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GMTV
February 15, 1999

The Interview was split into sections. The section was conducted by Eamon Holmes and Penny Smith, the second section was conducted by Dale Winton.

EAMON: Just after a quarter past eight. Good to see you, if the truth really is out there, then sitting beside me this morning, according to poll after poll, is the sexiest woman in the world. In her time as Agent Scully in The X-Files shes had many strange experiences, therefore breakfast TeleVision will hold no fear for Gillian Anderson this morning. Lovely to see you Gillian.

GILLIAN: Thanks, you too.

EAMON: Because its been a busy couple of days for you.

GILLIAN: It has.

EAMON: You're flying out this afternoon.

GILLIAN: I am.

EAMON: Back to the States.

GILLIAN: Yeah.

EAMON: And you got here when?

GILLIAN: Erm, yes, um, what day is it? It's Saturday.

PENNY AND EAMON: Monday.

GILLIAN: Its Monday, I got here on Saturday.

EAMON: On Saturday.

GILLIAN: At midday.

EAMON: And you're all over the front pages of the newspapers this morning, "Gillian joins X-rated show", "The ladies in red".

Eamon holds up two newspapers.

GILLIAN: Does it say X-rated? (Laughs)

EAMON: It says X-rated, yeah, "Feathered Friend" is another one there. And there's you with this magnificent Boa, round your neck there, now whats all that about?

GILLIAN: Well, erm, gosh, its hard to talk about it in the, erm, kind of really strange kind of way, its, its, its the, well, V-Monologue is the safest way to, I guess, refer to them.

EAMON: Yes.

GILLIAN: But they were, er, its a play written by a woman named Eve Ensler. Its celebrating women and also women's most intimate parts, and, erm, it was a charity event, erm, raising money for, erm, abused women and erm (Interupted).

EAMON: Look, look at the support you have there, Kate Winslet, Melanie Griffith and Sophie (Interupted)

PENNY: Cate Blanchett.

GILLIAN: Cate Blanchett, yeah.

EAMON: And you centre-stage.

GILLIAN: Look how dour I look, (Laughing), completely dour.

PENNY: Bit tired probably.

EAMON: I'm not surprised with all that flying, look, when you get off these planes are the photographers always waiting for you at the other end?

GILLIAN: Erm, not always, but, erm, but this time, yeah, yeah, well sometimes, a lot of times they are.

EAMON: And where do you groom yourself, bearing in mind, in airplanes, you have little tiny toilets, right, that you go into, and how are you supposed to blow-dry your hair and do everything and look presentable?

GILLIAN: Well I don't and I forget and I always forget that there might be the possibility of somebody waiting out there and I don't do anything and I come out looking like a rag doll.

EAMON: Instead of the world's sexiest woman.

GILLIAN: And, er, in the paper the next day it says "Gillian Anderson after night drinking on town" you know.

Everybody Laughs.

EAMON: Goodness sake, now The X-Files, we have had so many calls today, it seems to consume peoples lives and I reckon with your work rate it must consume yours as well, where are we at with The X-Files, there are fears that you may be leaving, are there new series. What is the situation?

GILLIAN: Well, er, we're actually nearing the end of the sixth season and I think its just beginning for you here, is that correct? The new series is just beginning for you.

PENNY: Well, we always get confused, because the thing is, its like everything else, we never know when their coming on, or how many you've seen or how many we've seen.

GILLIAN: Right, well, I'm not sure exactly how many have aired but we've filmed quite a lot of them in the States, but I think you're just beginning with the sixth series, and its, erm, its really you know, we're shooting in LA for the first time and, erm, we've been in Vancouver for the last five years.

PENNY: And what about Scully and Mulder? Are they going to do any more kissing?

GILLIAN: Well you know, its interesting, there is an episode that takes place half in the 30s and half in the present day, and there is actually a kiss that takes place between Mulder and Scully, but it doesn't really count because their not, because their not really themselves, or at least Scully isn't really herself. So, but, its, it is actually a really good season so far, we've had some really wonderful episodes.

EAMON: Lost in the morning, we're never really ourselves are we?

PENNY: I never know who I am, yes.

EAMON: Don't know who we are, its all so early. How, how has that changed your life because theres the tease of science fiction, er, programmes, and they really are committed and it becomes like a religion to them. I mean how absorbed into that world have you become?

GILLIAN: Into that world, not at all, not at all, its very, erm, its got absolutely nothing to do with my life.

EAMON: But so many people must see you as Dana Scully though/

GILLIAN: They do, but I don't see many people. I'm not out very much. (Laughs)

PENNY: You don't get out much?

GILLIAN: I don't get out much.

PENNY: Now, the other thing, I was, I was, interested, I was reading the notes and it said something about, erm, David Duchovny and he didn't like his hands. Is that true?

GILLIAN: He didn't like his hands?

PENNY: No, you didn't like his hands.

GILLIAN: I didn't no, no, no, no. You see these things always get blown out of proportion, I mean what I, I had done an interview and an interviewer asked what, er, what was my favourite part of a mans body, and I said that the hands were very telling of a personality and how they take care of themselves and he said "Well, how are David's hands" and I said "Well you know, they could use a little bit of help". But that was the er, extent (Interupted)

PENNY: Go on, show her your hands for goodness sake. (Talking to Eamon)

GILLIAN: Oh, you get, you get manicures quite often, huh?

EAMON: Not really.

Everybody laughs.

EAMON: Never done an honest days work in my life, I'm sorry to say. But I don't how you find time for it, but you do try and do other work, obviously to build up a reputation outside The X-Files, we're going to show a clip from a movie you made recently, its called "The Mighty", and we'll talk about it after we see this.

A clip of "The Mighty" is shown.

EAMON: Now that was a bad hair day?

GILLIAN: I would consider it a bad hair day, yes.

EAMON: It must be very important for you, to, to build up a career though outside The X-Files, is it?

GILLIAN: Erm, yeah it is. I mean its important to, erm, for me to do other things because I've been doing this for so long that, erm, I get restless and, erm, I think any actor would in a situation where you are doing the same character for so many year. Erm, and also to get out there and do other things and show people you can do other things and to feed yourself in a way. You know.

PENNY: So what other projects have you got in the Pipeline?

GILLIAN: Erm, in the pipeline, erm, well theres a good possibility I'm going to be doing "House of Mirth" with, er, English Director, Terence Davies, over the summer, but shot in Glasgow. Its not a good possibility, its happening, but we, I haven't (Interupted)

EAMON: Glasgow, a lovely city. You'll enjoy that, you'll enjoy Glasgow.

GILLIAN: Yeah, thats what I've heard.

EAMON: But you're voice, you have a very very distinctive voice, very very rich voice and bearing in mind that you spent a lot of your formative years growing up in Britain, what ten years or so?

GILLIAN: Erm, nine, yeah, its difficult for me when I come over here and I'm trying very hard not to fall into it right now, but, I erm, because it was my first language, so to speak, I always kind of fall in to British accent and I feel completely hypocritical, but I can't help myself and I can't (Interupted by laughter)

EAMON: Wait until you get a load of the Glaswegians. That will be a whole new experience.

Everybody laughs.

GILLIAN: Oh no, I hope that doesn't happen.

EAMON: Gillian, its been lovely talking to you, you are coming back and you're talking to Dale Winton, and that really will be an experience, that will be the weirdest case you've ever had in The X-Files. But that will be after 9 o'clock this morning, we'll enjoy that. Gillian, lovely talking to you, thank you very much.

GILLIAN: Thanks.

That concludes the first section. A transcript of the second section with Dale Winton follows.

DALE: (Introduces Gillian) Good morning Gillian.

GILLIAN: Good morning.

DALE: Lovely to see you, how are you doing?

GILLIAN: Thankyou, I'm very tired actually.

DALE: And you've been sort of up late at night haven't you? You've been doing the V-thing haven't you, which we won't talk about too much.

GILLIAN: Yeah, the V-Monologue. Yeah, we're not supposed to talk about that.

DALE: Erm, but I wanted to ask you, just watching the fashion thing there, in New York, I imagine that most designers would say "Gillian, would you wear our stuff, would you like to wear something?". Its good profile for them. Do you follow the designers yourself?

GILLIAN: I don't usually follow the designers at all, I think when, erm, you know when award shows come up and we have the opportunity to really dress up and they have the opportunity to show their dress in a very public venue, then they come forward and you know, they try and vye for celebrities to wear their things but just in normal every day wear, I don't get showered with clothes.

DALE: Because I mean I looked at some of the designs and I thought to myself, I thought, you wouldn't really wear those out at a party.

GILLIAN: I know, its strange isn't it, a lot of the things you see on the catwalks and stuff. I'm not exactly sure who wears them.

DALE: I just wondered how delicately you'd put it if somebody like Donna Karen or someone came up to you and said "Gillian, I've got just the thing for you" and you're presented with this very bizarre, because some of them are very bizarre looking. What would you say, what would you do?

GILLIAN: Thankyou (Laughs).

DALE: Thankyou and not wear it. We all know you from The X-Files, we're going to talk about that in a moment, but also theres a movie which came out just before Christmas and its still available in some cinemas, its called "The Mighty" and I have to say, I was like, Gillian, terrifying, I mean it was an unusual role for you wasn't it?

GILLIAN: Yeah, it was, it was a lot of fun. It was directed by Peter Chelsom, British Director who did "Funny Bones" and "Hear my Song" and, erm, he has a wonderful vision and it was just very different, it was, very fun. I had no idea what to expect when I showed up to work and we just kind of had an opportunity to play and be spontaneous.

DALE: You had an alcohol problem in it, I think?

GILLIAN: Yes.

DALE: Slight problem, a slight problem. Well lets have a look at Gillian as you're not used to seeing her in her movie "The Mighty".

A different clip of "The Mighty" is shown.

DALE: That was wonderful, that is wonderful, and that is of course the movie "The Mighty". Er, you watched it Gillian, when you watch it, do you think "I could have done that bit differently or I like that or do you think" (Interupted)

GILLIAN: All the time, yeah.

DALE: Because I know that you watch yourself, erm, a lot of artists and actors don't watch themselves on their own TV shows, but you watch every episode of The X-Files, don't you?

GILLIAN: I do, I mean, you can learn a lot from it, either by, not appreciating my performance and thinking, I, oh, I can do it better next time or, appreciating it and then being inspired to keep doing it better. Its, you know, it can be helpful.

DALE: Its often said for an actor or actress to be in a big hit TV Show, to then make the transition to movies, its quite difficult because the public often accepts you in that role on the TV. But that is sometimes retescent to view you, as a moviestar, but you've actually done one movie after another, you've done "The Mighty", "Playing by Heart" and you've got The Mirth, is it called The Mirth?

GILLIAN: No, its "The House of Mirth", which we're going to be shooting in the summer, but I think, you know, up until now I've chosen very small independent films and its kind of helped me in a sense to make the transition and I think also help the audience to make the transition from accepting me as something other than what they see me as every day.

DALE: What surprised me, was you were brought up in Crouch End.

GILLIAN: I know.

DALE: So you're a North London girl.

GILLIAN: I know.

DALE: And the accents so strong, so how long were you living over there?

GILLIAN: I was living in, I'm not sure how long I was actually in Crouch End, but I was living in England for about nine years, starting from when I was two.

DALE: There are a couple of questions I've got to ask you. You have more pages on the Internet and the Web-Sites than everybody else that I know and they say the strangest things about you. I made a couple of notes of a couple of things, could you qualify or deny some of these for us now?

GILLIAN: OK.

DALE: Eight out of ten classmates said that Gillian will go bald.

GILLIAN: Thats correct, they did.

DALE: They did?

GILLIAN: Yeah.

DALE: And it says here "Gillian's Tasty Bug Dinner". You actually, in The X-Files had to eat, really eat a bug.

GILLIAN: I did, er, I didn't swallow it but I put it in my mouth yeah.

DALE: Ooooh, And it says, I know you mentioned this earlier, you like everything about a man except his hands.

GILLIAN: No, I didn't say that.

DALE: Before you go, are they OK?

Dale holds his hands up.

GILLIAN: Yeah.

DALE: Yeah, they'll do, they'll do. Thanks for joining us on the show, Gillian Anderson, lovely to see you.

GILLIAN: Thank you.