I am so sick and tired of Gillian Anderson being told that she needs to sit down and shut up because she is ‘insulting her employers’ by ‘slamming’ and ‘ripping’ them for stating facts.
The X-Files deserve better.
And Gillian fucking Anderson deserves better.
“Chris Carter gave Gillian Anderson her start. She needs to be grateful!” You’re right. He did take a chance with her. Here are some other things that Chris, Fox and Co did to her during her time on TXF (this is by no means a complete list):
Note: I’m not placing a cut in this because it deserves to be seen in it’s entirety. I’m not hiding the facts under a cut where they can easily dismissed.
FACT: She was paid less than David initially because he had more experience. David was known for simulating passionate sex in “Red Shoe Diaries”, and playing a transgender woman on “Twin Peaks”. Even today, his portrayal of Denise is termed ‘cross-dresser’, ‘drag’ even ‘transvestite’. All offensive terms, no doubt, but can you imagine what the backlash was in the 90′s? What if Gillian had been known for simulating sex on screen, or playing a trans man (in a time when it very-well could have meant career suicide even for David, unfortunately)? Would she have been offered the role as Dana Scully?
“But the real problem, Anderson says, the story that wasn’t told - at least, not until she chose to reveal it - was that Duchovny was earning the traditional male salary. ‘I was making half of what my co-star was for the first few years. It was OK at the beginning’ - he was an experienced actor, she was not - ‘but then it became not OK’… She renegotiated her contract for equal pay. But the price was that she had to sign up for more years - which explains, she says, why Duchovny was able to quit before she.” (x)
FACT: She was she wasn’t attractive enough for the part. They wanted blonde and leggy. She was small and petite. She wasn’t well-endowed enough. (x)
FACT: She was told to wear tighter clothing for second audition. Watch the interview.
FACT: She was forced to cover her mole and change her appearance.
“Anderson has a tiny mole, just above her lip. It is pretty and provocative and - in a face that is beautiful and, like all beauty, has about it a transparency - is a kind of tabula rasa: the mole gives her definition. Terence Davies, directing her as Lily [Blart], understood its power: Lily is different, Lily has marks of distinction. The X-Files people, perhaps, also understood it because they made her cover it up.
So, Anderson asks [David, who interviewed her]: Give it to me. I’m not frightened of you. He chooses something small, something that is part of her, that can’t be separated from the self. ‘You should not cover up your mole,’ [David] says. ‘You should have refused in the beginning. For both Scully and Gillian, the mole is fine. Oh, and it’s a beauty mark. It doesn’t have hair growing out of it, does it?’” (x)
FACT: She was told to walk behind her male costar so as not to upstage him.
“Was it sexism? Maybe. It’s like the way we were directed by the studios, I was to walk behind him, never side by side. I mean, that is f—ing priceless when I think about it now. When we would get out the car and walk towards the house I would have to be behind him, even though I had equal dialogue.’” (x) (x)
FACT: Like so many women, Gillian Anderson feared losing her job when she became pregnant soon after accepting a job. (Side note: thank god she had been married…can you imagine the outcry if she was an unwedded mother who got herself knocked up a year into a show in 1994? *cue gasp*) She returned to work 10 days after major surgery, penance for having put them through the drama of her pregnancy…never mind that it eventually led to some of the best storytelling on television.
In “The Complete X-Files” book, Gillian recounts telling producers about her pregnancy and calling Bob Goodwin (Sheila Larkin’s husband) to tell him she was pregnant and immediately breaking into tears. Gillian said, “The first thing he said to me was, ‘I love babies’, which was really good for me to hear because the onslaught that I then got from people who were going, ‘Oh my god you’re going to ruin the series!’ And rightly so. It was a pretty cheeky thing at that particular time.”
“I did film very soon after my first child, 10 days, after a c-section, five days after coming home from the hospital. It seems crazy but at the time I thought, “OK this is my penance for having got pregnant when they had invested so much in the show and me”.
FACT: When she won the Emmy in 1997, she forgot to include CC and DD names in her acceptance speech and received a shit-ton of flak for it…So she took out an entire page ad to rectify the situation, learning that she had to “play by the rules.” (x) <— this article does a nice job of ripping into her.
FACT: Fox told her she wouldn’t get FAIR PAY unless she signed on for a season 9. (x)
FACT: Even after fighting for pay equity in the 90s, she was STILL offered HALF of his pay in 2015. (x)
FACT: The X-Files has consistently given material far beneath her acting ability. Do I really need to cite sources here? Alien DNA. That is all.
FACT: Can we talk about the fucking wig?
It’s not really the fault of anyone that she had to wear the wig. It was a mutual decision even if it looked shitty. Given that, wearing the wig set Gillian up for immense criticism from people around the world because of how it altered the appearance of her face.
“‘The aliens clearly implanted a lot of Botox in Scully’s face,’ wrote one commentator on the social networking site Twitter.
‘Loving the return of X-Files, even if Scully physically can’t move her face,’ said another. ‘Is she happy, sad, nostalgic? Who knows?’” (x)
FACT: For a role in which she spent 9 years of her life, poured her heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears, and for which she has had to constantly fight to remain on equal standing with her male counterpart, she has been nominated for 58 awards as Dana Scully, winning 15 times, including 2 SAG awards, 1 Emmy and 1 GG.
“Although Anderson was the one of the two to win an Emmy for her performance on the show, she was only 24 years of age when she auditioned for The X-Files. She had minimal work experience in showbiz, whereas Duchovny already had a decent resume. It’s a lucky thing that Anderson and Duchovny clicked enough to win her the part. The dynamic between Mulder and Scully is what made the show, but Anderson is responsible for turning Scully into a female character that hadn’t really been seen on television before.” (x)
Gillian Anderson owes Fox nothing. Gillian Anderson owes Chris Carter nothing. The loyalty she gives them is admirable considering the horse shit they put her through, and continue to put her through. Dana Scully will forever be a part of Gillian Anderson because it is the role that made her a superstar. But can we stop acting as if she has ripped off their balls and grossly disrespected her employers? If Fox and Co want to be offended by her comments, then let them. She has done nothing wrong. She has withstood 25 years of misogynistic and sexist standards, so the fact that she is back to film another season is HIGHLY commendable.
Gillian Anderson is using her celebrity, class, clout and privilege to bring awareness to the sexist standards in Hollywood. If you’re not willing to stand up and fight alongside her, then the least you can do is respect what she’s doing. Because she’s not just doing it for herself – she’s doing it for all of us.
