True Believer
by Ian Spelling

With Mulder away with the aliens, Gillian Anderson is very much in charge of The X-Files this year....

Back in the beginning, in the earliest days of The X-Files, Gillian Anderson was instructed by the powers that be to stay a step or two behind David Duchovny. The two were not equals, as it were, not co-stars in the truest sense. Duchovny was the lead and Anderson, then just 24 years old and pretty much an unknown, was merely along for the ride. It was Fox Mulder with Dana Scully, not Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. 

Oh, how things have changed.

As the show grew in popularity, as fans became increasingly devoted to the series, to its complex characters, it convoluted but absorbing mythology and its stars, Anderson became very much Duchovny's equal, just as Dana emerged as Fox's equal. Now, with The X-Files mid-way in its eighth season and Duchovny, by his own choice, relegated to part-time player status, Anderson is the show's shining star. And even though these days Scully is surrounded by sceptical FBI Agent John Doggett (Robert Patrick) and new believer Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), make no mistake about it, Scully is the show's leading lady. As if to back up that point, the season opener Within, featured a brief but memorable scene in which Scully walked through a hallway in a take-charge manner, supported by camera moves that made her - as well as Anderson - appear taller and more forceful than ever before. 

"...Whether it's with David or without David, whether it's with Robert or without Robert, the work is the work. I'm very grateful that Robert is there this season. He's been tremendous to work with and I like what's happening with Scully and Doggett"

Gillian Anderson on working with The X-Files

Anderson remembers shooting that particular scene, but she insists it was in now way designed to put her in the center. Nor, she stresses, did she think - as the camera honed in on her - long and hard about those days standing behind Duchovny or just how far up the food chain she's managed to climb. "All I thought was, they want Scully to be front and center now," she recalls. "There have definitely been some shifts in Scully's behavior and just the way her energy is in the episodes this season, but it just seems to be par for the course. It's a natural development given that Mulder isn't around and Scully still is. It's nothing that I'm necessarily attached to. I just, most of the time, end up going with the flow.

"I honestly don't think about me in those moments. Shooting that scene, there was no being psyched about it. It's a good moment for Scully, but I just showed up and did the work. Whether it's with David or without David, whether it's with Robert or without Robert, the work is the work. I'm very grateful that Robert is there this season. He's been tremendous to work with and I like what's happening with Scully and Doggett, but I don't think there's been one second where I thought, "Oh yeah, I get to be in charge now". It's just not the way I operate." 

Going about her business means turning up on set and sinking her teeth into this season's stories. Anderson "loved" the first two episodes, Within and Without, which introduced Doggett and offered fleeting glimpses of Mulder. She also figured prominently in the episode Patience, Roadrunners, Invocation and Surekill. Roadrunners, in particular, helped Scully and Doggett form a bond, as she realized her mistake in not having him accompany her on an investigation that nearly left her the slug-bearing sacrifice of a bizarre cult. And what of upcoming shows? "I liked one with David that hasn't aired yet." she says. "It has to do with flashbacks of our relationship and the night that Scully may have conceived her baby. I think we did that as the fifth episode this season, but they're holding it. And after the holidays, in February, David will be back to shoot six episodes that will run toward the end of the season."     

Away from the X-Files set in Los Angeles, Anderson has spent her limited free time bonding with her daughter Piper, now six years old, working on behalf of various charitable organizations, and promoting her latest feature, The House of Mirth. Directed by Terence Davies and based on the Edith Wharton novel, the independent art house-style film casts Anderson as Lily Bart, a beautiful and willful society woman seeking the impossible at the turn of the century: a man whom she can love and has enough money to keep her immersed in the spoils - flowing dresses, vases of flowers, fancy parties - of upper crust life. Though she meets a man whom she loves (Eric Stoltz). he can't support her, and when rumours start and jealousy rages, Lily is doomed. The film is as far removed from The X-Files as the actress's earlier big screen efforts, which have included Chicago Cab, The Mighty and Playing by Heart.    

"I'd known of Terence's work and had been a big fan of a couple of his previous film's," Anderson says of the director, whose credits include Distant Voices, Still Lives, The Long Day Closes and The Neon Bible. "I came into this knowing the particular type of film he was used to making and I was interested in being involved with somebody who makes different kinds of films trying to make a period piece. I thought the union of the two would be a fascinating experiment to be involved in. So I was up for it from the beginning. People really seem to be reacting to what they see on the screen. It's touching people, so I'm thrilled for Terence, because hopefully it means he'll make more films - he only does one every five years or so - and hopefully people will go back and see his other films. I'm also thrilled for everybody else involved in the film because it's always nice to be a part of something people think is special."  

Though she politely deflects any talk of Oscar nominations, the Emmy Award winner will more than happily revisit all things, the X-Files episode she directed last season. The dramatic hour involved Scully's unexpected reunion with a man (Nicolas Surovy) from her romantic past, a reunion that sent Scully soul searching - literally and figuratively - as the episode explored issues of faith and choice, hope and despair, love and loneliness. "I was, overall, pleased with all things," Anderson notes. "The process was a long one. The final script was much more compressed and shorter than I anticipated. There were many scenes that were not able to fit in there, but I was satisfied with the final draft.  

"I came into this knowing the particular type of film he was used to making....I thought the union of the two would be a fascinating experiment to be involved in. So I was up for it from the beginning."

Gillian on her role in The House of Mirth

"I also think that, overall, the mood and the feeling of the show and what I was attempting to get across, came across. So I was very pleased with that. I was also very pleased by the response to the episode. The response to it was very supportive and encouraging, and that was from friends and fans alike. 

Asked if she'll either pen and/or direct another episode in the near future, Anderson pauses. "I'd like to write or direct another one, but it won't be this season, unless I get a sudden idea for something," she says, directing the conversation to its conclusion. "I haven't had one yet, though, and to put the time into writing and directing a show you really have to have an idea and believe in it. So maybe next season.

Source: Starburst, Typed by me , and all transcripts are my exclusive property (you can link to this website though)