Crave Online: David mentioned his sort of growing pains getting back into character. What was your experience coming back?
Gillian Anderson: I had a similar experience. I didn't have all the running around that David had to do, but I did have my own unfortunate beginning which was starting with one of the most difficult scenes for Scully in the film where it's later on in the script and she goes through a range of emotions in confronting Billy Connolly's character. I just had a really time for those first couple of days that that scene was. I had a really hard time just finding her, finding her voice. I think I must've gone through ten other characters in the process of trying to get to her when I had assumed that I would be able to show up on the first day and it would just be there. It wasn't until I think day three when we got to work together, not just necessarily in a familiar environment which it really wasn't, but in the environment of each other and the relationship and that it kind of felt natural and familiar and I felt like I'd landed this time.
Crave Online: Did you have to be sold on coming back?
Gillian Anderson: I had stated my interest in being onboard sometime ago as well and by the time I read the script it was kind of a given that this was something that we were going to do. So I don't think there was ever a point where I jumped more onboard or had an opportunity to back out of it.
Crave Online: What is the secret to your chemistry with David as Scully and Mulder?
Gillian Anderson: We've actually been having a 15 year affair. Whatever it is that's between us was there from the second that we started working together and it's not quantifiable. I think it's something that is unique and yes, they got lucky, but it was something that Chris had seen which is why he fought so hard, specifically, and this is something that's been written about a lot, to cast me over someone else. He saw something between the two of us that was unique. Whether it's luck or that we were meant to be with each other all along, I don't know.
Crave Online: Did having children of your own align you more with Scully in terms of your personal philosophy?
Gillian Anderson: I mean, when Scully had a child I'd already had a child but I think that in the series, from what I remember, Scully thought that she had a child early on. Emily, right? I don't think that I would've been able to get there as an actor realistically, if I did do it realistically because I can't really remember, because obviously that experience would've been informed by the fact that I was already a mother. I'm sure that our conversations that we do have from time to time about this child that I gave away must be influenced by the fact that I've had children, but the show was so not about maternity. It wasn't about parents. It wasn't about that. They were actually anti-parents in a way.
Crave Online: Does being a parent make you more of a skeptic or a believer in miracles?
Gillian Anderson: That's interesting. I never related the two. Probably absolutes on my end but then also when you have kids, when your kids get sick or when family members do, not just your kids, but when there's death there's also absolutes and that can hit home at any stage of one's life.
Crave Online: Have any aspects of Scully stayed with you over the years?
Gillian Anderson: I don't do things, mannerisms or something and think, "Oh, that was kind of like Scully." But by the same token I don't know how much of me today wasn't influenced by the fact that I got to play her for such a long time. It's possible that there are aspects of my seriousness or my independence or my inquisitiveness about the medical profession or science or something that aren't directly related to the fact that I lived with her for such a long time. But that's hard to qualify and hard to say.
Crave Online: Scully was always rocking a cell phone way before everyone else.
Gillian Anderson: Rocking a cell phone? Is that what you said?
Crave Online: Always on the cell phone and using it. What's your own relationship to your cell phone, and how do you think that the character has informed strong female law enforcement characters?
Gillian Anderson: I think I only ever talked to Mulder on that cell phone. I don't think that there were any conversation that was ever had with anyone else except for Mulder, if you remember. Remember how big our cell phones were? We just happened to have them in our pockets, a cell phone in one and a Xenon flash in the other. I've had letters from people, even actually recently, who have said, "Funnily enough I've been a fan for many years and it's because of Scully that I'm now a forensic pathologist" or "I'm now a medical doctor" or "I'm now in the FBI" or any of the 15 things that she was as a professional to be able to say all those complicated words.
Crave Online: What were your thoughts about David leaving the show and coming back for the movie?
Gillian Anderson: It's interesting that it's always something for the press to latch onto. It's always a surprise in some way or it's a good headline, that someone wants to leave. It creates good drama and so it always becomes this thing where actually it's just a natural thing.
Crave Online: Did you have any difficulties working in the Canadian snow?
Gillian Anderson: This time around I didn't have as much exposure to it as David did. Fortunately, Chris didn't write those words in the script for Scully. But I was up there in Whistler and when I arrived it was about 18 below. Fortunately it didn't stay there for too long, but I was out there for probably a good couple of weeks, I guess and it's beautiful, but it's also exhausting. I think one of the more physically challenging aspects for me at the time were that there were a couple of scenes where we had quite a bit of dialogue and when you're in that kind of weather and the wind is slightly blowing and the snow is coming down, your lips actually do freeze. They do. There were a couple of times that were reminiscent of the pilot. There was a scene in the pilot where we're in this pouring forest rain that's freezing and I'm screeching at him about one thing or another. What was reminiscent was the fact that my mouth wouldn't work. I had all this stuff to say and it just comes out as gobbledygook.
Crave Online: What do you have coming up?
Gillian Anderson: I've got a couple of things coming out, but the next thing I'm going to do is a play in London. I'm going to do a play there a couple of months after the baby is born.
Crave Online: During your run of the show and of the movie, because of the things that you guys handled, did you ever experience any real paranormal happenings either on the set or outside of it?
Gillian Anderson: At Riverview. There was a place that we shot during the series and also during the film that was an abandoned insane asylum. It was miles and miles of institution and insanity. That was really creepy.
