Gillian Andrson's Rolling Stone Interview
Article appeared in the February 20,1997 edition of Rolling Stone.
Written by: David Lipsky
Learned any other interesting things about yourself from reading the paper?
A pet name which I had completely forgot about until I saw it in the tabloids. In a relationship I was in while I was in high school, my boyfriend called me Grae.
Where do you think that came from?
I have no idea. What's funny is, emotionally I went from gray to black to white. Gray was London, where we lived until I was 11. And the black thing was high school in Grand Rapids, Mich. That's when I became a punk, but there's a whole summer before, when I wore sweaters and jeans and an olive-drab army jacket, and it was almost as if I trained my body not to sweat. And white has been the last couple of years.
There was a punk scene in Grand Rapids?
It was small - for a while, my boyfriend and I were like the ouple in the Grand Rapids underground scene. It spread to Kalamazoo [Mich.], which is close by, where underground bands go to play. And we'd see people like the Butthole Surfers and Circle Jerks there.
Would you like Scully if you ran into her at a party?
I think so, but I am not sure how much we would have to talk about. She's not very spontaneous; I am. She is obscenely intelligent, and I am not. She is atleast 5 foot 6, and I am not.
How many more rounds do you think you can go with her(Scully)?
It's hard to keep being the skeptic. I've had this conversation a couple times with [X-Files producer Chris Carter], where I've just said "I have a feeling that the audience is laughing at me because essentially I am saying the same stuff over and over again." And the answer, via Chris, is that she is a scientist; she is a forensic pathologist; she is a medical doctor. And he's right: I mean, that's the formula that works.
So have you been doing anything that's not Scully?
I just recorded a single. I did the narration for a nine part BBC documentary series called Future Fantastic. And I would hear that track from the series, and I kept saying, "My god what is that music? That's fabulous." And I went to the producer about it. I said, "This music is great. You have to put together a CD." And he said, "Well, would you be willing to put together some vocals on it?" And I said, "I don't sing. But I would be willing to do something on it." So he presented me with some samples of stuff I could say, and it was quite poetic and erotic, and we came up with what I think is a really great dance single. It's hot. It's not a career move by any means, but it made me feel fun and alive while I was working on it. It's coming out in March.
Chris Carter mentioned to me the he might not stick around after next season - that he might follow some new career paths. What do you make of that?
Chris is our life force. I mean, he willsettle for nothing less than the best, and because of that, the series is what it is. So my fear is that when he's gone, that life force will be sucked out of the show. He's an octopus, and without him... we'll become plankton drifting in some one else's sea.