The X-Files Star Gillian Anderson's Favorite Thing About Scully Is...

Plus, a look back at that 1990s fashion that plagued her

By Chris Harnick Feb 05, 2016 7:31 PMTags
The X-Files, David Duchovny, Gillian AndersonFox

Gillian Anderson has spent a lot of time with The X-Files' Special Agent Dana Scully. We're talking 23 years, 200+ episodes, two feature films, and now a six-episode event series. But there were seven years between the last film and the revival miniseries, so you can understand why Anderson forgot what she really loved about the redhead skeptic.

"What I've come to appreciate of her, in light of a lot of the other tough female characters I've played—and I forgot this about her until coming back to it—is there's a lightness and a playfulness and a girlishness that I don't really have an opportunity to play, or don't make the choice to play…," Anderson told E! News when we visited set in August. "So I've been appreciating that in her."

That girlishness this time around involves some, how about we say advanced, fashion. Throughout the show's original run, Scully had some, well, very 1990s choices. Lots of shoulder pads and giant coats were the name of the game. There are even blogs dedicated to the outfits.

"Depending on what season that was it might have been when I was pregnant," she told us with a laugh. "Yes, there were shoulder pads."

However, there's no love lost for the fashion of yesterday. "No, not at all," she said when asked if she missed any of the styles.

Fox

Her original X-Files look was a far cry from where Scully is now.

"Scully was in a lot of—I don't think polyester is necessarily the right word, but it just seemed there was this particular fabric. I remember when they were brought into my trailer in like a pink color suit, a lavender color suit and the fact that I didn't go, ‘What the f--k are you talking about?!' but I went, 'Oh, that's a good idea'—that's the most horrific aspect of it," she joked.

Hey, it was the 1990s. Most of us lived through questionable choices too.

The X-Files airs Mondays, 8 p.m. on Fox.