‘X Files’ Creator Says Studio Execs Asked ‘Where’s the Sex Appeal?’ About Gillian Anderson, Calls New Reboot a ‘Hard Job’ Since ‘Everything’s a Conspiracy’ Now
‘X Files’ Creator Says Studio Execs Asked ‘Where’s the Sex Appeal?’ About Gillian Anderson, Calls New Reboot a ‘Hard Job’ Since ‘Everything’s a Conspiracy’ Now
"The X-Files" creator Chris Carter says studio executives asked him "where is the sex appeal?" when he pitched Gillian Anderson to star.
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Not everything needs sex appeal.
This is absolutely true. But also, Gillian Anderson is even more attractive now than she was when X-Files started - that woman has aged like fine wine! Which makes it a doubly stupid thing for the executives to be saying.
If you click through to the original interview it was something they said during casting for the original.
She was an unknown actor and the execs wanted a Pamela Anderson (Baywatch era) style female lead.
Oh yeah... The Fall, American Gods, Sex Education. She just kept getting more and more gorgeous.
No, it doesn’t. But there’s something ridiculous about a Hollywood exec looking at hot women in a show and then saying there’s no sex appeal.
Except Anderson was dripping with sex appeal IMO. She definitely was for mid-teens me.
Sure she had it but her real appeal was the subtlety. She wasn't some bimbo beach babe she was a doctor, an agent a skeptic and a professional. What the executives wanted was the former because their opinion of their audience was somewhere at the bottom of a bottomless pit.
It's also worth noting that the presence of a character like Scully on TV resulted in a noticeable uptick in women applying for roles in agencies like the FBI (say what you will about three-letters but having more female representation isn't making them worse).