She’s played a host of strong female leads, from Miss Havisham to Blanche DuBois – and now Margaret Thatcher. Gillian Anderson talks about living in
Britain, obsessive fans – and dating Chewbacca
Gillian Anderson is a woman of many duelling qualities, and it is hard to know quite what to expect when meeting her. Her old interviews are displays of either surprising candour or frosty reserve. She can be earnest and thoughtful, sometimes to the point of seeming grave, yet she peppers her social media with “penis/yoni of the day” posts, pictures of things that happen to look like genitals, even when they are not. She speaks with an
American accent when with Americans, and with a crisp
British accent with Brits, though she retains a US sheen on only one word that I clocked: “process”. She is extremely famous and has been for more than half her life, yet has maintained a sense of mystery and intrigue, and is keenly private.
Naturally, then, in a photographic studio in a tiny back street in north London, talk has turned to tattoos of Anderson’s face on strangers’ buttocks. It started with one of her own cashmere jumpers, part of her new capsule collection for the
London brand Winser (she turned designer for them in 2018, adding another string to an already creaking bow that includes activist and author, as well as actor) that features a familiar-looking mouth emblazoned across the chest, accented by that Monroe-esque beauty spot.