"Agent of Fortune" by Virginia Campbell
Note: It's a two-page Q&A interview. The first page is a very nice full
page color photo of GA; closeup view of her face looking down from
above. Quite sexy actually. :) The first page also says: "Gillian
Anderson's hit TV show "The X-files" is more entertaining than most
movies, and many people think she's a better actress than you see
in most movies, too.
Gillian Anderson probably had less on-screen experience than anyone but
the Olsen twins when she was hired to star opposite David Duchovny in
TV's creepiest, rainiest, most addictive series, "The X-Files." But
"X-files" creator Chris Carter's instincts were on the mark with
Anderson, because she lends FBI agent Dana Scully a slow-burn blend of
gravity and humanity to spark with the off-the-wall quality of her
partner Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and to anchor the show's witty, dour
weirdness. The ability to project gravity and humanity being in such
sort supply among young screen actresses, perhaps hollywood will find a
role that calls for a younger, softer-edged Jodie Foster and put Anderson
to work on the big screen while she's on hiatus from "The X-files."
Virginia Campbell: You haven't paid too many dues to get where you are,
have you?
Gillian Anderson: I feel I've paid a lot of dues, not necessarily in the
amount of time I've pounded the pavement, but in my life.
Q: Within one year, you went from being unemployed to having a hit series,
to falling in love, to getting married, to getting pregnant. Isn't that
a breathtaking pace of events?
A: From my perspective, I'm doing what comes up in front of me. I didn't
plan for everything to happen in one year. In the moment, these things
didn't seem like they were too much. Eventually it hit me that it -was-
too much. Not that I shouldn't have made the decisions, but that I was
going to pay for it.
Q: When did you realize you wanted to be an actress?
A: In high school my grades were bad -- I was daydreaming, pulling
pranks. I got into a heavy punk scene. I had a nose ring and my hair
was purple and black and blue. I dressed in black. I was very confused,
and a loner. I was in a relationship with a man 10 years older than me
when I was 14. He was in a punk band, and I used to give him cans of
food from our house and buy him Big Gulps and cigarettes. I was
terrible. In 11th grade I decided to audition for a community theater
play and I got the part, and then I felt extremely happy, like I had
found my place. My grades went up and I was voted most improved student.
Q: What happened to the older guy?
A: I heard a while ago he was studying to become an entertainment lawyer,
which scares the hell out of me because he was a pathological liar [laughs].
Q: When you did off-Broadway, did you ever have stage fright?
A: Oh man. I've suffered life fright too, which I don't want to get
into. Stage fright is very similar. I felt like somebody had shot
crystal Methedrine into my arm. It was physical -- I was shaking, and I
just wanted to -get off the stage-. I realized I had lines, but I was
just going blank. Then autopilot took over.
Q: So how did you get cast in "The X-files"?
A: I came out to L.A. to visit a man I'd met in a play in New Haven. I
was going to stay for two weeks and I got here and sold my return ticket.
William Morris was already my agency, and I went out on three or four
film auditions a day for a year and didn't get anything. I didn't have
any money and I was relying on my boyfriend to help me out financially.
The day I got the pilot episode my last unemployment check arrived.
Q: If your "X-Files" character, Scully, didn't work with Mulder, would
she fall for him?
A: I don't think so. Mulder's hip. It's their work that makes them
attracted to each other.
Q: What do you want to do with your time when you're on hiatus?
A: I -don't- want to do a Movie of the Week. I want a small role in a
feature film -- that's my fantasy. The script would be what's
important. I like movies that have something to say, or say nothing
extremely well, like _Pulp Fiction_.
Q: Did you meet Quentin Tarantino at the Golden Globes?
A: I was assuming becuase of the genres he likes that he would know "The
X-Files," so I walked up and said, "I just wanted to introduce
myself..." And he was polite, but he had no idea who I was, and, as he
put it very eloquently onstage, he was "hammered."
Q: Whose screen work do you admire?
A: Isabelle Adjani's -- Camille Claudel has a huge impact on me. I love
Emma Thompson. Patricia Arquette -- she's amazing in _True Romance_.
And Gary Oldman can do no wrong.
Q: Oh yeah? What about _Romeo Is Bleeding_? Then again, he's quit drinking.
A: I'm very interested to see his work now that he's sane. One fear of
many actors is that if they give up the crutch of an addiction, they'll
lose the edge. But it's not true. There's more honesty in an actor
who's had that experience and came out of it. It takes more guts to
remain in this business as an awake and concious person.
Q: How famous are you? Not famous enough for Quentin Tarantino to know
you, but you -are- famous.
A: I haven't formed an opinion on the fame thing yet. I don't get it.
I'm grateful I'm shielded by being in Vancouver [where "X-Files" is shot].
Q: I asked a male fan of "The X-Files" to explain your attractiveness.
He said: "Unlike some actresses, who reveal, no matter what they're
playing, that they know they're beautiful, Gillian Anderson -is-
beautiful, but gives you the impression she doesn't know it." Is that true?
A: An extra on one of our shows did this fortune telling by drawing a
triangle, a square and a dot and asking you to draw around them. I drew
a petal and some leaves around the dot and she said, "You drew leaves,
which are green and represent growth, but you drew only one petal, and
this is how you percieve yourself, as not a full flower." I used to not
like myself. I spent time overweight, underweight, wearing black,
hiding. In the past couple of years, I've started to open up. What's
scary is I'm doing it in front of millions of people. Does that answer
the question?
(transcribed by Donald Holman)
