Gillian: I go through periods when I feel confident and then I'm apt to be impulsive. But then I go through other times where I lose that confidence and I just feel like a total hypocrite. For a lot of my life I've had this feeling of something being wrong. It's hard to describe, but it's like having a sense of dread from the moment I get up to the moment I go to bed. There's this constant feeling that an accident is about to happen, or that I've done something bad that someone is going to find out.
Gillian: (revealing she didn‘t like starring in the X-Files but was locked into her contract) I couldn't get out of it. I didn't have a choice. I had to sign a contract for five-and-a-half-years before I even went to my first audition - when I didn't know if I'd got the part. Back then I was all innocent and I thought, 'Wow that sounds wonderful.' But then I realised I'd be in a Canadian wood working 16 hours a day for nine months a year. I stayed so long was because the only way I could get more money was to commit myself to doing it for another couple of years.
Gillian: (On her daughter, Piper) You know what she said recently? We were playing Scrabble, and we were playing for a while and she was kind of getting bored and then I put down the word 'smug.' And she goes, "Smug?" And I said, "Yeah, it's a word actually." And she goes, "Self-satisfied. I know, mom." If I were to give a definition for smug, I'd be like, "Well, it's kinda like when... umm... you know, when you're... you know.." And I'd come up with something that would be like this long. (Holds out hands) And she just gave a perfect definition.
Gillian: Sugar. Sugar, it just makes my heart race. It makes my moods swing up and down. I don't like myself on sugar. I like being kind of even. So I quit coffee this year too.
Gillian: (On her pregnancy with her daughter, Piper) I mean, honestly, I cannot remember P kicking! Was it the hours, the FX smoke, the dummies with maggots eating their eyes out? What distracted me from such an important and momentous experience!?
Gillian: (After reading The X-Files script) I couldn't put the script down!
Gillian: My whole belief system is that our paths are drawn for us. I believe in reincarnation. I believe we're here to learn and grow. ... We choose how we come into this life based on what it is we have to learn. Some people have harder lessons than others.
Gillian: I believe people are in our lives for a reason. We're here to learn from each other.
Gillian: I also respond very strongly to characters I have not done before ... something I can really sink my teeth into, and what's scary, and what terrifies me, because that's where I need to go.
Gillian: Somehow, I have no idea how the transition was made from wanting to be an archeologist or a marine biologist, to wanting to be an actress, but it just kind of happened.
Gillian: First of all, I swore I'd never move to Los Angeles, and once I did, I swore I'd never do television. It was only after being out of work for almost a year that I began going in [to auditions] on some stuff that I would pray that I wouldn't get because I didn't want to be involved in it.
Gillian: Well, it seems to me that the best relationships - the ones that last - are frequently the ones that are rooted in friendship. You know, one day you look at the person and you see something more than you did the night before. Like a switch has been flicked somewhere. And the person who was just a friend is... suddenly the only person you can ever imagine yourself with.
Gillian: People generally treat me like I'm very intelligent and really, I'm much less intelligent than she is. Scully is insanely intelligent.
Gillian: I truly believe that we can overcome any hurdle that lies before us and create the life we want to live. I have seen it happen time and time again.
Gillian: "I am more spontaneous than my character..."
From the yahoo chat, april 2000: Question: I would like to know what your dream role is--any character from any play or piece of literature that you could choose. Gillian: I have many. Many and none. I love some of the contemporary female roles that have been written in films. I loved all the characters in American Beauty and Shakespeare in Love and Magnolia. Historically, I'd love to do Lady MacBeth. I love to do Hedda Gabler. And eventually, I'd love to do Blanche.
Gillian Anderson: (About the movie Wallace & Gromit) There's also Nick Park. I mean, Wallace and Gromit--I've been a fan for years and years, and actually I got kind of territorial when it started to become more mainstream, because it was like my little secret. (Laughs) I hated that everybody was finding out about it, but of course that's great for him.
Gillian: You're only given as much as you can handle at any given time. Whether it's true or not, it gives you the strength.
Gillian about her pregnancy: "During the first season, I didn't know who the hell I was, let alone who this character was. I feel stronger as a person in the world now. I remember, after going through the birthing process, feeling that no cut, no abrasions, no knock on the head will make me whine again."
Gillian: "[What fascinates me most about Lily Bart is] the journey that she goes on. No matter how many times I read the script, tears came to my eyes. There was just something about it that was so tragic. The way that Terence was able to transfer the novel to film, I think he did it very, very well. I honestly believe that our focus back then and today, is in the wrong place in this Western world. As long as we continue to put our focus [on material wealth] and not on the heart and in compassion for others and in the wealth of love and giving and understanding, we will continue to be faced with the same dilemmas that Lily is."
Gillian about the play play What the Night is For: "I loved being in London. But what I loved the most, I think, and what I learned from the most, was about the 'moment to moment' focus that takes place in live theater."
Gillian about Africa: "I can remember very little and, on the other hand, what I do remember will forever stick out in my mind. The withering tortured bodies of AIDS orphans. The immediate change in energy from one African country to the next as one crosses the border. The terrifying and exhilarating rafting trip down the white waters of the Zambezi River. The friends along the way. The cards played anywhere and everywhere. And that landscape that fills a hole somewhere deep down in one's history."
It was once rumored that Gillian did not want to film a second X-Files movie. But she cleared things up on her website, saying that everyone, including herself, wanted another movie.
It was once rumored that Gillian and her X-Files co-star, David Duchovny, hated each other.
Was the voice of the ship's computer in the video game, Hellbender.
Gillian's father, Edward Anderson, owns a post-production film company.
Gillian Anderson has two tattoos: One around her right ankle, and one on the inside of her right wrist. In the X-Files episode Never Again, Gillian's character, Agent Dana Scully, had a tattoo and Gillian offered to have it done properly for the camera. They decided against this though as it would take too long.
For a complete change of pace, Gillian moved to London where, from November 2002 through February 9, 2003, she starred in the Michael Weller play What the Night is For in London's West End.
Gillian was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie at the Emmy Awards for the movie Bleak House.
Gillian returned to work on The X-Files 10 days after she gave birth Piper Maru.
Gillian spent her first paycheck from The X-Files on art.
In 2003, she won the Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers' Choice Best Actress Award for her West End debut in Michael Weller's two-hander, What the Night Is For.
Gillian played Sara Zach in The Last King of Scotland (2006) (completed).
Is in pre-production for No One Gets Off in This Town.
Her birthday is 2 days after her X-files partner David Duchovny.
By 1997, Gillian was selected as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World by People magazine.
She had a nose piercing in her younger years.
Tattoos include a Tahitian tribal symbol on the inside of her right ankle, the words "every day" in Sanskrit on her right wrist, and a "P" on her left hip.
Anderson and Ozanne announced their separation on 21 April 2006, after 16 months of marriage.
In 2006, she was nominated for the prestigious BAFTA Television Award for Best Actress and won the Broadcasting Press Guild Television and Radio award for Best Actress for her role in Bleak House.
Gillian won an Emmy Award in 1997 for best actress of the year in a series.
Gillian was 24 when she began her role as Dana Scully in X-Files. Chris Carter was the only one to believe that she was the right one to perform her. (The FOX executives didn't want her to play the role because of her young age.)
A lot of teens were rude to her because of her British accent; she became a rebel after that.
As a child, Gillian showed a flair for drama but was more of a tomboy who harbored dreams of becoming a Marine Biologist rather than those of movie stardom. "I loved digging up worms and cutting them up into little pieces. In the interests of science, of course!"
Awards: For her role as Agent Scully in The X-Files: Blockbuster Entertainment Award: Favorite Sci-Fi Actress Won (1999) Emmy Award: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Nominated (1996, 1998, 1999) Won (1997) Golden Globes: Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series (Drama) Nominated (1996, 1998, 1999) Won (1997) Golden Satellite Award: Best Performance by an Actress in a Series, Drama Nominated (1997, 1998, 1999, 2001) National Television Award (UK): Most Popular Actress Nominated (1996, 1997) Saturn Award: Best Actress in TV Series Nominated (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002) Won (1997) Sci-Fi Universe Magazine Reader's Choice Award: Best Actress in a Genre TV Series Won (1995) Screen Actors Guild Award: Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series Nominated (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001) Won (1996, 1997) TV Guide Awards: Favorite Actress in a Drama Nominated (1999, 2000) Viewers for Quality Television Award: Best Actress in a Quality Drama Series Won (1998, 1999) Nominated (1995) For her role as Lily Bart in The House of Mirth: British Independent Film Award: Best Actress Won (2000) Golden Satellite Award: Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama Nominated (2001) London Critics Circle Film Award: Actress of the Year Nominated (2001) Village Voice Film Critics Poll: Best Performance Won (2000)
The Sundance Channel recently aired The Mighty Celt in which Gillian plays a single mother living with her young son in Belfast, Ireland.
She is now separated from her husband Julian Ozanne.
She shares a birthday with Eric Bana.
She spent her first paycheck from "The X-Files" on art.
Presented the best designer award at the 51st Evening Standard Theatre Awards (2005).
As a teen, her favorite bands included Skinny Puppy and Dead Kennedys.
She married her long-term boyfriend Julian Ozanne on December 29 2004.
Standing at just 5' 3", she has to stand on an apple box to shoot many scenes in "The X Files".
She graduated from City High School, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Gillian has said that she believes that there is life outside of our planet.
Gained her first real break when she replaced Mary-Louise Parker in the play "The Philanthropist."
Lived in London, England, from age 2 to age 11, then moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Was voted "Most Likely to be Arrested" by her classmates in high school, she has been arrested on graduation night for trying to glue the locks shut at her high school. The funny thing is that in a episode of Xfiles, season 4, Small Potatoes, 4-20, she tells to the wrong mulder (Eddie Van Blundt) that she has been arrested in high school.
Younger brother suffers from neurofibromatosis and she has done work to encourage government to increase funding for reasearch.
Rumors said that on the set of X-files she hated David Duchovny's wife: Tea L?oni.
Gillian was married to her first husband, Clyde Klotz, on the 17th hole of a golf course in Hawaii by a buddist priest.
The X-Files episode "Piper Maru" was named after Gillian's daughter.
The official Gillian Anderson Webpage is:
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