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The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
November 6, 2000

Dave: Our first guest is Agent Scully on the popular television program "The X-Files," which has its big season finale May 21st. Here's the lovely Gillian Anderson.

(cheers and applause)

Jay: My first guest, an Emmy award winning actress, who stars on the popular series "The X-Files," her new film, "The House of Mirth" opens December 22nd, please welcome the lovely Gillian Anderson!

(Gillian wearing a netted black shirt, with black thong sandals, and black pants.)

Gillian: (to Jay) Hi, How are you?

Gillian: Hellooo!

Jay: Welcome! Good to see you again!

Gillian: Thank you! I'm so nervous! I've got a tail on these pants.

Jay: A tail? What do you mean?

Gillian: I uh, I had them altered right before I came, and see there's something funny with the.. ::stands up and pulls out extra fabric on the back of her pants:: Look at that!



Jay: Let me see, I can't see!

Gillian: Oh, come on! You like tails?! I wouldn't admit to that if I were you!

Jay: Yeah, but it's high, it could be worse. It could be on the low end, which would be worse.

Gillian: Yeah, that would be worse.

Jay: So at least high up..

Gillian: Better for you, not so good for me. Anyway!

Jay: Now what'd I read about you uh, driving fast? You're like a race car driver now?

Gillian: I'm not a race car driver now. I um, well you have a lot of cars, don't you?

Jay: Well, I like cars.

Gillian: Yeah, you like cars! I saw your viper out there.

Jay: That's right. That's right.

Gillian: That's right.

Jay: You like to drive fast?

Gillian: Um, I do like to drive fast and I try to just do it in safe zones, but sometimes.. You know..

Jay: Safe zones? Like a school a hospital?

Gillian: Well no, I, yeah. ::laughs:: Uh, as a matter of fact, um, um..

Jay: You mean, like a track?

Gillian: Yeah, I no, I did a thing in Atlanta over the summer, I went and um...

Jay: Oh Road-Atlanta? Is that where you went to?

Gillian: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a really wonderful program there. You just go and learn how to be a better performance driver, and you skid out on wet roads, and do slaloms.

Jay: Now was it scary for you at first, or what?

Gillian: Not really, Those kind of things don't scare me so much, it's other things in life that scare me...

Jay: Well you're on the X-Files, what's going to scare you, really.

Gillian: I know, exactly.

Jay: Have you done any racing? Like maybe a Toyota..

Gillian: I haven't, no. I've always wanted to do one of the Toyota challenges, but I can never, seem to..

Jay: I did one.

Gillian: Oh you did? You did that?

Jay: Yeah!

Gillian: Well I know, my new co-star, Robert.. He saw you up at the Rock? Or something like that.

Jay: Oh the Rock Store! That's where we ride our motorcycles.

Gillian: What is that place?

Jay: It's just a place where bikers hang out.

Gillian: Yeah? So they hang out?

Jay: They hang out.

Gillian: What do they do there?

Jay: They hang out, women come up, disappear, never hear from them again.

Gillian:
Jay: Yeah, but that's another.. Thing.

Gillian: Oh, really, okay!

Jay: Well actually it's a jet engine. It's out of a helicopter. It's a very complicated thing, but it goes good.

Gillian: It's a jet engine, oh oh, not an airplane engine, but a jet engine. It goes pretty fast, I can imagine.

Jay: But I want to hear more about you now, I want to hear about your driving. Why haven't you done the Toyota Grand Prix before?

Gillian: Oh, 'cause we usually shoot until the end of April or May, and it's usually around that time.. and I just can't.. go and drive.

Jay: Cause I got beaten, I remember it was celebrities. I got beaten by Helen Hayes the first year.

Gillian: Are you serious?

Jay: Yeah.

Gillian: You're serious.

Jay: No, I'm not serious.

Gillian: ::laughs::

Jay: Now you were just in Scotland doing a movie?

Gillian: I was.. Actually it was actually a couple years ago, that I was in Scotland. It's just coming out now, but it was not last summer, but the summer before.

Jay: Okay.

Gillian: A long time ago.

Jay: Oh okay, Cause I'm Scottish. My mother's from Scotland.

Gillian: Is that so?

Jay: Yeah.

Gillian: Really?

Jay: The funniest people in the world.

Gillian: Really?

Jay: To me they are. Did you enjoy the food?

Gillian: Did I enjoy the food, um.. Did I enjoy the food?

Jay: No it's the worst food in the world you can say that!

Gillian: No it's just all oil! That's all it is! You know, I was sitting in a restaurant once, and these people were eating blood pudding, do you guys know what blood pudding is? It's just basically blood and oats and oil.

Jay: Exactly what it sounds like!

Gillian: And I just kept staring at it, Cause actually it looks appetizing, it looks like.. and I was looking at it so much that say said 'Do you want a bite? Do you wanna taste this?' and so I tasted it, and I was actually surprised, it's full of oil.

Jay: It's awful.

Gillian: No, no, no, there's this story that I kind of want to tell, but I'm really embarrassed to tell.

Jay: Well, why what happened?

Gillian: ... While I was in Scotland, but it's really, and everyone's gonna go 'Oh my God, I can't believe she just told that.'

Jay: No, you're among friends here. ::audience cheers::

Gillian: Oh no! It's not like one of those kinds of stories, it's a really embarrassing story!

Jay: How embarrassing could it be?

Gillian: But when else are you going to tell these kinds of stories.. In front of, you know, 10 million people..

Jay: That's right! It couldn't be worse than.. Is it worse than our popsicle tampon? It couldn't be any worse than that.

Gillian: No, it's not, well, it's borderline.

Jay: All right, well, go ahead tell it. You can tell it, we'll be the judge.

Gillian: Okay, so I'm in, I'm in Scotland, and we're in Glasgow, or we're in some mansion and we're doing this period drama, and I've got, I've got this corset on, and I've got a hat on, and I've got this gown like this. ::motions with hands:: And my trailer's about the size of, you know, it's a small trailer, and the bathroom's about the size of, like this, and you know, I have to go to the bathroom. And so, see there all going 'I don't believe she's saying this.' So I have to go to the bathroom, and I go into this little trailer, ::stands up:: and I'm literally, you know, I mean, my skirts out to here, and the walls are like up to here, and so I'm like, hiking up the skirt, and I sit and I you know, I go to the bathroom, and you know, I really go to the bathroom! ::starts laughing, becomes embarrassed and lays head on Jay's desk:: Kill me now! So, you know, I'm done. And so I'm trying, you know, I'm gathering myself together and I'm getting up, and I'm you know steadying my hat, and all this, and I start to get the strings to my corset, and they're... heavy. ::audience laughs:: and so I'm like 'What the..?!' ::swings arm:: Meanwhile, you know, 'What the..?!' 'Gillian! It's time to come to set!' I've got you know, the hat, and I'm like 'Okay! I'll be uh, I'll be right there!' I'm wiping the walls, the ceiling. I'm in this gown.. and the hat.. in this bathroom, and..

Jay: You know something?

Gillian: I shouldn't have told that!

Jay: Your first instincts were correct. No, that's a lovely, lovely story.

Gillian: ::laughing:: Thank you. I had to! When are you going to tell that story?

Jay: It was just..

Gillian: You can't tell it a dinner party!

Jay: No, you can't tell it at a dinner party.

Gillian: You can't tell it to an new friend.

Jay: ...or even an old friend.

Gillian: ::laughing:: Or an old friend.

Jay: You can't really tell it..

Gillian: ..to anybody!

Jay: No.

Gillian: No.

Jay: Well, how is Robert? How's your new cast member working on X-Files?

Gillian: He's great. He's a really good guy. We're having a lot of fun, and he's good! I think uh, I think it's gonna be good.

Jay: Now he's helping you find Mulder? Is that what it is? Mulder's been.. kidnapped.

Gillian: He's been, yes, Mulder's been kidnapped, possibly abducted. Most likely abducted. And so he's helping me find Mulder, and you know, David who plays Mulder is still around, and coming back and doing half the show, and you know at some point at the end will probably have a menage a trois, or something like that..

Jay: Oh really? ::audience cheers:: Now see that's, that's the story I'd like to here, rather than this..

Gillian: Well I mean, it makes sense! I mean, we're, you know.. straight laced character. Two men. What else are you gonna do?

Jay: Right, exactly.

Gillian: Dontcha think?

Jay: Works for me. Are you voting tomorrow? Are you gonna be voting?

Gillian: I am voting tomorrow. Actually I already voted, I did the absentee ballot thing.

Jay: I'm guessing Buchanan, you're a Buchanan woman?

Gillian: Yeah, yeah, No, I just.. please. I'm so nervous, you guys.

Jay: Why what are you nervous about?

Gillian: I heard everyone clapping at the beginning and you did that thing.. and I got really scared.

Jay: But Bush won here!

Gillian: I know!

Jay: So I take it you're for Gore.

Gillian: Man, women! Women! We have to get out there! Everybody has to get out there and vote tomorrow, even if you're mixed, you have to get out there, you have to vote, you have to vote for Gore.You have no idea. It's the women that are going to turn it, women have to get out there, for women, for children, for seniors, get out there! You have no idea. It's going to be bad. Gore! ::audience yells 'Gore' back:: Gore! All right!

Jay: Gillian Anderson, ladies and gentlemen, be right back with Portia De Rossi.

Transcript provided by Mary and appears courtesy of The Tonight Show.



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