I went to see Gillian Anderson at Filmfest Munich yesterday. Here’s what I learned.
So I met up with a friend in Munich to see Gillian and it was more than I could have wished for. She was in a very good mood, friendly, good natured and excited about everything. What a blast for all of us.
She seemed genuinely touched and overwhelmed.
When Film Festivals try to get big stars to attend, they … lure them there with an award (in this case, the Cinemerit Award, which is Filmfest Munich‘s equivalent of a Lifetime Achivement Award). It is a quid pro quo deal, the Film Festival gets glam and International flair, the actor gets publicity for their new film (the screening was also the German Premiere of “The Salt Path“).
However, Gillian seemed not to have expected the afternoon to be meaningful. Which was until the Emcee, a journalist and very obvious Scully fangirl, said “I talked to so many people outside and one cannot stress enough the role you played for the queer and lesbian community and for the nerds“.
And the crowd, nearly exclusively consisting of queer and lesbian nerds, screamed their heads off.
Then followed a very cute, three minute long compilation of Gillian‘s work, all roles eliciting cheers and applause from the audience (Scully being a favorite). When Gillian finally came on stage, she joked about the Award being surprizingly beautiful so she “might actually put it up“ - and then her voice broke because she was so overwhelmed by both the speech and the audience. It felt extremely real and was incredibly moving.
(Here‘s a video of this scene):
She acknowledged and embraced Scully‘s legacy, something that you hadn’t heard from her in a while.
When asked whether time has changed how she looks on characters she’s played - a question that I felt was directly hinting at Scully - Gillian replied:
“It has, I think particularly for Scully, because it was such a whirlwind for me. It felt like too big of a responsibility to take ownership of at the time. Hearing firsthand from people the impact that she had on their lives, and also the impact on the STEM community and also on the gay and lesbian community… it’s easier to celebrate something in retrospect. The demographic range that she has impacted, and continues to impact still, is real.”
Also, she somehow spoke with more of an American accent as the show progressed? Scully‘s impact still IS real!
Two of her next projects (book and film) will feature characters that embodies Scully‘s legacy:
“There are a few things that I’m working on that feel like they have aspects of Scully. Not in terms of character necessarily, but in terms of her lineage, [which] is built within them. One’s a film and one’s a book and they make sense because of her. And so, she continues. She continues to impact my life.” (I did not film this part, thankfully deadline.com had the complete quote)
She took a lot of time to give autographs and take selfies with fans
After the screening there were about 200 people still waiting outside and she went out of her way that everyone got their autograph. I talked to the organizers later and they told me her group had wanted to leave and she had insisted on staying and going back out to the fans (the temperature was about 32C, which is about 91F).
The atmosphere was kind and supportive and people who were in the back would hand over their stuff to fans in the front row, who would pass them to Gillian. They made sure everyone got their autographs. There was no excessive screaming, no pushing whatsoever.
The Phile community is still going strong
Many had brought their copies of “Want“ to sign, but there was a surprisingly big number of opaque X-Files memorabilia.
She laughed out loud at the Maine T-Shirt someone handed her to sign (if the person with the shirt reads this: girl, that was a hilarious move, you‘re my kind of person!). When I handed her a Scully trading card from 1995 to sign, she seemed surprised to see one and exclaimed at the sight of Baby Scully “Oh, look at her!“
The majority of fans were women, both cis and trans, from their early 20s to their late 50s. Awesome energy 🏳️🌈
I also got a good look at a number of excellent X-Files related tattoos. Will draw some inspiration!
romaincrisis
dailybridgerton
amandla
stormborns
origamiaround
pixelskylines
theartofmadeline
