Gillian Anderson Answers The Web's Most Searched Questions

Gillian Anderson joins WIRED to answer her most searched questions from Google. Why did she lie about her age to be casted for The X Files? How did she get honorary British citizenship? How would she describe her style on Netflix's Sex Education? The actor answers all these questions and more!Director: Justin WolfsonDirector of Photography: Jack BelisleEditor: Louville MooreTalent: Gillian AndersonLine Producer: Joseph BuscemiAssociate Producer: Brandon WhiteProduction Manager: Peter BrunetteProduction and Equipment Manager: Kevin BalashTalent Booker: Jenna Caldwell; Meredith JudkinsCamera Operator: Christopher EustacheSound Mixer: Mike GugginoProduction Assistant: Sonia ButtSet Designer: Jeremy Derbyshire-MylesPost Production Supervisor: Christian OlguinPost Production Coordinator: Ian BryantSupervising Editor: Doug LarsenAssistant Editor: Justin Symonds

Video Transcript

- I am Gillian Anderson and this is the "Wired" autocomplete interview.[upbeat music] That's pretty cool.[Gillian blowing] [upbeat music continues] "What age was Gillian Anderson in "The X-Files"?"Well, when I was first cast I was 24 years old.I lied.I told 'em I was 27 because I didn't think they would hire me if I was 24, not least because the character that I played, Dana Scully, was already a doctor and an FBI agent.Yeah, you can't be those things when you're 24."What is Gillian Anderson" "working on now?"[Velcro tearing] I'm doing a Netflix western called "Abandons," written by Kurt Sutter, gonna be riding a horse and shooting a pistol, and that's all that matters.[Velcro tearing] "What does my tattoo say?"Which one?This is a tattoo, which is in Sanskrit, and it's one of the eight limbs of yoga, which is about right mind and right action.[Velcro tearing] "What did Gillian Anderson" "wear to the 'Golden Globes'?"I wore a dress covered in vaginas.Gabriella Hearst, who is a designer and a friend of mine, made the dress and it was handcrafted by many very talented women, and I think each panel had, oh, I'm forgetting now, there were a lot of vaginas.That's basically all I have to say.A lot of vaginas.[Velcro tears] "Gillian Anderson books."Do I have a book coming out in September called "Want" that Bloomsbury is putting out, and it is a collection of women's sexual fantasies.There was a book in the seventies called "My Secret Garden" by Nancy Friday, and she put a call out to women asking them to submit their fantasies anonymously.I did the same thing last year, and a lot of women wrote in, about 800 completed letters, and we have chosen 174 of them for the book.[Velcro tears] "Gillian Anderson characters."Voice of God, what does this mean?- [Producer] What's one character that you had wrestled with the most?- Blanche DuBois from "Streetcar Named Desire" in London and New York, and she goes mad by the end of the play, and going mad eight times a week for two, three months at a time can take it out of a girl, but I loved it.She still lives inside me somewhere."Gillian Anderson" [Velcro tears] ""Princess Mononoke"" is an animation film by Miyazaki who's a Japanese animator and he is a legend and I have always been a fan of his films and, particularly, my daughter, who's 29, grew up on his films, and at one point they asked me if I would play Moro, a goddess who is in the shape of a wolf, and so I do the voiceover for the English version of "Princess Mononoke."Fun fact, the original voice was quite deep, and so while I was doing it, I was trying to get my voice [laughs] to be that deep for the She Wolf, and never quite got there."Gillian Anderson knows" [Velcro tears] "how to make a fashion statement."I think what's being referred to is the thong for the "Vanity Fair" party, maybe?There was a jersey dress that I was going to wear.It was very low cut in the back, and so I couldn't wear underwear with it, but then my pubic hair stuck out in the front, at that time, didn't really want to, you know, shave it all off, and so I put on my G-string, and went to the "Vanity Fair" party with the low cut dress with a G-string showing and it got some attention, but, you know, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.[card thuds] "Gillian Anderson, "Scoop"."[Velcro tears] That's a Netflix film where I play Emily Maitlis who interviewed Prince Andrew in the infamous Emily Maitlis and Prince Andrew interview.I said yes to this role because I like a challenge and she's a pretty cool character, and the script was really, really, really, really good."Gillian Anderson OBE."[Velcro tears] I have one of these, Order of the British Empire.When you're not a British citizen you get an honorary one, therefore, the Queen, or one of the other royals, doesn't actually present it to you like they do if you're actually British.It's a medal and a title, and it's an honor is what it is."Where does Gillian" "Anderson live?"[Velcro tears] I live in London, England.I have lived there for 22 years.I grew up there.I was not born there, I was born in Chicago.London has a lot of green spaces.You wouldn't guess that from such a massive metropolitan city, but it is incredibly green.There are a lot of garden squares and a lot of trees and very cool architecture and I love it.It's my favorite city.[Velcro tears] "Gillian Anderson's "Sex Education" style."So, in "Sex Education" I played a character called Jean Milburn who was a a sex therapist, and she had a very cool sense of style, and one of those things that she wore on a regular basis were jumpsuits.Like, she can rock a jumpsuit.I can't rock a jumpsuit, but Jean Milburn can rock a jumpsuit.[card thuds] "Who is Gillian Anderson" [Velcro tears] "in the "Crown"?"Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was a prime minister for about 10 years in the United Kingdom.Margaret Thatcher is actually quite fascinating.She comes from a little town up north in the UK called Grantham and her dad was an alderman and they had a shop and they lived above the shop and they were very religious, they were Methodists, and she could have probably run the country when she was about seven years old, I think, based on the way her brain worked, how her thinking was already and having already observed and experienced her father making speeches as an alderman, all of those facts of her childhood added entirely to the person that she then became.[Velcro tears] "Who is Gillian Anderson in "American Gods"?"Well, I'm a few people, the goddess, Media, and I show up as Marilyn Monroe and David Bowie and Lucille Ball, and one other, Judy Garland!That's right.I show up as those four four people.That was a lot of fun."Gillian Anderson" [Velcro tears] "and David Duchovny."I don't know, who's David Duchovny?Oh yeah, no, I'm joking.Of course I know who David is.David Duchovny played Fox Mulder.I played Dana Scully, a series called the X-Files" for about 6,000 years.One of the coolest guys on television for a long time.People have always been interested in David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson getting together personally, privately, intimately as they were interested in Mulder and Scully getting together intimately and not gonna happen.[Gillian clears throat] [card thuds] "When did Gillian Anderson leave "The X-Files"?"I think it was in 2002.And why do I remember that date?Because, as I said, I've been doing it for 6,000 years.[Velcro tears] "Is Gillian Anderson a redhead?"I am not a redhead.Scully was a redhead.[Velcro tears] "Does Gillian Anderson have children?"I do, I have three children, 15, 17 and 29, and they are the loves of my life.[Velcro tears] "Julian Anderson awards."I guess recently winning for Thatcher in "The Crown."I think many years ago I won awards for "The X-Files," and I think I was so young and overwhelmed, and recently when I won for "The Crown," after being in the industry, and, you know, for so many decades [laughs] in between, it made it that much more of an honor and meaningful.And, so, I was incredibly grateful and happy and I smiled and God was good and life was good.Thank you very much for having me.[bright music] That's me, over and out.