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Gillian Anderson Never Meant To Sound Ungrateful For Her Role In ‘The X-Files’

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 20:57 PST, Mar 31, 2016

Gillian Anderson didn’t exactly like The X-Files from the very beginning, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. The 47-year-old actress revealed in her recent interview with the Tribune that she didn’t become an actress to star in a science-fiction series.

But it just happened the way it happened, and even though the actress didn’t expect to get involved in science-fiction projects in her acting career, she just “got swept up into” it. Gillian Anderson also revealed that she always loved Merchant Ivory films, and she wanted to star in a project similar to Prime Suspect.

“And so when I was cast in The X-Files… it was just a little off to the left of where I had seen my career going.”

The Tribune notes that it wasn’t exactly easy to interview Gillian Anderson back when The X-Files debuted on television in 1993. The actress was just too anxious about this whole popularity thing, as the actress went from being no one in the movie industry to being an internationally recognizable actress at the age of 25.

Gillian Anderson also admitted that it took her a while after the series ended its run to actually realize that The X-Files was a true gift for her.

“I think it took a good decade for me to suddenly start thinking of it as the gift that it was and to properly appreciate the opportunity that I had.”

Gillian Anderson also said she was fortunate to play Agent Dana Scully, “a great, iconic character” in a series that was “iconic in and of itself.” In fact, it was long after the series ended that the actress understood the enthusiasm of The X-Files fans.

Gillian Anderson recalled that it happened during the 2015 comic con, which was held just weeks after The X-Files revival entered the shooting stage. That’s when the actress truly got caught up in “the degree of enthusiasm” from the show’s fans.

The actress also recalled that it was The X-Files theme music that really got her thinking how the series might be perceived by the fans. At that very moment, Gillian Anderson realized what it might be like for the fans to “sit on a couch… in front of their television and hear that tune again for the first time when a first episode is going to be aired.” And that’s when she got excited with them.

Gillian Anderson has been blasted on several occasions for not appreciating what The X-Files did for her career, but in the interview with the Tribune the actress said she had “never meant to sound that way.”

And even though Gillian Anderson is clearly not as enthusiastic about The X-Files as most of the series’ fans, she was still enthusiastic about signing on to the revival project. The X-Files reboot (season 10) aired from January 24 through February 22, 2016.

Gillian Anderson and Fifty Shades of Grey star Jamie Dornan ended filming for the third season of The Fall earlier this month, according to Belfast Telegraph. The psychological thriller, created by Allan Cubitt, will see the final battle between Spector and Gibson this season.

The second season concluded with Specter bleeding in the arms of Gibson, who thought she had him, but at that moment she is losing him. Anderson and Dornan were spotted in Belfast on several occasions this year, and at the beginning of this month, Gillian Anderson tweeted a photo of herself and wrote, “That’s a wrap on Stella Gibson!”

Dornan, meanwhile, completed filming his scenes in the third series in late February and has already started working on the newest installment of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, in which he stars alongside Dakota Johnson.

[Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]

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The X-Files Gillian Anderson Fifty Shades of Grey Dakota Johnson Jamie Dornan
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