1994-95 1996-97 1998 1999-00 2001-03 2004-06

The Magic Hour
June 12, 1998

MAGIC: My first guest co-stars on the hit tv show X-files. The movie version opens June 19. Please welcome Gillian Anderson.

[(Loud applause as she comes out. She waves and smiles, greets Magic and sits down. Assorted yells and a few whistles as they settle down ]

MAGIC: Yeah, yeah. You are loved!

GILLIAN: I guess so. Hi! Hi, how are you. It's nice to be here. Hi.

MAGIC: Yes.

GILLIAN: You know, this is a beautiful stage. This is really nice.

MAGIC: And you know what's funny?

GILLIAN: What's funny?

MAGIC: Is that you came out ...

[Magic is smiling]

GILLIAN: (grins) Ok...

MAGIC: ...and happy...

GILLIAN: ..and then (laughing.

MAGIC: ..but on X-Files, you're so serious, your character ....

GILLIAN: I know, I know, I know, a lot of people, well, I know that, I mean after five seasons of playing the character, you know, people are always commenting on how I never smile. And I do, you know, we have some episodes that are actually really, that are comedic and quite funny but, um, but I tend to be much more, um, I'm, I'm goofy, I'm just really goofy.

MAGIC: In what way?

GILLIAN: I'm silly, I'm just, you know, I'm just really silly. I laugh a lot and I like pulling pranks on people and I'm really a five-year-old I think most of the time.

MAGIC: (laughs) Is that a side most of your fans don't get a chance to see?

GILLIAN: Yeah, I think so, unless I come on talk shows like this and I make a fool out of myself and then they get to see how really silly I am. (big smile)

MAGIC: Now, X-files ... man, it is huge with a capital H.

[ applause]

GILLIAN: It is big. Yeah.

MAGIC: Did you expect that to happen?

GILLIAN: No, I don't think any of us did. We were just kinda getting on board to do a few episodes, maybe possibly a year or maybe two, and then it's just, you know, it's just gone on and on and on and it's huge and it's everywhere and ...

MAGIC: Yeah.

GILLIAN: It's amazing, isn't it?

MAGIC: It is, because you're on the same parallel with Star Trek, because now, just like Star Trek, they have X-files conventions.

GILLIAN: I know.

MAGIC: That's amazing to me.

GILLIAN: It is amazing. There's been a lot of conventions, there's been an Expo recently this year. We tried out doing Expos in different cities ... and actually, something interesting, funny, I brought something to show you because, um, one of our directors, Kim Manners, went to the Expo in Dallas ...

[(She's pulled out a plastic bag and removes a necklace)

MAGIC: So you don't, you can't attend them.

GILLIAN: ... well, no, I can, I actually did the one in New York, which was a lot of fun, but this is a woman who drove from Kansas to Dallas, and I'm not exactly sure how far that is ...

MAGIC: It's far.

GILLIAN: It's far?

[ Laughter ]

MAGIC: Yeah, and flat land too.

GILLIAN: And flat. Well, she drove from Kansas to Dallas to specifically go to Kim Manners, a director, and give this to him. And it is a necklace, and I don't know if you can see this. It's a necklace that has pictures of Scully on every single bead.

MAGIC: Yes.

GILLIAN: And it's actually made, it's not painted on there, it's actually made out of the clay, and this woman - Brohna Yarian Leetch (phonetic spelling) - in Kansas, and she wrote this really sweet little note and she gave it directly to him to give to me, and it's really neat, it's got, it's even got my mole, which you don't actually see on the show because they cover it up.

[Magic laughs]

GILLIAN: Well, no, we do because apparently, when they were doing the screen test for it, Chris Carter, our executive producer, said there wasn't enough room on my face for my mole.

[laughter]

MAGIC: We like your mole.

GILLIAN: I think that's funny.

[applause]

MAGIC: We're gonna have to talk to Chris about not covering your mole up.

GILLIAN: I know, I know, but the mole's on here.

MAGIC: Also, interesting - let me help you out there (he helps her retrieve the plastic bag and Gillian starts putting the necklace into it) - is the fact that X-files is so big, it's like Baywatch, it's shown all around the world.

[Gillian stops putting the necklace away and shoots a wonderful sour look at Magic. She then sends the same sour look to the audience as scattered laughter breaks out. She then smiles.]

MAGIC: No, no, no, that it's shown around the world.

GILLIAN: (laughs) It is, I don't know, it's in something like 60 countries.

MAGIC: The other thing that's amazing about that, that you can speak a lot of languages I didn't know you could speak.

GILLIAN: What are you talking ...

MAGIC: Chinese. I heard you speak Chinese.

GILLIAN: You've heard me speak Chinese?

MAGIC: Yeah.

GILLIAN: I haven't even heard me speak Chinese.

MAGIC: Check this out. Michael, roll that tape. You can hear yourself right now.

[ funny clip of the Chinese version of the show with Scully and Mulder carrying on a conversation in front of a house. ]

[Everyone laughing as the clip ends. Gillian and Magic do a high five of sorts.]

GILLIAN: That's really funny! Thank you. That was funny.

MAGIC: You said you like to have fun and joke around, so there it was.

GILLIAN: That's great!

MAGIC: Now, when I go overseas, see, I turn the volume down and I watch the show. Now it's confusing a little bit for the X-files, but when I turn the volume down on Baywatch I understand what goes on.

GILLIAN: I can have it now?

GILLIAN: Yeah, you could.

MAGIC: More with Gillian Anderson when we come back ...

[ they share a laugh as the show breaks for a commercial ]

MAGIC: We're back with Gillian Anderson. Now, this is not the first time we actually appeared together.

GILLIAN: What do you mean?

MAGIC: I want to show you. Yeah, we were in this magazine together. See.

(He pulls out the recent InStyle)

GILLIAN: Oh, yeah, I ...

MAGIC: Now, see, this is Cookie and myself inside, my wife and I.

(Gillian is laughing)

MAGIC: But ... guess who's on the cover?

(applause as they show a close-up of the cover)

GILLIAN: You know what I think they should have, is me on the inside but with your house. I like that idea.

MAGIC: Now the thing about this is, that, I read the article on you, now I'm waiting, did you read about me or what?

GILLIAN: (giggles) The only thing I remember is that they measured your inseam for your furniture. I think that stands out, that they had actually to measure your inseam.

MAGIC: Yeah, it stands out, and guess what stands out about you.

GILLIAN: (giggles) What?

MAGIC: Your dad lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and I lived, I'm from Lansing, Michigan, right down the street.

GILLIAN: I've been to Lansing before.

MAGIC: You've been to Lansing?

GILLIAN: I've been to Lansing, Michigan before ...

MAGIC: Wow. See, I didn't know that about you until I read that article.

GILLIAN: ... I think I saw the Circle Jerks play in Lansing, Michigan.

(Magic looks confused as Gillian smiles.)

MAGIC: Is that a circus or ...

GILLIAN: No, it's a band.

MAGIC: Oh, oh, ok. The Circle Jerks? Ok.

(full-strength GG (Gillian Giggle))

GILLIAN: I don't suppose you were there? You weren't there?

MAGIC: You got me on that one. But, you know, you've been everywhere, on every magazine. Michael, show how many magazine covers you've been on ... look at you, all over the place.

(they show US, Details, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone; loud applause)

MAGIC: I know, for me, it's like a strange feeling when I see myself on magazine covers. What about for you?

GILLIAN: Um, yeah, it is. You know, I don't get an opportunity to be in magazine stands a lot, but when I'm travelling, when I'm in the airport, you know, you have to hide when, I mean, I go to pick up a copy of Vanity Fair or something and, if there are other articles that are near it that are on the cover, it gets kinda weird, you want to get in and get out as quickly as possible. And you don't want to be caught buying a magazine with yourself on the cover.

MAGIC: (laughs) Yeah, yeah.

GILLIAN: That's not a good thing.

MAGIC: I know it, everybody look at you like you're crazy.

GILLIAN: A little self-indulgent.

MAGIC: Now, my kids, and I know you have a daughter, just like I have a daughter ...

GILLIAN: How old is your daughter?

MAGIC: My daughter is 3.

GILLIAN: Really. My daughter is 3 and a half.

MAGIC: Wow, ok.

GILLIAN: What's her name?

MAGIC: Elisa. And yours?

GILLIAN: Piper.

MAGIC: Piper. Ok. Piper, Elisa. What's strange about it is when my daughter sees me on buses or on magazine covers - Daddy, daddy, there you are!

GILLIAN: That's nice.

MAGIC: She just goes crazy. How about your daughter?

GILLIAN: (laughs) Oh, she's like, oh, there's mom.

(laughter)

MAGIC: So, since she's too young for the X-files, watching it on tv, what does she like to get into or what does she like to watch on tv.

GILLIAN: She likes a lot of things, she doesn't watch a lot of TV, we don't have her watching a lot of TV, she likes Mr. Bean a lot, and Wallace & Gromit. You know, but she likes to play, she plays these pretend games where she'll make up, on the spot, this imaginary story. She'll say, ok, (talks as a young child does) so you're the sister and I'm the kid and I'm in a cave and it's really, really dark, and you're the monster and I don't know that you're coming but you're going come and you're gonna scare me and you're gonna take me away and then you're gonna save me and then we're gonna go have breakfast and we'll have eggs.

(laughter and applause)

GILLIAN: You know, she'll do something like that. She's got this imagination, she just keeps weaving it back and forth and then we enact that, we do that and then we have eggs.

MAGIC: Mommy gotta play a lot of roles there, huh.

GILLIAN: Yeah. I know.

MAGIC: It's harder than your real job.

GILLIAN: (laughs) Well, she's a director, she directs everything.

MAGIC: Well, guess what, she'll probably be directing you one day.

GILLIAN: She probably will.

MAGIC: Now, let's tell everybody about the great big movie, the X-files movie about to come out ...

GILLIAN: The premiere was last night.

(applause)

MAGIC: Uh, huh, the premiere was last night out here in LA. Tell everybody that you don't have to be a fan of the X-files to enjoy the movie.

GILLIAN: You know, that's one thing that was part of the task in putting the movie together was to try to make something that would appeal to people that have never seen a single episode before and to those who were avid fans, and, you know, what was interesting is that we did press junkets over the last few days, and I'd say that about 98.8% of the reporters had never seen a single episode (she laughs), and so they were able to share with us how they had seen it, the movie, for the first time and enjoyed it anyway.

MAGIC: Which makes it nice ...

GILLIAN: ... which makes it nice and it also, they said it's gonna make them want to watch the show.

MAGIC: That's what I was just getting ready to say. If you go out and watch the movie, those who haven't seen the X-files TV show, you're going to then watch the series.

GILLIAN: Yeah, I mean, the thing about the movie, it's like going to see Die Hard without having a series Die Hard to follow it. It's entertaining, it's fun, it's understandable.

MAGIC: And I'm not going to ask you to set up the clip like all those other shows ...

GILLIAN: Well, thank you.

MAGIC: ... let's just run it.

GILLIAN: OK.

[The same roof clip they showed on Leno, minus the first few moments, ending with the door trick.]

MAGIC: What I want to know is ...

GILLIAN: What?

MAGIC: ... when is the old kiss-a-roo gonna happen?

GILLIAN: (coy smile) It might happen in the movie.

MAGIC: It might happen in the movie. We've got to wait and see it, huh?

GILLIAN: I think you got to pay, you got to see the movie ...

MAGIC: Ok.

GILLIAN: ... and then you'll see.

MAGIC: Well, you know what? You've brought out so much personality tonight, I mean, you're just beautiful, keep that up.

GILLIAN: (giggles) Thank you.

MAGIC: thanks, Gillian, you know, you're wonderful. Thank you, thank you. The X-Files: Fight the Future opens in theaters on June 19th. We'll be back ...