In fact, when she finally gave in and auditioned for a new Fox series called The X-Files, her agent had to explain to her what a pilot was. Soon she found herself on a plane to Vancouver, B.C., having landed the role of F.B.I. agent Dana Scully.While Anderson may have thought landing a plum role on a new series was a piece of cake, there was a great deal of behind-the-scenes controversy about her being cast. The paranormal show's creator, Chris Carter, lobbied hard for the less-bodacious-than-usual actress. (Executives wanted Pamela Lee with a brain, but Carter flat-out refused.) Her agent fudged her age a bit by adding a few years so the twenty-four-year-old Anderson would seem credible playing an F.B.I. agent with a medical degree. To exacerbate the situation, during the first season, when the show was still trying to find its audience, Anderson found out she was pregnant by her new husband, Clyde Kotz, the show's art director. Anderson feared she would be replaced, but Carter championed her cause once again and worked around it (in fact, some of that season's best episodes came from Carter having to write around her pregnancy). The show experienced exploding popularity the next two seasons, and Anderson and her co-star, David Duchovny , have become intellectual centerfolds for millions on the Internet. Fan clubs have sprung up: Anderson has the Gillian Anderson Testosterone Brigade to complement Duchovny's Estrogen Brigade. (In fact, there's also an Anderson Estrogen Brigade). Anderson's fame has reached the point where it's downright dangerous: ten thousand fans showed up at a mall in Australia where Anderson was on-hand to sign copies of an X-Files video. Two people were rushed to the hospital and dozens were treated for hyperventilation when the crowd surged toward the stage.Anderson has made a 180-degree turn from her adolescent days. Nowadays, her life consists of motherhood and grueling television work: the only wildness in her life is caused by her rabid fans. Her daughter, Piper, has become something of a mascot on the set (when Piper was cutting her first teeth, she even wore a shirt emblazoned with the phrase, "The tooth is out there," a play on the show's popular message, "The truth is out there") and any off time Anderson--now in the midst of acquiring a divorce from Klotz--can grab is spent with her. By now, Anderson's various piercings have closed up, and her hair didn't fall out from excessive dye. It seems that the former punk rocker, who says that she "feels like I'm going nuts" when she listens to the music of her youth, turned out downright regular. The Emmy-winning actress has signed up for her first movie role, opposite Sharon Stone , Gena Rowlands, and Harry Dean Stanton, in The Mighty; she's also committed to Hellcab, which stars John Cusack and Julianne Moore , as well as a big-screen version of The X-Files, with Duchovny and series creator Chris Carter.
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