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Cinema Magazine
August 1998
By David Eimer

Conspiracy theorist's pin-up girl Gillian Anderson tells Blast why she won't let the success of The X-Files go to her head.

Gillian Anderson would just love to divulge the plot of The X-Files movie - the $30 million big screen version of the TV series - but she can't. Her lips are sealed! The flame-haired 29 year old, who plays FBI Agent Dana Scully, had to sign a contract vowing not to reveal any details of what promises to be one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the Summer. The script is even printed on special red paper which can't be faxed or photocopied and you can't move for security guards around stage 15 on the Twentieth Century Fox lot in West LA, where the movie is shooting today.

It makes sense to keep the plot secret - The X-Files wouldn't be the worldwide hit it is if we knew what was going to happen every week. All that's clear is that Scully - along with her obsessive partner Agent Mulder, played by David Duchovny - will continue to try to uncover the truth about aliens and the government conspiracy to hide the evidence of their arrival on earth.

But the big question is: will Scully and Mulder join forces in their private lives as well as their professional ones? They finally share a passionate kiss, but will it lead to anything else? 'There's another facet to this story that brings some interesting elements into their relationship,' teases a tired-looking Anderson, who is much smaller in real life and shrouded in a giant and rather unflattering parka.

Anyway, she's not convinced the fans want the pair to hook up. 'They do and they don't. It's like foreplay in a sense - you want to get to the end! It's like the beginning of a relationship, where you've got that teasing going on and then something happens and it's gone,' she says. 'We've had a long time to establish this very grounded foundation in our relationship and I think, much as people want to see some kind of culmination take place, they also know it could be a bit disappointing after such a build up.'

It's no secret that Anderson and Duchovny aren't very close off screen. 'I think David and I will be much closer after the series is done and we don't have to be with each other daily,' Gillian grins. But X-philes the world over can sleep easy in their beds tonight - that's not going to happen for a while. Anderson has signed up for one more year of the TV show and she isn't dismissing the possibility of extending her contract. 'I'll be willing to stay for as long as it stays good. As soon as it starts to wane in any way, or the interest diminishes, then it would be time to reassess.

There's been no sign of that yet. If anything, the public's fascination with Anderson, who was virtually unknown before she won the role of Scully in 1993, is growing. There are even web-sites with names like The Gillian Anderson Testosterone Brigade and The Estrogen Brigade for female fans. But Anderson does her best to ignore the way The X-Files has become a Nineties phenomenon. 'I'm constantly reminded of that fact, but I don't think truly that it has seeped into my consciousness. If I did, I'd be in trouble,' she says. She has no doubt that the film will get the same reaction. 'It's just going to be another layer of insanity.'

As a rebellious teenager in Michigan, Anderson can't have imagined that she would ever be the centre of all this attention. She spent her early childhood in London, but by 14 she was back in the States sporting a mohican and a nose ring and her schoolmates voted her the 'Most Bizarre Girl' of the class. And that's to say nothing of the 21-year-old she was dating at the time. She was equally out of place at DePaul University in Chicago before she headed off for LA when she was 23 years old to try her luck at acting.

She's calmed down since then to look after her three-year old daughter Piper Maru from her brief marriage to Clyde Klotz, an assistant art director on The X-Files. The little girl accompanies her mother to the set every day.

Anderson, who's currently seeing actor Rodney Rowland, is vague about her future plans: 'I'd like to do some more theatre, but I don't really see that happening for a while.'

One thing's for sure, having received $4 million for The X-Files movie, Anderson doesn't need to rush into anything. 'I don't know what it's like to be involved in something that's not successful,' she stresses. 'I couldn't imagine what it would be like to put all my energy into something that I believe in and then not have it well received.'

The way things are going, it looks like that's something Gillian Anderson will never experience!