August 31, 2011

So, every day for a week after the event in L.A. on July 30, I was going to post something because I was so strongly moved by everyone who turned up - and aside from being such a well produced event, it was such a lovely atmosphere all around - but then, as most things do, as you will have learned if you were present on that day, it slipped my mind.

I know that Chris and David felt the same way, both about my mind and the event and both remarked to me afterwards ‘let’s do it again!’ which we will maybe every couple of years.

I don’t know quite what it was. Was it the intimacy? Or that it was a tight run ship of like-minded smiling people getting a long awaited itch scratched? Or the fact that David did not come prepared which set the tone for a free fall of off-the-cuff silliness? Or was it simply my brilliant questions and seemingly bottomless sense of humor? Hard to say. BUT!!, I had a blast and I thank everyone who spent a penny more than they should have to be present for our truly wonderful evening.

Oh and I hear thru the grapevine that there were some truly unhappy people at the event and while I'd rather not get involved in the emotional aspects of it all, perhaps someone can lead a productive compassionate forum on what they might have liked to see done differently so that perchance all of us can learn how to make it better next time.

From my standpoint, the event ran quite smoothly, so I’m thinking perhaps negative experiences were due to exactly that reason and I am therefore truly sorry that in protecting me, others were not. May this be the beginning of a proactive and long living relationship.

And BTW, Michelle of SA-YES cried buckets when we told her how much you guys raised that day. Thank you from the bottoms of both of our buckets,

Gillian (the one in the red shirt)

May 17, 2011

Dear fans,

I wasn’t actually thinking I would write write. I have a very strange and bumpy relationship with my laptop. But to the point.

The other day, we had an OTSK board meeting in London and one of the things we discussed is a name change. If you visit the site you will read the reasons behind it which are many and deeply considered. The new name will be SA-YES South African Youth Education for Sustainability. Which is exactly what it is and, in part, what I wanted to talk about here.

One is that the OTSK program is doing extremely well and I am very very proud of what Michelle and the mentors and mentees have been up to on the ground in Capetown and I am very excited for the future of the program overall.

Statistically, the success rate is remarkable. There are youths in university, college, and in employment who would not be where they are, were it not for OTSK. Anyone out there who has contributed time or money to this charity should be very pleased with yourself and your direct positive influence on other’s lives.

The second thing is that this time now is crucial. There is a good chance that in a year or two, with potential sponsoring and funding coming in, the program will be self-sustainable. But in these early days it is really important that we keep our head above water and cover the running costs as well as - and just as importantly - grow. There are many many youths waiting in the wings to be a part of the program but it is just not financially feasible to take them on with the small income the charity is sustaining itself on now.

In the short term, I am going to auction another set of the Dave Wise photos which Dave himself had released online after the magazine ran. He gave me permission a while ago to print them up for auction.

In the upcoming months, I have hopes of convincing Universal to offer Johnny English 2 premiere tickets so that they can be auctioned off. I had previously promised the proceeds of the US tickets to go to ANSA but the London, Sydney and Hong Kong tickets should be auctionable for OTSK in the not too distant future. The film is very funny by the way. I have seen only a teeny bit but I think everyone will happily pee their pants.

I am also going to email my friends and ask that they consider making monthly donations of 10£ towards OTSK. I have not done this before but it’s time. We only have funds in the charity’s account to last until August so it’s push time. If any of you have relatives you haven’t bugged or employers who could spare some change, give them a little nudge to help us get over the hump into next year.

Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed to our growth so far. It really really is making a difference.

Oh and don’t forget to bid on the NF Doodle Day Doodles!! David did one and Simon Pegg drew Paul and there’s some GLEE action in there.

;) G

February 5, 2011

February 5, 2011

Okay, so I’m in Los Angeles and the sun is shining which is a far cry from London weather and I have to say I’m a little gun shy about writing here for you guys because as you know it is no longer just between me and you. Every time I write something it ends up in an article as if I’m purposefully writing public commentary and just pisses me off. Eventually I’ll get over it and settle into the new Wikileak world but right now I’m having growing pains.

What can I say? I miss my boys. I just skyped with them and Oscar was making jam filled muffins and Felix was throwing a car against the wall and the internet is so bad where I’m staying that it kept cutting out and they got progressively frustrated and all I could see were blurs of screeching color flash across the screen and then freeze into pixels and die. Call again, “Mummy!” Pixels, die. Call again, “Look”! Pixels, die. Etc Etc. For an hour. I’m exhausted and it’s 9am.

Any Human Heart is airing here in the states on Sunday the 13th of Feb - I think I’m supposed to tell you guys those things. Don’t think there’s much publicity around it cause they spent it all on Downton Abbey. Now there’s something for people online - “Gillian Anderson was complaining recently on her blog...”. But so tell a friend. That it’s on. And there’s a lot of sex in it. Not involving me. But the cast is fantastic and the world is going to fall in love with Hayley Atwell.

What else? Oh the Fiasco magazines. I guess one or two of you have bought them online and received torn up copies. Please don’t send nasty emails to the editor. They’re a small company and doing their best to get the stuff out there for little to no profit. I’m going to try to get some of them on the LA newsstands any day now and they should be a bit cheaper if you guys in LA start hounding your local street vendors near the Beverly Hills West Hollywood Brentwood areas. Demand and supply.

And the signed photos from the shoot will be up for auction soonish to raise funds for the AJS teachers' block. Very excited for them. By the way thank you again to Sandi Hicks and all you Australian supporters who have raised the bulk of AJS’s expenses on this build. You guys are so generous with your time and effort and such proactive fundraisers!

I’m addicted to hemp seeds.

I think that’s it for now, or I should say for the next six months. No! That’s terrible. I don’t mean to really it’s just, LIFE!

G.

July 6, 2010

I had been telling myself for months to write to you guys and I finally did a nice couple of- in the moment- paragraphs while the boys were playing in the garden and my computer crashed, or I should say it ran out of battery because I kept putting off going upstairs to get the cord and when I got it going again my lovely paragraphs were lost.

But I have to say I still struggle with what to say. Every time I decide to share about anything in my life it seems too vague that there's no point really or if I get specific then I feel like a twat because I feel like I have so much and how dare I share about my fortunate existence and then I think, well then share something profound but I don’t have anything profound to say or any words of wisdom or any recipes or hints on how to set a table.

I could recommend books that I am half way through or music I have downloaded but not really listened to but it all just feels hypocritical. I have nothing to say about anything.

So here's some vagueness; I just did Wallis Simpson for a Channel 4 adaptation of William Boyd’s Any Human Heart, lots of fun working with my friend Tom Hollander and the unimaginably sweet Mathew Macfadyen.

And upcoming three or four things that I can't speak about cause the contracts have not been finalized and therefore not announced.

And, oh yes, Moby Dick which I did ADR for a couple of weeks ago and which looks beautifully shot and possibly great but, again, no idea when it will be aired and where.

And then the sad news that I have had to let go of Gellhorn because HBO is doing the exact story with Nicole and Clive Owen. But these things happen and I was taking too long getting the script right and it's my own damned fault.

And what else? The boys are great. Oscar talking a mile a minute and very upset when he's not understood. Felix is a thug. Rugby is on the horizon I think. They adore each other which is a blessing. Trying to decide whether to expose them both to chicken pox at the same time as we know a little girl who has it (is chicken pox an 'it' or a 'them' ?) or if it's just bad timing. Is there ever good timing for it/them?

Ok, well I’ll go onto all the half books then:

Shantaram / The Great Railway Bazaar / A Fine Balance / Raising Boys / Reinventing The Body Resurrecting The Soul / Fugitive Pieces.

Oh and I actually finished the entertaining and somewhat terrifying The Game Change - different title In England which I forget* - about the run up to the last US elections.

Music? I Am Kloot / The Eels / The Doves / Blind Pilot / Fight Like Apes / Bat for Lashes / Purcell Retrospect Trio / Isabelle Faust / Melnikov doing Beethoven sonatas / Soundtrack to Bright Star / Soundtrack to No One Knows About Persian Cats - oh and it’s movie which leads me to the movie The Father Of My Children and the well lauded A Prophet and yet another French film Lourdes And Exit Through The Gift Shop. And I think that’s it for me now.

I hope you are all, every one of you, happy and doing what you want to be doing in your life. Really.

Me.

*Race of a Lifetime

January 8, 2010

Happy New Year!

So I keep getting emails from people discussing my facebook pages. Apparently, old school friends have been communicating with me for years thinking it's me. I want everyone to know that I do not have a facebook page and that everyone that is up there is an impostor.

Gillian.

NOTE: As mentioned on this web site last October, Gillian is NOT on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, nor any other social network. When she wants to communicate with her fans, she does so exclusively through this web site. As a general rule, if you see that a celebrity has an official web site that provides no link or information pertaining to MySpace/Facebook etc. pages, it more than likely means that an impostor owns those pages.

November 17, 2009

Dear everybody -

I am sitting in the BA Lounge at LAX after a very productive and very short trip to LA. Got to see friends and take meetings and most of all raise a little something for charity - thank you everybody who showed up for that by the way - thank you for showing up and for donating and for buying and for everything related to anything that raises support and most importantly funds for the charities that I support.

I don't know how many of you know this but ANSA is just starting an auction and there are a few well signed XF items up for grabs but also they are in basic need of financial support right now to meet their fiscal responsibilities and so anything you can give would be awesome and go to such a good cause.

So I miss my boys. Five nights is about the limit of what I can do without them and I just can't stand it. On the phone Oscar says ‘Hello My Mommy’ and I just want to eat him up. Eyelashes, toenails, the whole lot. And then there's Felix, blond hair, blue eyes, a bulldozer with a wicked sense of humor even at one. Enough!

Anyhoo so here is LAX and on my way to the welcome drizzle of London before the welcome sunshine of somewhere else and time just flies and flies and I wish I could tell you what I'm doing next but I can't and Oh there was Moby Dick which was so much fun and such a great group of people not least of which was the director Michael Barker who is an angel of a man and Ethan (Hawke) and Charlie (Cox) and then William (Hurt) and oh my Donald Sutherland who I would give my left anything to properly work with again. It was blessed. Well, and cursed but I won't go into that.

And and what else can I say without saying anything at all...

Oh everybody has to see the movie Fish Tank when it comes out.

I wish I could say more but you know this isn't a blog.

That's all for this...year?

G.

May 17, 2009

As you know I support a number of charities, many of them in South Africa. Off The Street Kids (OTSK) is the most recent addition and one that I co-founded.

OTSK is now up and running in Cape Town providing mentors and life skills workshops to youth preparing to leave residential care, and to those who have recently left care.

OTSK also offers assistance with finding a safe and stable place to live, further skills training, help finding work, and basically everything else most of us got from our parents when we were leaving home. OTSK simply acts as a substitute parent to these young people.

Most of the youth supported by OTSK have lived on the streets at some point, moved into a children’s home, and then have had to leave the home without much support or guidance in what to do next. Many have backgrounds that include abuse, drug addicted parents or parents who abandoned them, and drug and crime issues of their own. The luckiest of them grew up in the townships with one parent, if that can give you some perspective.

OTSK is still running its pilot and needs help with operating costs. My question is, would any of you wonderful people be interested in making monthly automated donations towards the running costs? The knowledge that these costs (approximately $1800) are partially or indeed fully covered every month would relieve a huge amount of pressure and stress and allow the pilot to keep running, the charity to grow, and the goal for supporting the youth in their transition, to be reached.

Whether you can afford $2, $20 or $200 each month, every single donation will make a difference! And OTSK will be able to continue to carry out this essential work to help these young people stay off the streets, stay out of prison, and ultimately get on their feet.

OTSK will be posting regular blogs on the website so you will be able to see first hand how your money is impacting the lives of the youth we work with.

I will personally send a signed photograph to anyone who commits to a monthly donation of $20 and over for a minimum of six months, so please ensure you give your full contact details when you sign up.

You can set up a regular payment plan via OTSK’s website: www.offthestreetkids.org and if you would like any further information about raising funds for OTSK contact: fundraising@offthestreetkids.org

Gillian.

NOTE: Donation Clarification

January 27, 2009

Okay, so I know it's been a long time. Maybe the longest. And I have no excuses. Other than I have to be in the right frame of mind and somehow that frame has not found me until now. You know part of it is that if I am not careful I can get too comfortable and say too much and part of it is that sometimes around the time of giving birth all one's creative juices seem to be bubbling in one direction and it ain’t the head.

So I am in London and both kids were asleep and now, of course they are awake. Just at the moment my fingers start a typin. But, I have help. You know, one of the things I am the most amazed at in life is women who raise children without help. Yes some people are more built for it than others, higher levels of the patience hormone, but hell it is HARD! And how the hell do you clean the house and make the dinner and do the shopping? I know I am sounding like a complete idiot here but I’m telling you, every last one of you from the beginning of time should be given a medal, and free health insurance, and food coupons, and a government subsidized housekeeper that comes in one day a week per child. I don’t know, clearly I am rambling.

So we went to Brazil for Christmas. Well after Christmas, and had an extremely relaxing time - mostly for the fact that there is no body selfconsciousness in Brazil no matter how many bumps, rolls, extra chins one has, in Brazil it all hangs out, no judgment. Not even a sideways glance, and everyone is as friendly as a neighbor. A friendly neighbor. And the landscape is exquisite and the food is divine and well, I can’t wait to explore it more.

Now, on more serious notes. I have a son, a second one and his name is Felix and he looks more like Winston Churchill than any baby ever has or indeed than Winston Churchill himself or as Connie says, he looks like the future leader of the free world. Move over Obama. No, I’m kidding, but he’s lovely.

Back to seriousness, I would like to make a suggestion in regards to donations etc etc etc. The suggestion is that, as you may or may not know, I have five or more charities in Africa that I am involved with and, at any given time, one or the other of them is in greater need. So far, you guys have helped raise oodles of funds for Alinyiikira which is nothing less than extraordinary.

But I have another charity, for instance, which I have helped get off the ground for street kids in South Africa who have made their way into hostels but are about to be turned out on the streets again at 18 without the tools to be able to get a job or be self sufficient. The charity is in its early stages, just having been registered and is in the pilot stage so to speak of gathering information on the ground in order to find the best and most effective way forward. Eventually as the buildings are built or found and the children and young adults settle in, we can provide pictures of the progress so that all who are donating from around the world can see where their donations are being of service.

Anyway, I was wondering how you all felt about creating the Southern Africa Pot so that one group of say, Australians ;) who raise a couple thousand dollars for Alinyiikira, would know that eventually that exact amount would indeed reach that school but it may not be now because say, ANSA or Fezeka needed it more immediately. But also, a group might decide that they wanted to do a fund raiser just for the ‘Pot’ and not get specific about which individual charity it went to. But we would also keep it open so that if someone wanted to specifically donate say a years worth of school tuition for one student, it would go directly for that purpose. Am I making sense?

And have I used the word ‘say’ enough? Or should I say, use it one more time? On the same note though, we are looking for a web designer who would be willing to donate their services to design the website of the NGO (non-governmental organization) I was previously speaking about. If anyone would like to send examples of previous work to my website that would be great. Maybe write OTSK in the subject and I’ll tell you what that means later!!!!!

Okay what next? Starting rehearsals in April for Doll's House. Getting excited. Not scared yet. Things seem to be moving forward with Gellhorn but I am highly superstitious and will say less than nothing until its more than something. Books? Making my way through about six. I’m really bad. That’s the last thing I allow myself to do. I took at least six books with me to Brazil but ended up making playlists for my iPod for the first time!!!!! How lame is that? Lamest that I had never done it before and had to do it when I should have been reading. Oh the piles of things I drag from one side of my life to the other.

A bit of a non sequitur but actually relevant because I would like to end by expressing my huge huge sadness over the death of Kim Manners who passed away on Sunday. He was just about to retire. Had been talking about it since the series ended. Let that be a solemn lesson for us all. Make the very most out of this moment now, it’s all we’ve got. I need to learn it more than anybody. Busy busy busy.

Thank you for listening.

Gillian

May 27, 2008

Hello everyone.

I was just thinking that even though it says on the website that you, the fans and the curious can ask questions, the fact is I never actually answer them. On the odd occasion that I write something for the site, no matter how much I might think about the questions that have been asked, I end up writing a kind of stream of consciousness gobbledygook that answers the odd query only by accident.

So, I am hereby requesting the removal of that fallacy from the site, and will erect in its place something to the effect of: 'Write to Gillian - She will read it'. Well, possibly not that lame but the fact is I do read quite a few of them, I think, although someone does comb through them first, so it is highly possible that I read the 'Best Of' or the ones that don't refer to me as a three eyed monster.

In any case, let me just take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you who do write in or simply browse or even think about browsing after landing on the wrong site, and an especially big and grateful thank you to all those who participated in the doodle auction cause we raised some damn fine funds for the charity.

And here's to an excellent XF2 - it better be good! cause I'm expecting you all to see it at least 10 times each.

G.

February 23, 2008

All writers take note!

There is a writer's workshop at one of my favorite places in the world, Hollyhock, where Elizabeth Rosner -- whom you all must know by now -- wrote The Speed Of Light which I am yes, still in the process of adapting.

GO! Soak in her wisdom, soak naked in the communal hot tub, and have a magical vegetarian experience.

Writing Deeper: Finding your Voice
Presented by: Elizabeth Rosner
June 13 - 20, 2008


Hollyhock is nestled between the forest and ocean on the south-eastern tip of Cortes Island, British Columbia, about 160 kilometres (100 miles) north of Vancouver.