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Film Review Magazine
Sept 98
by Matthew Hastings

THE WHOLE TRUTH

The X-Files made Gillian Anderson an international star and an icon for millions of fans. With the TV series leaping to the big screen, she reveals to Matthew Hastings her hopes for Fight The Future.

After five years, in which it's grown to be one of the biggest hits on television, The X-Files follows the highly lucrative example of Star Trek and many others in an adaptation for a movie tie-in though, The X-Files will be back on America's Fox Netwek for a sixth season later this year.

You may have to be a dedicated folower of Mulder and Scully's spooky investigations to want to rush out straight away to buy your cinema ticket, but as star Gillian Anderson explained, there is a wide appeal built into The X-Files movie - which carries the suitable melodramatic sub-title Fight The Future.

"That was one of the challenges that Chris [Carter, creator] had from the beginning - to create a movie that did not talk down to our already existing audience. I think that it'll be ncredibly exciting for avid fans of the show who know evry last detail about the series, about Mulder and Scully and about the history.

"I also think," she continues, "it's watchable and enjoying, and exciting and adventurous for people who have never ever seen the show before. So I really feel he's pulled it off."

The X-Files is famous for the sexual chemistry between FBI Agents Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Anderson), despite an Avengers-style avoidance of any canoodling between the flirty twosome. So, the film moment that fans will love is bound to be the infamous 'kiss'. Sadly, the agents' moment of potentional passion is interrupted by a bee-sting (something vital to the plow we're assured!).

"It was really close wasn't it!" says Anderson of the kiss. "It was like a millimetre away! It was pretty hote, and it was up to me t do the moment where I broke it and the bee stung me. It was fun to play with how long we could make it last before we actually touched."

But does the off-screen relationship between Duchovny and Anderson bear any kind of similarity to that of Mulder and Scully? "Yes and no", reveals Anderson. "Yes in the way that Mulder and Scully only really dal with each other in regards to business. They very rarely get into their personal lives at all with each other. And, in a sense, that's very similar to how David and I are. We work very well together. We basically show up and do our work and go home and go our seperate ways. We don't hang out at weekends or anyting."

Given the expeanded scope of this widescreen X-Files, there was much more physical action for the leading actors. The climax of the film takes place in Antarctica where something nasty involving an alien life-form is about to happen to Scully. "I generally exercise a great deal and lift weights and stuff like that," says Anderson. "I was ready physically for it. All the stuff in the ice was not that comfortable. It was very cold. I'd have to say the most difficult thing is when my face is on the ice and I'm coming to. I had to lie there for an exorbitant amount of time with my face literally pressed on an ice cube.

"There was one time when we were sliding off of somethng at an angle, and there was one that that we did where I managed to get a great deal of height and just flew across the stage and landed on my belly in the ice - and it was very, very exciting. I didn't get hurt al all. It was very 'stunt-like' and it felt really good - and I don't think they used it!"

People will no doubt be talking about the alien entity that Mulder has to pull out of Scully's mouth. "It was interesting, it was very technical. He had to make it look as if the piece that he's pulling out of my mouth was actually coming from down my throat when in fact it was in my mouth and wrapped around my tongue many, many times. So I had to let it out slowly as he was pulling on it. It was very messy and took a long time but we all knew it was for a specific end to make it look as icky as possible."

Apart for the 'icky' factor, the star is delighted with Fight The Future. "I like the film as a whole. I was really happy with it. I was very excited by how well the special effects turned out and how well Rob [Bowman, director] shot it. I thought it was beautifully shot and it really came together in a spectacular way. I loved the moments where Mulder and Scully have their discussions about wheter she's staying [in the FBI] or going."

With at least two more seasons to go with the TV series and hopefully more moviews to come, you'd expect Anderson to get bored of spending all her time in the diminutive shoes of Special Agent Dana Scully. "Certainly there are times when I get tired of it, and frustrated, and when I couldn't hear myself saying any one of my pat lines again. But, ultimately, I come back to a real honest gratitude of being able to have her in my life for such a long time."

Between her considerable X-Files commitments, Gillian Anderson has branched out into totally different film roles, including the critically acclaimed 'The Mighty', directed by Peter Chelsom, the British film-maker responsible for the quifily chaming comedy-dramas 'Hear My Song' and 'Funny Bones'.

"It's based on a children's book called 'Freak: The Mighty', which is a wonderuful book about the relationship between these two young boys who have certain difficulties in life how they end up finding each other and being a support to each other. It's a beautiful, beautiful story. I play an alcoholic vintage biker. It was a load of fun."

Gillian Anderson's current film is 'Dancing About Architecture'. "I just started filming a while ago," she says "It's got a wonderful cast [that include] Sean Connery, Anthony Edwards, Gena Rowlands, and Dennis Quaid. It's a wonderful script written and directed by Willard Carroll. Basically, it flips back and forth between all these conversations between couples, whether they're husband and wife, or lovers, or mother and son.

"It's about change and the courage to change and about telling the truth. I play a woman in her early thirties who's a director of theatre and commercials. It's another movie I'm involved in where I can't really tell the whole truth about it without giving things away!"