Latest role. Playing Miss Havisham in the PBS miniseries Great Expectations. I love getting paid to be a nut job. On moving between America and Britain, where I live now. I was born in the United States, spent my formative years in the United Kingdom, then moved to Michigan when I was 11. Initially I was excited about the adventure. I didn’t take into account how much my Britishness would set me apart. What’s British and what’s American about me. I was just in Los Angeles and the sun was shining and I was smiling a lot. I feel like I’m a nicer person when I&rsqu ... [Continua a leggere]

Gillian Anderson said she was "fascinated" to meet the Queen and Duke Of Edinburgh at an event at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the life of Charles Dickens. The former X-Files star was joined by a host of other faces from TV and film at the reception, which was also attended by members of Dickens' family. Anderson, who recently brought the character of jilted bride Miss Havisham to life in a BBC adaptation of Great Expectations, said: "I would love to be able to walk around and have a conversation with everybody here. I am absolutely fascinated to be here and to meet the Queen." Th ... [Continua a leggere]

No one, as far as I know, has come to the Berlinale in search of Gillian Anderson, the strawberry-blonde vixen who set millions of hearts aflutter -- and not just male ones -- with her role in the supernaturally beloved ’90s show The X-Files. But Anderson has surprised those of us who love her by showing up -- in small roles, but still -- in two films here, James Marsh’s Shadow Dancer and Ursula Meier’s Sister. In Shadow Dancer, a thriller set in early-‘90s Belfast, she’s a British secret-service officer who squares off against a colleague (played by Clive ... [Continua a leggere]

Gillian Anderson says she was "extremely privileged" to entertain Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall as part of the 200th anniversary celebrations of Charles Dickens birth. The actress , who played Miss Havisham in the BBC's recent adaptation of Great Expectations, read an extract from the novel to the royal couple as the day was marked throughout Britain. Beforehand she admitted to Sky News she was very nervous but it was something she "couldn't say no to". Following the reading, Prince Charles showed his appreciation, remarking: "How fantastic". He added: "What fun it is to be r ... [Continua a leggere]

It’s almost the bicentenary of Charles Dickens’s birth and while the literati are getting themselves in a lather over which of his novels merits being called the best, TV viewers have made it clear that the BBC’s lavish version of Bleak House is the ultimate small-screen Dickens dramatisation. The Bafta-winning all-star series emerged as the favourite adaptation according to a survey of over 600 RadioTimes.com users, beating other well-known dramatisations, including Martin Chuzzlewit, David Copperfield and Hard Times, into pole position. Lionel Bart’s 196 ... [Continua a leggere]

It was a Dickens-heavy Christmas and all the better for it. By that, I don't mean the rosy confected one of bantering ho-hos and seething subterranean hypocrisies which Charles essentially invented. It was a dark, bleak, clever one, with ghostly waving branches and awkward truths – possibly rather suitable to end the year we've just had. There was, of course, Great Expectations, over three grimly fabulous nights. You knew it was going to be good from the off, when a muddied Ray Winstone as Magwitch grabbed Pip's foot from under the bridge, those skies above the marshes a cloying gr ... [Continua a leggere]

I wanted to play Miss Havisham because she's an iconic character who pervades our world in various forms. So many people have written about her or based other characters on her over many decades. I was interested in what it was that was so appealing about her, what it is that seems to get under people's skin. We're talking about a woman who is deeply, almost psychotically manipulative and potentially really psychologically damaging to Pip and Estella, the two children that we see her have this direct impact on. There was a curiosity there for me. Also reading the scripts and appreciating ... [Continua a leggere]

Gillian Anderson has a tattoo on her right wrist that is in Sanskrit, and when I ask her what it means she tells me, laughing, that its rough translation is “none of your business”. Anderson is a curious mix of cautious and carefree, clamming up about some skin ink yet talking openly about her brother, Aaron, who died three months ago of a brain tumour. He was just 30. I remark, rather obviously, that it must have been a tough year. “Well, there’s certainly been a lot happening this year. But I feel like I’ve learnt. I feel like I’ve c ... [Continua a leggere]

The wealthy heiress, who was jilted on her wedding day and lived as a recluse for decades afterwards, haunts her tumbledown mansion clad in a dusty matrimonial gown. Miss Havisham - with her white matted hair and wedding feast table preserved in cobwebs - has been played by older actresses in previous major incarnations. Joan Hickson played her at the age of 75 in 1981, while Anne Bancroft was cast in a 1998 modern reworking of Dickens's story at the age of 67. But for the new take on Great Expectations she is portrayed by Gillian Anderson, who at 43 is the youngest screen star to pl ... [Continua a leggere]

'You've changed," I tell Gillian Anderson. In 1996, she was chosen as the world's sexiest woman by FHM magazine's readers; this Christmas she will be bald and on fire as Miss Havisham in the BBC's adaptation of Great Expectations. So what made her take this role? Anderson bristles: "That's not really a serious question, is it? The real question is, 'How the fuck did I end up as the world's sexiest woman in 1996?' – not why would I do Great Expectations. Any actor would want to do Great Expectations. I never set out to be the world's sexiest woman." No doubt. In any case, ... [Continua a leggere]

A mouldy wedding cake is perched upon a laid table and several dusty clocks are stopped in their tracks at twenty minutes to nine. Onto the scene appears a white-haired, spectral figure treading the wooden floor in a rotting wedding dress and one shoe. The cracked lips break into a smile and a deathly white hand is extended to greet us. Hello - it’s Hollywood actress Gillian Anderson, doing a fine impression of Miss Havisham, the spurned bride of Charles Dickens’s novel Great Expectations, on the set of BBC One’s forthcoming three-part adaptation. The classic tale of ... [Continua a leggere]

There are one or two questions I want to ask Gillian Anderson but, first of all, Gillian Anderson has a question for me. "What was my death like?" she asks -meaning her death as Miss Havisham in the BBC's new adaptation of Great Expectations, which she filmed earlier this year but hasn't seen yet. Having just watched all three episodes, I can tell Anderson that her death, in a massive tower of flame, is pretty spectacular: shocking, moving, but most of all intriguing because it signals a new take on one of literature's most famous characters. In Charles Dickens's original novel, ... [Continua a leggere]

Sarà una favola di Charles Dickens a liberare Gillian Anderson dal fantasma di Dana Scully? Nonostante un discreto curriculum lavorativo e due film in uscita nel 2012 (Mr. Morgan's Last Love e The Curse of The Buxom Strumpet), l'attrice americana non riesce a liberarsi dal personaggio della serie cult degli anni Novanta X-Files. Per questo, dopo aver ottenuto una nomination ai premi BAFTA per il ruolo di Lady Deadlock in Casa Desolata prodotta dalla BBC nel 2005, la star di Hollywood ha accettato con entusiasmo il ruolo dello spettro bianco di Miss Havisham nella nuova mini serietelevis ... [Continua a leggere]

Miss Havisham is such an iconic role — did you always want to play her?As much as I’m familiar with the book it’s not in my mind as one of my favourites as it is for a lot of people. But this was a time when I was as excited by the adaptation, if not more so, than the book. I felt I might have a way in to the character and I fell in love with the script. Miss Havisham had a real historical impact. In what way?There are various things that have come to my attention in terms of the Miss Havisham effect. Not just the potential addiction to loss and the pain of loss but ... [Continua a leggere]

Here Ray Winstone who stars as Magwitch and Gillian Anderson who stars as Miss Havisham talk about playing two of Dickens iconic characters and why Great Expectations is a must see for viewers who enjoy a bit of Dickens at Christmas. "Christmas without a BBC show or drama is not really Christmas is it. You have enough to drink and eat and then you sit down by the fire and watch a good drama, and there's nothing better than Dickens at Christmas," says Ray Winstone, the East-London born actor who follows in the footsteps of past luminaries such as Finlay Currie and James Mason in the ro ... [Continua a leggere]