The truth is out, and it’s unfortunately upsetting and rather uncomfortable. Gillian Anderson is best known for playing the sceptical Special Agent Dana Scully alongside David Duchovny’s conspiracy-loving Fox Mulder in X-Files. Her character is a total badass, an FBI-agent, medical doctor and above all Mulder’s equal.
But in a recent interview with The Daily Beast, Anderson revealed that not much has changed since the early ’90s when she was first offered the part. The award-winning actress revealed that she was initially offered half of her co-star Duchovny’s pay for her work in the X-Files reboot. What a bunch of crap.
The offer echoed the unfair and misogynist treatment she had been subjected to at the show’s beginning. She recalled that in the show’s early years, she had been instructed to stand a few feet behind Duchovny whenever they appeared on screen together – regardless of the fact that she was the show’s voice of reason, and you know, his partner.
“I can only imagine that at the beginning, they wanted me to be the sidekick,” Anderson said. “Or that, somehow, maybe it was enough of a change just to see a woman having this kind of intellectual repartee with a man on camera, and surely the audience couldn’t deal with actually seeing them walk side by side!”
Anderson fought hard for equality onset, and quickly gained recognition – not only as an actress but also as a writer and director. “I have such a knee-jerk reaction to that stuff, a very short tolerance for that shit,” she said reflecting on the preposterous notion that Scully was a mere sidekick.
“I don’t know how long it lasted or if it changed because I eventually said, ‘Fuck no! No!’ I don’t remember somebody saying, ‘OK, now you get to walk alongside him.’ But I imagine it had more to do with my intolerance and spunk than it being an allowance that was made”.
You would’ve thought that after the beloved show reached such an iconic status, that any perceived status difference between Scully and Mulder would have faded. How wrong we were, this just reflects the ongoing discrimination and inequality in Hollywood. The truth about the wage gap has once again been laid bare.
Her initial offer proves that not much has changed and that we’ve still got an uphill battle ahead of us. “Especially in this climate of women talking about the reality of [unequal pay] in this business, I think it’s important that it gets heard and voiced. It was shocking to me, given all the work that I had done in the past to get us to be paid fairly. I worked really hard toward that and finally got somewhere with it”. Anderson continued.
“Even in interviews in the last few years, people have said to me, ‘I can’t believe that happened, how did you feel about it, that is insane.’ And my response always was, ‘That was then, this is now.’ And then it happened again! I don’t even know what to say about it”.
The imbalance has reportedly been corrected. All I can say is good for you, Gillian. Kudos to you for standing up for yourself, speaking out and demanding the space that you rightfully deserve.
#Peace.Love.GillianAnderson
