtrack.

So, I watched it again recently because I thought I keep leaving my kids in London to go shoot this thing in Vancouver and they have no idea what it is that I’m doing. So I thought what episode can I show them that is even remotely appropriate – in any way shape or form for almost 7 and 9 year old, and I thought, ironically, that “Bad Blood” would be good. Nightmares for a fucking week. (laughter) That kid with the green eyes! And my six year old, every time my 8 year old turned the corner he’d be like (makes monster face and hands). And that whole thing where he jumped across the bed like a squirrel? Oh my God! So now that, I’ve literally tormented them. They are not a fan of The X-Files. It’ll be like 21 and 24 by the time they watch the series again. It completely backfired. Oh my God and they would not shut up and of course they told their dad… so a nightmare.

Teddy: Still your favorite episode?

Gillian: Still my favorite. I mean Luke Wilson!

*Have the strong feminist characters you’ve played, mainly Stella Gibson, influenced how you characterize Blanche?

Gillian: Not necessarily. I wanted to do Blanche since I was 16 years old, so it was very much a dream come true after 30 years of knowing that I wanted to play her. As much as I felt like I resonated with her inside, I never actually studied her or studied the play before, so when we started rehearsals for that it was important to me that I let go of all my preconceptions about who she was and what the play should be etc. There’s only one thing that I, well two things, that I really cared about when we were putting the production together and one was that it be in the round and that it be in the summertime because I wanted the audience to feel the heat that we would feel in New Orleans, and believe me, both of those things happened.

         So, in starting a hundred percent from scratch, as much as one can, really let the director educate me, and all of us, about the play and history and the characters and the family and the climate at the time, the political climate, the social climate, the genius of Tennessee Williams and the threads that he weaves with his material, and I feel like she was very much born out of a new idea not necessarily influenced by… but by the same token, I am a feminist and I can’t not inject an aspect of that into my version of her, but I don’t think that I ever sat on the outside and thought this is how it needs to be because in the past she was portrayed in a different way. It was very much an organic and pure path to find her.

Teddy: Just a quick follow up to that, I read that you really love punk, and I always wanted to ask you if your interest in punk and that genre of music informed your ethos and your feminism and kind of what you brought to roles as an actor.

Gillian: I have an inbuilt intolerance for hypocrisy. And there is an element of that in anarchy and in the punk movement and there is an element of that in feminism. Feminism is just people’s desire for equality whether it’s race equality or female equality or pay equality, whatever the fuck it is, it’s about the intolerance for what should not be going on in the moment. And I think that’s a lot of what the current feminist movement is about. It’s like enough already, we’ve been talking about this for so fucking long. We’ve gotta do some things, get things done. I talk about it when I’m asked about it. I don’t preach about it. I talk about it when specifically in relation to Stella because a lot of the journalists want to address that issue. It’s a human issue. Equality on this planet. Whether your aboriginals in Brazil fighting for your piece of forest or whatever it is. It’s important and vital to humanity’s existing on this planet as one, as a human race. I feel strongly about that. Clearly. (applause)

*What’s it like working with Jamie Dornan?

Gillian: Who? (laughter) Jaime is an incredibly lovely, sweet, hysterically funny guy. He’s great to hang around with, he’s great to hang around off set. We didn’t, as you know, having watched The Fall, have a lot of opportunity to do that, but we’ve spent time together doing press, and the scenes that we did do, and going out for drinks and stuff. He’s just a lovely, lovely guy, you’ll be happy to know. And he has a really good singing voice, which a lot people don’t know… and the women go, “oh” and the guys go, “grrr – that too!” (laughter) But he does!

*Which place has impacted you the most?

Gillian: I would say, impacted, either Africa or India. I spent a lot of time in both places not just filming. And they both get under your skin in very, very different ways. I’m about to do another film in India in a couple weeks, and I’m excited to be impacted by a culture and by a country and to learn something new about another place in the world. Have you ever been to either of those places? Because people say when they go to Africa that it often they say it gets under your skin and you never forget it and there’s a truism there. And I don’t know what that is but I also feel like when one is truly exposed to how the majority of the world lives and the majority of the world lives very differently than the way we live in North America, and any time one is actually truly exposed to that it can’t help but impact one’s life experience and how you see the world.

*How do you prepare yourself for such a raw and emotional performance like playing Blanche? And will your performance change in front of a New York audience?

Gillian: I won’t change my performance at all. We had about four weeks to rehearse, which is not a long time for a 3 and half hour play. And also for a complex character like that. It was down to partly my passion for it but also the genius of our director that we worked with, Benedict Andrews is just probably one of the best directors I’ve ever worked with in how he just takes us through the study of the material and the characters. And it’s quite daunting at the beginning as it is with anything in life when you start something new and you know you’re putting yourself out there. And as much as I’ve always want to play Blanche my whole life, I was absolutely terrified of it, and I have experienced panic attacks in my life and on stage and assumed that that would also be the case with this production. And by the grace of God it wasn’t, and I don’t know why that was, but hopefully, that will be the same when I’m in New York. (looks for wood to knock on!)

And so with anything, even this project that I’m about to jump into, playing an historical character, it’s really important for me to do the work in advance, to feel like I’ve shown up for myself, shown up for the character, that I have it in every cell of my body, and when I feel that, I have done that work, then I feel safe, I feel, obviously, more confident, and trusting of my choices. But also with anything there is fear. The first couple of days on any job I find really difficult, no matter even with The X-Files. The first couple of days for me are a certain Hell. And I don’t necessarily know that I am the character in those two days even if I’ve been working on it or played it for a decade. It takes me a little while to assimilate, so I have to imagine on one level, even though it’s magnified by being in the public realm that’s a lot of people’s experience of new things. That new things change, putting oneself out there in the world is really a scary thing, and what I have learned over the years is that by doing it anyway that I have survived those things. I’ve thought I would die. I haven’t died. I thought I would fail. I haven’t failed. My version of failed can come in many different ways, but the fact that I have shown myself that I can show up and do things has taught me the next time I want to show up and do things that I can and I think that is really important.

And part of that came from, my Mom told me that even as a child, there was no telling me what to do. That literally, I was the boss of the household. And, you know, she’s right. (laughs) I’m sure that gumption and sass has a lot to do with it but also I got an aspect of that from her. It’s a good thing to pass on to our children, especially to our daughters, I think.

*Thank you for your confident outspoken-ness in regards to feminism and how unapologetic you are about it. It means a lot. What would your interpretation be of Bedelia and Hannibal’s relationship when they were on the run in Florence?

Gillian: What would be my interpretation of it? My interpretation is very much what you see on the screen which is that there was in fact… that they were an electric couple. It is duplicitous, it is disturbing. There is a great deal of free-floating fear. There is attraction and sensuality and potentially sexuality there on some level whether it’s in a kiss or a promise or whatever it is. I imagine that they probably had separate bedrooms, but the fact that they had the intimacy that they had which was pretty intense, especially under the circumstances, was… I don’t know. It had a dangerous energy to it. It filled in so many of the blanks and question marks just by the fact that she stayed and he let her stay.

You don’t have a mike to ask me a question. That might have been done on purpose. (someone yells from the crowd – what about the last scene?) What about the last scene? What did you see? You saw Bedelia sitting at the end of the table with a… a what on the table? A leg. And what makes you think I was eating it? I… she was waiting for a guest… Three chairs… Did she cook it herself – all good questions… So, at some point she reached for something. (a fork) to do what with? (unintelligible) Maybe. Did she look comfortable? Did she look happy? Did she look like she was looking forward to the meal or what was going to happen next? All good questions. But I will tell you one thing. The fork was not to eat the leg. But hopefully, I hear they’re investigating other ways for it to be seen. (cheers)

And then she auctioned off the hat which was hysterical and a lot of fun for those who stuck around.

About the Author - Lisa Macklem

I do interviews and write articles for the site in addition to reviewing a number of shows, including Supernatural, Arrow, Agents of Shield, Agent Carter, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, The X-Files, Defiance, Bitten, Killjoys, and a few others! I'm active on the Con scene when I have the time. When I'm not writing about television shows, I'm often writing about entertainment and media law in my capacity as a legal scholar. I also work in theatre when the opportunity arises. I'm an avid runner and rider, currently training in dressage.

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