Gillian of the Spirits

Q: The X-Files movie was the first time people got to see you on the big screen. A lot of actors who work well on the small screen just don't translate, but obviously you do. Were you relieved to see that for yourself?

A: You know, I guess I never had a doubt, because in my own naive way I expected that my desire to do it would overpower any reality.

Q: Isn't it a relief to have Hollywood know you can handle the big screen?

A: Well, because it really was basically an action film, most people I've talked to have just said, [races through the words] "The movie's great, you're great in it."

Q: In your new film, Dancing About Architecture, you have quite an eclectic ensemble of actors around you--Gena Rowlands, Sean Connery, Madeleine Stowe, Dennis Quaid, Angelina Jolie, Ellen Burstyn, Jon Stewart. Who struck you as the most memorable?

A: Ellen Burstyn. I felt really out of my league next to her.

Q: I'd assume Sean Connery must be doing something interesting in the movie, since otherwise, why would he be in it for next to no pay?

A: I've only seen a few dailies, but I saw in Sean's work stuff I'd never seen him do before. Certain expressions, a certain depth. It's still Sean, but my impression is that we're going to think of him in a whole new way.

Q: Even people who understand that the charisma stars project may have nothing to do with who they really are still insist that Sean Connery is the exception--that he's as cool in real life as he is on-screen.

A: Absolutely. There's an energy that Sean projects onscreen that is so radiant and sexual and intriguing and powerful. And if he were to walk in here right now and be hidden behind that partition, you'd still feel his energy. Men, women and children flock to him. My daughter went right for him.

Q: In Dancing About Architecture you're part of a large ensemble, and in both Chicago Cab and The Mighty you had very small parts. Aren't you looking for a leading-lady part to do before the safety net of The X-Files ends?

A: Oh yeah. I've found a couple. One I may do next summer--it's been offered to me, there's a director attached and I'm involved in making it happen the way that I would want it to happen if I were to do it. I can't really say any more about it at this point.

Q: What movies have you seen lately that made you think you'd like to have been offered that part?

A: I would have taken Oscar and Luanda. I'd have taken One True Thing. I'd have taken, based on the script, Sliding Doors. Ethan Frome. Emma. Sense and Sensibility.

Q: Is it true you were interested in Killing Mrs. Tingle?

A: No, Harvey Weinstein offered it to me, but I said no. He kept offering me scary things, and I kept saying, "No, no, no." He said, "At least read it, it's more like what you'd do than the other scary things we sent you." He also wanted me to think about The Faculty.

Q: Are the new teen horror flicks the kind of thing Hollywood wants you to do?

A: Other things, too--there are a lot of things I'm not interested in doing. But that's a large percentage of it.

Q: Let's talk a bit about acting. What performance have you seen on-screen recently that wowed you?

A: Cate Blanchett in Oscar and Lucinda. She's intriguing, and she has weight to her, and she's wonderfully subtle. She's a damn good actress.

Q: Do you think actors are born rather than made?

A: I do. My whole belief system is that our paths are drawn for us.

Q: Do you study people around you?

A: I'm an observer, but I don't ever take things in and think, "Oh, that would be interesting to use for a character."

Q: You think you can find it all in yourself?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you ever worry about cannibalizing yourself?

A: Well, there's one thing I wouldn't play because I'd be afraid of it seeping into my life, and that's insanity. But I do think everything can be found inside you if you're honest in your work. But I also believe that in simply observing a particular kind of walk, say, we've imprinted it in our brains so that later in a role it might naturally, organically happen without our saying, "I saw that once."

Q: How would your ideal director treat you?

A: My ideal director would be working with me on a script I felt passionate about and would go into a process that involved an intense, intimate dialogue with me about the character, the mood, the vision.

Q: You don't need to be coddled or fathered or mothered?

A: No.

Q: Is that stage training?

A: No, it's life training. I've sought after coddling before in my life, and I don't think it'll happen any more. So I don't think I'll have any need for it in my work.

Q: You sound pretty secure, then.

A: I was terrified during Dancing About Architecture. But I'm in love with the process. I'll dive in and try to figure things out no matter how afraid I am, or how much I feel I'm not getting it. And my brain doesn't wrap very easily around things I'm afraid of. A blank wall goes up. It's like in therapy when you're about to get to something, and your mind goes blank. It's hard work to get to the depth of it. But it's the anticipation of the work that's difficult--the fear of failing or of pain. The actual doing of it brings in light.

Q: Do you read your reviews?

A: Most of my experience with reviews was when I was doing theater, and I read all of them.

Q: How do you deal with criticism?

A: Ultimately, no one's a harder critic of my work than I am, so if I read something bad then I'm not surprised, and if I read something good, then I know it's not true. [Laughs] To be honest, if it's good I don't let myself get attached to it. The reviews of the show have been very positive, but that's more about my character and the writers. Way at the beginning someone wrote something that I only read later, about Scully being two-dimensional, which hurt because it was true then. How I'll feel about criticism of my performance in Dancing About Architecture, I don't really know.

Q: What's the first movie that ever had a big effect on you?

A: Star Wars, in London when I was probably around eight.

Q: What's the first movie you ever got obsessed with and saw over and over?

A: The first and only film I ever watched over and over was Out of Africa. I have an image of the house on the plantation that encapsulates my whole feeling for the movie, which has as much to do with Africa as it does with the idea of working in film. It seems like from the moment I saw Out of Africa I realized there were things I'd like to learn about. There had been a huge period when I'd had no interest in learning, and nothing anybody attempted to teach me would stay in my brain. It had to do with my being told I had to go to school, and also with some kind of survival mechanism--it was all I could do to focus just on what was going on in my brain at the time. But when the awareness [that I'd like to learn about things] came into my life, I no longer had time to do it. If there's one regret in my life--and I don't have regrets--it would be that I didn't pay attention in school. Now I have stacks of books and CD-ROMs just waiting for when I have the time.

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