Gillian Anderson at the 81st Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 7, 2024 ... [+]
The X-Files star Gillian Anderson just did a video rewind segment on her career and recalled a weird encounter with a fan who had a tattoo of her face in a very unique place.
In a Vanity Fair segment posted Wednesday, Anderson commented on various projects she’s appeared in throughout her career, including The X-Files, Sex Education, The Crown and her most recent film, the Netflix true-life drama Scoop.
The segment begins with Anderson’s recollections of The X-Files, in which she recalled her unique encounters with the fan base of the classic paranormal conspiracy theory series.
One such fan encounter yielded quite a surprise for Anderson, who played FBI Special Agent Dana Scully opposite David Duchovny’s FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder.
“I would sometimes go and do press around the world, and there was one year where I showed up at, you know, these book signings, I mean, thousands and thousands, like 15, 20,000 people in each of the malls,” Anderson recalled for Vanity Fair.
She then added, “I became aware of how big the show was — well, that, and when somebody came up to the desk that I was sitting at and dropped his trousers and showed me the tattoo of my face on his butt cheek and David was on the other butt cheek.”
THE X-FILES - SEASON 7: Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny, L) and Agent Dana Scully (Gillian ... [+]
Anderson Says Fox Had No Idea How Big ‘The X-Files’ Was Going to Get
The X-Files – which premiered on Fox Television in 1993, marked Gillian Anderson’s first big role. In the Vanity Fair segment, Anderson said she had no idea how massively popular the show would become with viewers — nor did Fox.
Instead, the network had its bets placed on Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell’s Western comedy series The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., which The X-Files ultimately left behind in the dust.
“It wasn't the show that Fox thought was gonna be their popular show,” Anderson recalled for Vanity Fair. “They had all their eggs and their money on something called Briscoe County or something like that, and this crazy, strange, unique, dark show ended up the No. 1 show. It would get 42 million viewers on a Friday night.”
Campbell, ironically, turned up in a guest appearance on The X-Files in the seventh episode of Season 6 in 1999.
Anderson’s run on The X-Files spanned from 1993 to 2018. Apart from the initial series run from 1993-2001, she also appeared in two X-Files feature films and a two-season reboot of the series from 2016-2018.
When a news update about The X-Files being rebooted by Black Panther director Ryan Coogler surfaced recently, Anderson appeared reluctant about revealing her interest in reprising Agent Dana Scully again.
During an interview to discuss Scoop, Anderson told NBC’s Today show, “Since I have finished The X-Files, every interview I do, people have asked and the answer has always been, ‘Nope, not going to happen, not going to happen.’”
While Anderson told Today that she might be interested in appearing in Coogler’s reboot, she was reluctant to talk about a Scully comeback when I interviewed her hours after her NBC appearance.
“Is it okay that we not address that? It’s something that’s come out and of course [it’s] atop of all the headlines and it actually has no presence in my life,” Anderson said of the idea of reprising Scully. “You know, [if] I answer one question it becomes international news, so I don’t want to talk about it.”
Released April 5 on Netflix, Scoop stars Anderson as BBC Newsnight anchor Emily Maitlis, who conducted a blockbuster interview with Prince Andrew (Rufus Sewell) about his friendship with disgraced financier and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
