ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 15, 1996 TAG: 9606180008
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: HARRIET WINSLOW THE WASHINGTON POST
Politician Pat Buchanan had just left the makeup artist's chair, and several staff members at Fox station WTTG were buzzing around, trying to get a look at the guest who replaced him.
Gillian Anderson, the co-star of Fox's hit science-fiction series ``The X-Files,'' slid into the chair.
Minutes later, a uniformed security guard, who towered over the 5-foot-2 redhead, was the first to step forward.
``Could you take our picture?'' he asked, offering his camera to an older woman in a black silk suit.
``Sure,'' said the photo recruit, who looked as though she'd been through this before. The guard lavished words of praise on Anderson, smiled for the camera and left for his post a happy man.
Anderson, whose first name is pronounced Jillian, resembled a '40s movie star in a long brown skirt, taupe jacket, and chocolate, stacked-heel pumps. She is much smaller than she appears on TV.
``You know,'' said the photographer, hearing remarks about the actress's figure, ``Gillian was never this thin before.''
She should know. She's her mother.
No doubt the attention that ``The X-Files'' attracts every Friday night (at 9 on WJPR/WFXR-Channel 21/27) is enough to make one shed a few pounds. The series is Fox's highest-rated show and next fall will move to Sunday, the evening with the largest available audience, for its fourth season.
At 27, the stage-trained DePaul University graduate has seen some big changes in her life since she took the role of FBI special agent Dana Scully.
Anderson speaks in the same lazy alto as Scully; she sounds as if she doesn't open her mouth enough when she talks. But while she is soft-spoken and poised, her mother, Rosemary, is outspoken and chipper.
They came to Washington to attend the black-tie White House Correspondents' dinner, and for something much more serious - to attend a scientists' meeting about the disease that Gillian's 15-year-old brother was diagnosed with when he was 3.
It's called neurofibromatosis, or NF, a life-threatening disease that encourages tumors all over the body. Rosemary Anderson helped start a clinic for NF patients in Michigan.
In WTTG's conference room, with a tall mineral-water bottle in front of her, Anderson and her mother discussed the family, her brother's disease, the eight years they spent in London when Gillian's dad, Ed, studied film production and the attention ``The X-Files'' has brought to all of them.
``X-Files'' creator Chris Carter has said many times the two main characters won't get into a relationship that overshadows the cases the two FBI agents cover.
However, Anderson said that her character has undergone changes along with the actress. Scully has become more three-dimensional since the show started, and her on-screen relationship with Fox Mulder (Duchovny) has shifted, she said.
``We were spending, I think, the first season figuring out who these [characters] were. And then I got pregnant, and I was trying to figure out who I was.
``And then I think only in the third season have I started to feel really comfortable with her and really feel like she's gotten stronger and more mature, and it seems like her relationship with Mulder has gotten stronger and she's more of a partner than a sidekick.''
Anderson and her husband, German-born cinematographer Clyde Klotz, whom she met on the ``X-Files'' set in Vancouver, have a daughter, Piper, of whom they are very protective.
Anderson had the baby in September 1994, by Caesarean section, and her pregnancy triggered rumors that she was expendable to ``The X-Files,'' that she would be replaced. But Carter, who picked her for the role, insisted she stay.
She missed only two weeks of filming for the surgery, and nearly two years later her face is too famous to be easily replaced. Now she thinks about security systems and dodging fans who want to take Piper's picture.
Committed to ``The X-Files'' for two more years, Anderson said she hasn't abandoned her inclination for the stage but looks forward to making the upcoming film, based on the series, first.
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny star in ``Theby CNBX-Files,'' airing Friday at 9 p.m. on WJPR/WFXR-Channel 21/27.
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