Although she is currently filming the Fox reboot of “The X-Files,” Gillian Anderson is generating awards buzz for her role in the second season of the BBC series “The Fall.”
Anderson plays Det. Superintendent Stella Gibson on the show, who finally comes face to face with the diabolical killer Paul Spector (“50 Shades of Grey” star Jamie Dornan) in season 2.
Here, the actress discusses her work on the mystery-thriller, her scenes with Archie Panjabi and which French TV show she’s been binge-watching.
TheWrap: What was the toughest thing you had to do this season?
Gillian Anderson: There’s one scene that I guess was one of the toughest, where Stella is talking to Reed Smith (Archie Panjabi) and she knows that Rose has potentially gone missing and it might be related to the fact that she had said Spector’s name on the phone when she spoke to him.
And she has become friends with this woman, and there’s respect there. There’s mutual appreciation. And yet, she is not necessarily lying but she is being deliberately elusive and slightly deceitful about the degree of information that she has and what her opinion is into that she is potentially, herself and possibly by contribution Reed Smith, has contributed to this girl going missing.
What was the most fun thing you got to do this season?
Again, Reed Smith and I — Archie Panjabi and I have a lot of fun as actors with the scene where I pretend to be her lover and dissuade a suitor from trying to pick her up. That was a lot of fun. We had a lot of giggles that day.
If somebody had never seen your show, what would you say to persuade them to watch it?
I would say that it’s probably the best writing that I have ever witnessed for television, and the episodes are incredibly complex with well-drawn characters, the likes of which I haven’t seen.
Who else on your show deserves an Emmy and why?
Definitely Jamie Dornan, I would say, who plays Spector. Definitely in the last scene that we have together, there’s an interrogation scene, and it’s the first time that the characters have been face to face. I would say we definitely see Jamie’s acting talent in that exchange.
Which episode would you submit for consideration?
Oh, gosh. Can we tell you that after the fact? I don’t know the answer to that question but I can ask somebody who knows better.
Are you a binge-watcher or a once a week TV viewer?
I’m not a big TV watcher. I just recently got into a French series called “The Returned.” I can probably do maybe three at a time, two or three. So I guess that would be considered a binge watch because I’m not watching one a time.
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