Line #5 Creator/GillianAnderson


1	[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gilliananderson35_767.jpg]]
2	->''"Just remember, you can do anything you set your mind to, but it takes action, perseverance, and facing your fears."''
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4	Gillian Leigh Anderson, OBE (born August 9, 1968 in Chicago, Illinois) is a film, television, and theatre actress. She is best known to the general public as FBI agent Dana Scully from ''Series/TheXFiles''. She also frequently appears in PeriodDrama pieces. She has also started moving into novels, with the science fiction series ''The [=EarthEnd=] Saga''.
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6	She is involved in many charity projects. She is on [[https://twitter.com/GillianA Twitter]] and has a very detailed [[http://www.gilliananderson.ws official webpage]].
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8	She's been married twice to men and also had two long-term male partners, with three children from her relationships. Additionally, she's had relationships with women in the past and stated for her attraction is not based on gender, but hasn't used any LGBT+ term for herself.
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11	!!Select filmography:
12	* ''Series/TheXFiles'' (1993-2002, 2008, 2016-2018): Dana Scully
13	* ''[[Literature/FreakTheMighty The Mighty]]'' (1998): Loretta Lee
14	* ''Anime/PrincessMononoke'' (1999): Moro (dub of the 1997 movie, voice role)
15	* ''The House of Mirth'' (2000): Lily Bart
16	* ''Series/BleakHouse'' (2005): Lady Dedlock
17	* ''Film/TheLastKingOfScotland'' (2006): Sarah Merrit
18	* ''Literature/GreatExpectations'' (2011): Miss Havisham
19	* ''Film/JohnnyEnglishReborn'' (2011): Pegasus
20	* ''Series/TheFall2013'' (2013-2016): Stella Gibson
21	* ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'' (2013-2015): Bedelia [=DuMaurier=]
22	* ''Series/{{War and Peace\|2016}}'' (2016): Anna Pavlovna Scherer
23	* ''Literature/RonjaTheRobbersDaughter'' (2017): Narrator (English dub of the 2014 anime, voice role)
24	* ''Series/AmericanGods'' (2017): Media
25	* ''Film/CrookedHouse'' (2017): Magda Leonides
26	* ''Film/TheSpyWhoDumpedMe'' (2018): Wendy
27	* ''Series/SexEducation'' (2019-2023): Jean Milburn
28	* ''Series/{{The Crown\|2016}}'' (2020): UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher
29	* ''WesternAnimation/RobinRobin'' (2021): Cat (voice)
30	* ''Series/TheFirstLady'' (2022): UsefulNotes/EleanorRoosevelt
31	* ''Film/ThePaleBlueEye'' (2022)
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33	!!Tropes:
34	* AbilityOverAppearance: Fox executives wanted somebody "taller, leggier, blonder and breastier" to play Scully (at one point, Creator/PamelaAnderson's name got tossed around), but Chris Carter convinced them that the then-unknown petite, redhead (albeit natural blonde) Gillian would be perfect.
35	* ActorShipping: She is extremely aware of the fact that some fans ship her with her former co-star, Creator/DavidDuchovny, and she sometimes enjoys [[InvokedTrope messing with people]] with vague answers. However, at the end of the day, she and David Duchovny are just colleagues and friends with wonderful chemistry.
36	* AdamWesting: In ''Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story'', a quasi-mockumentary about filming an adaptation of the novel, Gillian Anderson (as herself) gets the part of the Widow Wadnam because the producer loves her as Scully on ''The X-Files''. Gillian wants to get away from her most famous role, and is later annoyed when her scenes as the widow are cut from the movie. Many, many more layers of meta in this film.
37	* ApprovalOfGod:
38	** Many with the fan reactions to ''The X-Files'', including:
39	*** Often accepting and/or wearing viewers' merchandise at fan Q&A conventions, even making t-shirts based on fandom slang.
40	*** She and David Duchovny [[RuleThirtyFourCreatorReactions are aware]] of the RuleThirtyFour side of the fandom, but she has made the most nods to it. Notably, she made a coy reference to ''The Airport'' -- a well-known {{NSFW}} fanfiction from 2000 in which Mulder and Scully hook up in a Chilli's restaurant -- when she promoted a season 11 episode on Twitter, and then admitted at a Q&A she had read it (and enjoyed it) months later. At another convention, she explained that David often sends her "MSR after dark"[[note]]subsection of the fandom that create hyper-sexual Mulder and Scully stories[[/note]] fan-art.
41	*** Has mentioned that she is overwhelmed, intrigued and proud to be part of "[[https://archive.vn/CmH0l The Scully Effect]]", a notable amount of women in science, medicine and related fields who first became interested in those careers because of Dana Scully.
42	** [[invoked]] She likes that some fans ship Agent Scully [[CrossoverShip with]] Detective Gibson, DoppelgangerCrossover style, and hopes it has a decently sized fanfiction base.
43	** The [=#YoniOfTheDay=] and [=#PenisOfTheDay=] social media posts[[note]]VisualPun photographs of food, nature, illustrations, etc. that look like vulvas/vaginas ("yoni") and penises[[/note]] to promote ''Sex Education'' include photos that fans send to her.
44	* CreatorBacklash: She was none too happy about Season 11 of ''The X Files'' not having a single female writer. This ultimately brought so much negative publicity that two were added.
45	* DyeHard: She is a natural blonde, but Dana Scully was a redhead (of various shades in the long run), and this image of her got stuck (though one character claims that it is not her real hair color[[note]]which makes no sense, as all the flashbacks of Scully show a girl with red hair[[/note]]).
46	* FakeAmerican: Gillian Anderson was born in America to American citizens of English, Irish and German ancestry, but she moved to Crouch End, London, England when she was two and didn't move back until she was eleven, and by then, her speech patterns had been set. She had to work to lose it when she went into acting, and if you pay attention to the early episodes of ''The X-Files'', it slips through at times. Now that she has moved back to England, she has got the accent back in full force. Her American accent she acquired in her teenage years comes back whenever she is interviewed by an American reporter.
47	* HideYourPregnancy: She was pregnant at the end of Season 1 and the beginning of Season 2 of ''The X-Files''. She wore lots of baggy clothes and appeared in unrevealing angles. Her pregnancy influenced the famous MythArc of the show.
48	* IAmNotSpock: Dana Scully is her most famous role. She moved from the States to Great Britain to avoid the effect.
49	* LGBTFanbase:[[invoked]] Many fans at [=Q&As=] have admitted that she or one of her characters were their LGBTAwakening, especially a remarkable number of women who were nerdy adolescents in the '90s. She embraces it.
50	-->'''Q:''' Why do you think women are attracted to you?
51	-->'''Gillian:''' Because I've got tits?
52	* OlderThanTheyLook: She is in her fifties, but looks positively gorgeous and definitely better when her looks are compared to her early Scully days. Dana Scully was cute, but a bit mousy and dressed with questionable fashion taste in the early seasons of ''The X-Files''.
53	* QueerCharacterQueerActor: Anderson's said she's had relationships with women in the past, but doesn't use any LGBT+ label.
54	** On ''Series/TheFall2013'' she played Stella, who's bisexual.
55	** ''Series/TheFirstLady'' sees her play UsefulNotes/EleanorRoosevelt, who's portrayed as having an affair with lesbian reporter Lorena "Hick" Hickock.
56	* PromotedFanboy: She played a parody version of Dana Scully in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'', as well as fellow Fox series ''WesternAnimation/EekTheCat''.
57	* PublicExposure: [[http://fishlove.co.uk/galleries/denis-rouvre/ Has posed naked with a conger eel]].
58	* ScullyBox: She is very petite, and her co-star Creator/DavidDuchovny as Fox Mulder on ''The X-Files'' [[OneHeadTaller was much taller]], so the crew had her stand on a box. She looks tiny and adorable in some scenes without high heels and without the box. Her role is the {{Trope Namer\|s}} (while the ProductionNickname derived from the actress herself, "Gilly-Board").
59	* SpeechImpediment:
60	** She has a very very slight lisp, if you pay attention, that is. Anderson, who lived in Britain until she was eleven, has said hers is partly the result of trying to drop her accent in high school. If you pay attention, in the earliest episodes of ''The X-Files'', it occasionally slips a bit, especially when she tries to say 'garage'.
61	** While it is not quite an outright impediment, on the revival series of ''The X-Files'' there are times her voice is so hoarse you would think she needs a cough drop. She has said that it is an artefact of switching back to an American accent, which sometimes puts strain on her voice.
62	* StarMakingRole: Dana Scully of ''The X-Files'' made her a household name.
63	* UnderageCasting: She was 24 when she was cast as Dana Scully, a forensic pathologist with a medical degree, FBI training, and teaching at the FBI academy. Her character was in her late twenties, though realistically, Scully would have to be in her mid thirties to achieve the qualifications she has.
64	* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Her accent tends to fluctuate. She was born in the US, but lived in England until she was in her early teens, and didn't try to shed the accent until she was out of high school. In the very early episodes of ''The X-Files'', she would slip occasionally. In the 2008 movie, it can get quite noticeable in Scully's emotional scenes, as Anderson moved back to England after the show ended in 2002, and had to relearn her American accent all over again for the film.
65	* WrittenByCastMember: She wrote and directed "[[Recap/TheXFilesS07E17AllThings All Things]]", a Season 7 episode of ''The X-Files''. The reviews from critics were mixed, but fans loved the episode and praised her insight into her character.

Context Creator / GillianAnderson