Gillian Anderson Calls Her Sexy ’90s Photoshoots ‘Preposterous’

Gillian Anderson has candidly described her experience of being a pin-up star during her time on The X-Files in the Nineties as “preposterous.” The British-American actress, known for recent roles in Sex Education and The Crown, became a household name in 1993 when she starred as FBI agent Dana Scully in The X-Files. Alongside this newfound fame came the attention of numerous “lads’ mags.”

In a recent interview, Anderson reflected on the vast difference between her real life and the glamorous image portrayed in those magazines and photoshoots.

“It felt so preposterous to me,” she told The Guardian. “If you saw my life and where I am half the time, between work and set and kids and driving and drop-offs and pick-ups and all that sort of stuff – the fact that you’d end up with those pictures is just so…”

Anderson gave birth to her first child, Piper, during the second season of The X-Files, and she continued to juggle the demands of being a working mother throughout the series.

“[Those shoots were] just part of the fantasy. It doesn’t feel like it represents me at all,” she added.

In addition to her acting career, Anderson is set to release a book titled Want, a collection of anonymous letters detailing sexual fantasies submitted by women from around the world. Anderson contributes her own anonymous fantasy and shares stories from her life and career in the book. She writes about the surreal experience of being a Nineties star.

“I had a surreal experience in 1996 when I was voted world’s sexiest woman by readers of FHM magazine,” she recalls, calling it “a type of worship not far off some of the descriptions in these fantasies.”

She also mentioned discovering erotic fan-fiction inspired by her role as Margaret Thatcher in The Crown.

Earlier this month, Anderson revisited another moment from the Nineties by discussing a viral clip on Twitter/X. In the clip, she is seen sharing a kiss with her X-Files co-star David Duchovny while accepting an award at the Emmys, even though her boyfriend at the time was present.

Anderson was recently seen in the Netflix film Scoop, where she portrayed former Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis. She shared an anecdote about running into the real Emily Maitlis at a charity event while preparing for the role and feeling a bit embarrassed as she was “really dishevelled” at the time.