National Post (Canada) Excerpts:
Posted at 8:43 AM (PST) on Saturday, January 21, 2006

By Alex Strachan, CanWest News Service
January 21, 2006

Gillian Anderson is in southern California to talk about Bleak House and the weather is appropriately -- and uncharacteristically -- bleak. A shroud of mist hangs over the green lawns, a pall of gloom has settled over the Huntington estate and a lonely drizzle taps against the tall glass windows, while inside Anderson huddles, waif-like, under a blanket in a private room.

She has just faced a ballroom full of reporters alongside her Bleak House colleague Charles Dance, writer Andrew Davies and long-time Masterpiece Theatre producer Rebecca Eaton, and she is now in a more pensive, reflective mood.

"Dickens's work, and specifically this book and the way Andrew has crafted it, really highlights the tragic situation of human injustice in so many ways," Anderson says. "Even though we're seeing it in period form, there's still a through-line to our lives today, no matter what country or society you live in. It's not just about injustice in the form of social etiquette. It's also about greed and selfishness and bad behaviour -- and love and passion and grief and pain. They're all part of the human condition."

Anderson just recently sold her Vancouver home, one of the last vestiges of her years in the city making The X-Files, but she remains close to the city and the friendships she formed there. Her memories of the city are fond -- for the most part. "My daughter is a nationalist, she considers herself very much Canadian, and very proud of it. My fondest memories are always of the peacefulness of the city, and how it very much felt like, not just an escape from Los Angeles and this world, but a refuge.

"I could move about the city very easily and just enjoy being there, and enjoy my friendships and the beauty of the city. It's such a beautiful city, and so easy to get around -- except for the bridges. That part of it I don't miss. That's a memory that's not so sweet -- the bridges. But, even then, it doesn't compare at all to the traffic here in L.A."