Gillian and Andrew Davies: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Posted at 10:13 AM (PST) on Sunday, January 15, 2006

Seattle Post-Intelligencer
January 15, 2006

TV GAL

Gillian Anderson's immediate future looks "Bleak," and she's just fine with that.

Gillian Anderson knows exactly what American audiences must think. "Perhaps there's a slight perception that I was a temporary television celebrity who disappeared off the face of the planet," she said.

In fact, Anderson lives in London, where she has completed several films due out this year, including "Tristam Shandy" and "The Last King of Scotland." That she's popping up in Andrew Davies' eight hour version of "Bleak House" is something of an anomaly.

"Bleak House," by the way, airs on "Masterpiece Theatre" on consecutive Sundays through February 26, beginning with a two-hour opener Sunday, Jan. 22, at 9 p.m.

I repeat, this may be the last time you'll see Anderson in a TV series. That's by choice, not force. "I'm not around to knock on people's doors and beg them to hire me, or to meet directors who are in town or anything like that," she told critics. "It's all sprung from British film makers who are willing to take a risk, and for whatever reason see me as an actor, and not a television celebrity."

"And God bless them, because that's where I've been getting my work."

Davies, meanwhile, also would love to get a little more attention than he does. "I have no private life," he said. "...I don't really have any friends either. In fact, if anyone likes the look of me, will they please come up and..." We all laughed.

"I'm getting quite old now," he continued. "And, you know, if I go up to young people in the street and say, 'Would you like to have a good time with me?' they report me to the police. But if I write these scripts, it gets me into a situation where I meet all these beautiful and talented people."

It's a safe bet that he counts Anderson among his pals these days.