Gillian Anderson with Regis and Kathie Lee May 18, 1995

RP: The role played by played by Gillian Anderson expose the other world and the unknown of the hit thriller series The X-Files on FOX, and here she's Gillian Anderson everybody!

[applause]

KL: Nice to meet you.

GA: Hi.

RP: Please, have a seat Gillian. Gillian, Gillian, Gillian, this is your very first interview?

GA: Yeeaahh...

RP: Are you nerv...

KL: Never!?

GA: Not interview ever; but, eh, yeah... Have I been here before?

KL: Not but I mean without... surely, but you are in a big hit show.

GA: My first Talk Show.

RP: Your first Talk Show. Are you nervous?

GA: Yes, I am.

KL: But It's just talk...

RP: All you've gotta do is keep talking...

GA: I know...

[laughter]

RP: I... I hate being a guest, I hate being a guest. There's a lot of burden... there's a lot of responsibility about being a guest. You understand that, don't you?

GA: [laughing] Yes, I do!

KL: Well, as an actress you feel kind of safe and secure with other people's words, I mean here you're Gillian you are not a character...

GA: Yeah, exactly. Exactly

KL: But you're a lovely young woman, you have an interesting struggle... I was reading about how you work, I mean, your last check was about to run out for unemployment?

GA: Honestly yes... I received my last unemployment check the day that I got the pilot episode of The X-Files. So I was very lucky.

KL: After a year of going out to 2 or 3 auditions a day...

GA: Well, that was an exaggeration when it came out in print...but I was going to a lot of auditions.

RP: Couple, Couple of weeks. It that's it?

GA: [laughing] No, no... It was a hole year.

KL: A lot of auditions, yeah.

GA: But in terms of the main of auditions, it's a lot.

KL: Had you set... had you set a limit for yourself. Had you set a "I'm gonna get some work but this time or I'm gonna go home and..."?

GA: Um... no.

RP: What we need here are long, lengthy stories... one word not allowed... "No, because..."

GA: [laughing] No, I had not set a limit. I knew that this is something that I wanna to do... And... It was hard, I knew that the limit was that after that year I would go back to waitressing, but I wouldn't necessarily give up acting...

RP: What were you like in high school?

GA: Really?

[laughter]

KL: Were you the cheerleader type?

[Gillian laughs]

RP: Were you the Miss Goody Two-Shoes or were you the punk rocker?

[GA stops]

GA: I was... do you [to RP] have an opinion of punk rockers? [laughing] I was... I was a bad girl.

KL: No!

GA: Yes, I was... I was in the principal's office every other day.

KL: For what?!

GA: Talking...

KL: Which she won't do here...[Gillian laughs]

GA: ...stealing papers, throwing paper airplanes...

RP: Did you have any funny facial ornaments...?

GA: Well, I had a nose ring on the left side for a while...

KL: Does that heal up...?

GA: I think so...It's now covered by a scratch from my daughter...

RP: Well, things heal and you outgrow them and here you are, a lovely young star of a really top rated television show.

[Commercial Break]

RP: All right. Gillian Anderson, co-star of the X-Files, is with us. And incidentally, this X-Files was not only good for your career but turned out to be a rather big personal coup as well...?

GA: Well, yes that it's actually a prerequisite to getting any kind of television show, you sign a contract and automatically get a husband and baby as well.

RP: What was he doing on the show?

GA: He was an art director...he wasn't on the pilot but came on when we started shooting the series.

KL: Was it love at first sight, Gillian?

GA: No, it wasn't love at first sight. I was very attracted to him and assumed he was to me as well. We went out on a couple dates and he asked me to marry him. No, that's not true [smirking]...it was pretty close to that though - we had a few dates to feel it out - it wasn't bang or anything...I didn't faint.

RP: Who asked who first?

GA: Well, like a verbal move or a physical move...? [laughing]

RP: Well, you know you gotta start something...?

GA: I invited him into my trailer to eat sushi.

KL: You know, that worked for me once too...

[laughter]

KL: That's very romantic.

RP: Yes, instead of the couch...she said, "come on in how 'bout a little sushi...?"

GA: And when he left, he said he didn't really want the sushi...

RP: And now you're happily married, you got a baby, a you got a hit show as well... what else do you want, Gillian?

GA: Sleep!

[laughter]

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