An Evening With Gillian Anderson

Do you remember, back when you were younger, the first person that you bought a poster of? You know, the one that took pride of place in your room, the one that never was moved despite your changing tastes and moods? Yes, good. Then you’ll understand what I think of Gillian Anderson.

Gillian as Agent Dana Scully from the X Files

Back to 1993 (seems like another lifetime, well it was 18 years ago!) the X-files hit the screens and we were introduced to Agent Dana Scully.

To 11 year old me, Scully was the perfect woman, she was beautiful, had a strong character, was clever and was also a geek/nerd. She was my first celebrity crush for sure!

Roll on a few more years and times have changed, the X-files is no more and the Gillian posters had made way to more mature and minimalist room layout.

Then a couple of weeks ago I was told that Gillian was giving a talk at the Rose Theatre in Kingston and tickets were limited and only £6 each. How could I say no to that! (Thank you Sian so much for the spare ticket!)

Being not in central London it meant driving rather than getting the train, which was a nice change, it also meant that there was no need to rush as the end of the talk.

The venue was really intimate, there were only about 60 people there and we were in the third row. When Gillian came out with the interviewer there was a big cheer, my initial reaction was how tiny she is, she looked like a china doll, but just as stunning as I remembered!

A new side of Gillian from her FHM photoshoot - Stunning!

The talk was split into two parts, the first part being an interview before it was opened up to the floor for questions.

Gillian came across really well, she’s now into her 40’s but she’s still as gorgeous as ever. When answering the interview questions she gave each one a good amount of thought and gave truly well crafted answered no yes/no answers. It was really good to get an insight into Gillian herself.

There were a good selection of questions asked to Gillian, including a few you’d normally expect, ie what’s your favourite X-file, Will you run away with me, if they do a third movie will you be in it, do you feel typecast by Scully, etc.

It was interesting to find out that Gillian almost never became an actress. When she was about 12 years old she auditioned for the part of Alice, from Alice in Wonderland for a youth theatre show, what she hadn’t realised that approximately 200 other people were there for the same part.

Gillian signing autographs

Suffice to say Gillian didn’t get the part and gave up, she didn’t do anything for about 4 years, she then ended up chatting to one of the people that she auditioned for, they had wanted to cast her but as she’s never done anything they couldn’t take the risk. The moral, if at first you don’t succeed, don’t give up!

The last question of the night was a great one to end on. It was “Do you feel / What point did you feel comfortable in your own skin?”

Her answer I can’t actually fully remember... But from what I remember she feels a lot more comfortable now she’s in her 40’s, does anybody ever wake up and look in the mirror and think “yes” this is me? I know I don’t (well not yet).

Once the talk came to an end (20 mins later than planned as Gillian was happy to keep chatting) it was time to give the stage door a look...

Gillian signing

I’ve done a few stage doors now, there weren’t too many people and the staff came out and said that Gillian was happy to sign autographs. The whole affair wasn’t overly well organised though, as Gillian is tiny she was quickly lost in the crowd, I was able to get through to her (being 6ft has it’s advantages!!) and get her autograph, during the signings Gillian got turned around a few times and realised she was walking away from her car at which point she did look a little paniced...

All was ok in the end and Gillian made it safely to her waiting car having managed to sign something for most people, I personally think if it had been organised a little better she would have stayed and signed longer...

Overall an awesome night and I can now say I’ve managed to meet one of my icons, fingers crossed she does a convention one day.