Gillian is gracing the cover of the March issue of InStyle magazine- her first cover! The photoshoot is absolutely stunning!




In her début scene in The Crown, Gillian Anderson, playing Margaret Thatcher, arrives at Buckingham Palace for her first meeting with Queen Elizabeth (played by Olivia Colman). The monarch waits, fussing with flowers, while Thatcher, in a blaring royal blue suit, enters the room. “Your Majesty,” she croons, sweeping to the floor in an “Is she serious?” curtsy.
It’s an audible-gasp moment. Anderson has committed. For the rest of the season, the actress immortalizes all 11 years of Thatcher’s “Iron Lady” rule, from her controversial privatization of the British economy, to the Falkland Islands conflict, to the rise of the IRA (Irish Republican Army), to her eventual ouster from office in 1990.
It’s testament to Anderson’s skill that her performance doesn’t dissolve into camp. Rather, it’s considered and often poignant. More enjoyable still are Anderson’s irreverent dispatches from The Crown’s set on Instagram, which include riding in a jeep with Colman (in character) and a snap of “Thatcher” with her legs draped over two thrones.
Having been in the public eye since she was 24, when she signed on to play Dana Scully in The X-Files, Anderson, now 52, has paid her dues. Based in London and effortlessly transitioning between American and British personas, she finds herself in a both deserved and enviable position. And if you’d told her back during The X-Files that she’d play Margaret Thatcher one day? She laughs. “F— off!”
Laura Brown: Hello, Gillian! How are you? You’re in London on lockdown No. 3, correct?
Gillian Anderson: Yeah, I am. It hasn’t actually hit me yet. I’ve been finishing cleaning out closets and stuff. The vacuum cleaner is a big deal in my life. I bought a new one the first week of lockdown, and it became pretty much my best friend, my lover, my everything — until we got a puppy.
LB: Other than the vacuum, what’s been your saving grace during this confinement period?
GA: My kids [daughter Piper, 26, and sons Oscar, 14, and Felix, 12]. My little ones are obsessed with being outside, and I’m very blessed to have access to outdoor space. It’s been a godsend that when they’re not in school, they want to be outside and not on screens.
LB: Did you work over lockdown at all?
GA: I did. Sex Education [the series centered on Anderson’s sex-therapist character, Jean, and her teenage son] pushed its start from July to September. With Netflix protocol, everyone’s tested three times a week.
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