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The Late Show with David Letterman
Sept. 30, 1996

DAVID: Our next guest stars in the wildly popular television program known as "The X-Files" which makes its season premiere this Friday. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome back the lovely and talented "Senorita" Gillian Anderson.

(Music, GA walks out, applause, etc.)

DAVID: How do you do?

GILLIAN: I�m good, thank you. Hola!

DAVID: Hola!

GILLIAN: �Como est�?

DAVID: Hola! Si, oui. Tres bien. Um

GILLIAN: (laughs)

DAVID: Nice to see you back here. I trust you had a lovely summer.

GILLIAN: I did have a lovely summer. Thank you.

DAVID: What�d you do for the summer? Did you have the summer off, first off, let�s start there.

GILLIAN: I did have it off, but I made the choice to do some traveling, to do some publicity

DAVID: Where�d you go? You get pregnant? (laughs)

GILLIAN: (laughs) Not this time, sorry to say.

DAVID: Yeah, well, okay.

GILLIAN: But I took my daughter with me who�s now two.

DAVID: Oh, good. Good for you. Where�d you guys go?

GILLIAN: We went to a, .. Italy, Germany, France, Bali, Tahiti, Australia.

DAVID: (wipes forehead) Whew.

GILLIAN: Just hopped around from place to place.

DAVID: Really? This sounds more like a kidnapping. One of those Patty Hurst deals.

GILLIAN: (laughs) No machine guns.

DAVID: Seriously, you traveled all over Europe (GA: We did) and then you went to the South Pacific?

GILLIAN: Yes!

DAVID: My goodness! How long were you gone?

GILLIAN: About uh, two and a half months.

DAVID: Really?

GILLIAN: For the whole time, about two and a half months.

DAVID: So you didn�t get to come home for two and a half months.

GILLIAN: We didn�t get to- No, it was actually kind of nice. DAVID: Yep.

GILLIAN: Spent some time, uh Bali is absolutely beautiful.

DAVID: I�ve heard that. I don�t know anything about it. I�m not even sure where it is.

GILLIAN: It�s very - a lot of palm trees.

DAVID: What is it near?

GILLIAN: It�s near Lambac (sp?)

(DL and audience laugh; GA joins in)

GILLIAN: It�s, it�s north of Australia.

DAVID: Uh, I�m not even sure if it�s near Larchmont, Dave. (WHAT?) Just up the turnpike.

GILLIAN: (laughs) It�s a, it�s north of Australia.

DAVID: Uh, huh.

GILLIAN: It�s actually uh-

DAVID: Is it in the Pacific, in the Indian Ocean? What is it in?

GILLIAN: What would that be?

DAVID: The Japan Sea? Where is it?

GILLIAN: That would be uh, that would probably be the Indian Ocean, huh? (looks at audience) Indian Ocean, don�t you think? Huh? Yeah?

DAVID: I don�t know. Weren�t you there? Wait a minute, weren�t you there?!

GILLIAN: I was there. I was there! But nobody said, "You are now swimming in the Indian Ocean."

DAVID: (laughs)

GILLIAN: But, it�s interesting because they, at least at the hotel that I was staying at, they speak very good English.

DAVID: Mmm, hm.

GILLIAN: But you get the impression that they don�t really understand you very well.

DAVID: Right ..

GILLIAN: Because you�ll say something, and ask them to repeat it back and it�s completely different. I had an experience the last day that we were there. I bought a charcoal drawing, quite large ..

DAVID: A charcoal drawing of, of, is this of indigionous art, is what it was?

GILLIAN: .. of a naked Balinese woman, actually.

DAVID: Really? A naked Polinese woman.

GILLIAN: Yeah. Balanise.

DAVID: Balinese. Oh, Bali. From Bali.

GILLIAN: As opposed to Polinesian, right. So, um, and, uh .. (audience laughs, GA giggles) I wanted to put it in my suitcase, but I didn�t want it to get ruined, so I called down to the general manager and I said, "Do you Have a cardboard tube?"

DAVID: Right, like a mailing tube?

GILLIAN: So that I could like a mailing tube. And he said, "Um, can you describe that to me?" and I said, "Well, it�s long, and it�s cylindrical, and you put things inside it to keep them from wrinkling." and he said, "Uh, huh." and I said, "Do you know what I�m talking about?" and he said, "What�s cardboard?"

DAVID: There you go ..

GILLIAN: And I said, "Well, it�s um, boxes! Boxes are made out of cardboard, but it�s like squished together and hard and round and long." and he said, "Is a mini-van too small?"

DAVID: Yeaaah. (audience laughs)

GILLIAN: .. I said, "We are not having this conversation any more."

DAVID: So suddenly you�re, you�re playing the Balinese version of the twenty thousand dollar pyramid just to try to get your picture off the island.

GILLIAN: (laughs) Yeah.

DAVID: And what is life like there? Is it primitive? Is it um ..

GILLIAN: Well, it�s interesting because it�s, it�s beautiful. There are a lot of shacks all over the place. But you know, the qual-, the standard of living is not very high. But they are a very spiritual country and so in front of all of the shacks they have these stone monuments to their gods. And it�s strange that, they�re religion is a mixture of Hinduism and Buddhism, and their own kind of an assortment of religions. Um, but there are these amazing religious structures in front of every single shack.

DAVID: How big is the island?

GILLIAN: Um, how big is the island? I don�t know. Maybe as big as, uh, Rhode Island?

DAVID: Really? So it�s enormous then. It�s vast!

GILLIAN: (laughs) I have no idea. I know, it�s like

DAVID: So you just made that up.

GILLIAN: (laughs) Actually, I did! I see it on the map, and I have no frame I mean it�s a dot.

DAVID: Right.

GILLIAN: It�s a dot on the map. It�s bigger than Tahiti . .

DAVID: Bigger than Tahiti ..

GILLIAN: It�s smaller than ..

DAVID: Smaller than Hawaii.

GILLIAN: Smaller than Hawaii, bigger than Tahiti.

DAVID: Right. Smaller than Australia.

GILLIAN: Much smaller It�s a dot!

DAVID: Yeah.

GILLIAN: Australia�s like a quarter.

DAVID: A smudge. That�s right, yeah.

GILLIAN: A smudge.

DAVID: Tell these folks about the season premiere of the X-Files, Friday night, what�s gonna happen, what is happening ..

GILLIAN: Do you really expect me to tell you what happens on the show?

DAVID: Sure. Absolutely.

GILLIAN: I can�t tell you, Dave! I don�t want- I can�t tell you. If I tell you . . .

DAVID: Yeah ..

GILLIAN: I will have to kill you.

DAVID: That�s, that�s all right. Take your best shot. (audience laughs/cheers) Go ahead, unload. Goodbye everybody!

GILLIAN: You�d love that, wouldn�t you?

DAVID: You know, uh, the last time you were here we talked about you had received an Emmy nomination for your work on the show and uh, David Doo-cuv-ney, Doo-chuv-ney, however he�s pronouncing it now, uh-

GILLIAN: (laughing) WHAT are you saying?

DAVID: (laughs) was overlooked but you said he was very gracious about the fact that you, you know ..

GILLIAN: He was incredibly gracious. He�s been pounding the doughnuts a bit, but he�s a, he�s incredibly gracious. (Audience oooohs) That�s a joke! Come on!

DAVID: He�s been, he�s been what?!

GILLIAN: No, he was incredibly gracious.

DAVID: So what did you say he was being

GILLIAN: I said he was pounding the doughnuts.

DAVID: Pounding the doughnuts ..

GILLIAN: No, I saw this thing, on this little thing, on the front, somebody said .. (audience and DL laugh) .. somebody�s saying he�s been shooting up heroine lately. Which he hasn�t been. . .

DAVID: What are you No, that�s right.

GILLIAN: Of course! He�s, I mean, what can you do? He�s just, he was very, very gracious.

DAVID: Yeah, uh, so, but anyway .. the show now, give us a

GILLIAN: Buuuut anyway. ..

DAVID: - an encapsulated version of what the show is. Now some people are the uh, the monster robots from space, and some people are not.

GILLIAN: Wait, no. Hang on a second. Hang on a second.

DAVID: But some people are and some people are not.

GILLIAN: The last time I was here we got into this conversation and it went like, south, really fast.

DAVID: Well, that�s because you�re talking to a dumb guy

GILLIAN: We�re not going to have this conversation

DAVID: I, you know .. but some are, and some ain�t, right?

GILLIAN: No! I�m not going to have this conversation with you, Dave.

DAVID: And you, you�re not.

GILLIAN: I�m not going to have this conversation with you!

DAVID: And that�s why people like to tune in every week, because they think, "Oh, wait a minute, maybe they oh, thank God they didn�t get to her .."

GILLIAN: No, when you watch the show, then we can talk about the show. Okay?

DAVID: All right, that seems fair enough.

GILLIAN: That a deal? When you watch the show for the first time, then we can have this conversation.

DAVID: No, I�ve seen the show! I have seen the show. I�m just, you know, for folks maybe who haven�t seen the show.

GILLIAN: (laughs)

DAVID: Anyway, it begins it�s fourth year, third year?

GILLIAN: Yeah, starting it�s fourth year on Fridays

DAVID: Fourth year.

GILLIAN: - and then on October 27 we move to Sundays.

DAVID: Oh, well, that�s probably good, right?

GILLIAN: I hope so!

DAVID: Yeah, good for you. Congratulations ..

GILLIAN: Thank you.

DAVID: You look wonderful. I�m happy you enjoyed your summer.

GILLIAN: Thanks for having me back.

DAVID: Gillian Anderson, ladies and gentlemen.


Transcript appears courtesy of The Late Show and CBS.



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