How Dana Scully helped Gillian Anderson inspire girls in science and rebel against Hollywood
As the face of one of the most popular shows of the 1990s, Gillian Anderson has built a dedicated fanbase in the years following her brilliant performance as agent Dana Scully in The X Files. The actor has successfully merged her American and British citizenship within her performances, starring in the sci-fi show and offering her voice to the English dub of Princess Mononoke for American audiences alongside the British series Sex Education and The Crown.
Anderson’s status in the film industry concerns itself with a disciplined focus on her craft and humanitarian work, straying away from celebrity tabloid circles and any following controversy. The star takes time away from acting to serve as a spokeswoman for medical charities and co-founding education programs for youths, showcasing a poised and productive presence in the industry.
Anderson’s career began with an ambitious move to New York at 22, bagging theatre roles as a lukewarm introduction to the industry. Eventually, after re-settling in Los Angeles, she was sent the script for Chris Carter’s The X Files, going against an initial decision to never perform in television as she was attracted to the script’s strong, independent, intelligent leading woman. Agent and medical doctor Dana Scully is defined as a fictional icon in pop media. Her headstrong nature and sharp intelligence in her approach inspire a wave of younger girls to pursue careers in science, medicine, engineering, and law enforcement. This ripple is coined as ‘The Scully Effect’, something many women already working in the fields were grateful for.
During an interview with Variety, Anderson shared how she identified a “stark difference” between the Dana Scully role and “pretty much everything else on television at the time”. However, she also emphasises that the 24-year-old Anderson wouldn’t have cited the character as the feminist icon she’d come to embody. “I don’t think it was as clear-cut in my mind as being, ‘Oh, this is a feminist character,'” the actor explained. “I think that it was more of just, ‘This is a woman that I haven’t seen before on television, and she’s so unique.'”
Anderson also addresses Hollywood’s attitudes toward her work as a woman, tying this with the factor she starred in the show alongside male actor David Duchovny, who played her accomplice Fox Mulder, the conspiracy theorist to Scully’s sceptic. “I was expected to walk behind [Duchovny] when [our characters] walked up to the front doors of the people we were investigating,” she claimed. “There were things that I rebelled against.”
The actor has always carried a defiant spirit regarding abiding by social customs. Following a big move in her childhood, Anderson went through a rebellious stage as a young girl, taking drugs and dating a much older boyfriend. She also employed a punk appearance by dyeing her hair in various colours, shaving the sides of her head, sporting a nose piercing and having an all-black wardrobe.
Anderson also enjoyed the fast-paced musical stylings of Dead Kennedys and Skinny Puppy. Her classmates voted her as “class clown”, “most bizarre girl”, and “most likely to be arrested”. After trying to break into her high school in an attempt to glue the locks of the doors on graduation night, she was arrested and later managed to reduce the charges to trespassing.
The actor has since taken to thorough and complex depictions of women in her career choices, ranging from comedy based to crime thrillers, solidifying her presence as a pivotal figure of contemporary importance.
