ARTS & CULTURE / PROFILE
moved back to America. Then, aged 24 and living in New York, she landed her breakout X-Files role. Anderson considers herself both British and American but for the last few years she has been based firmly in London where she lives centrally with her sons Oscar, nine, and Felix, seven. Her love of the capital is well known and she has said in the past that when she arrives back in town she likes to gaze out of taxi windows to “soak in the city I feel so grateful to live in”. In the intervening years since we last saw her as Scully, the 47-year-old
SHE LIKES TO GAZE OUT of taxi windows to “SOAK IN THE CITY I FEEL so grateful TO LIVE IN”
has been carving out a new identity in a variety of TV series including BBC2 dramas The Fall and Hannibal. Since turning 40, Anderson has experienced a resurgence. In particular she has been hailed for her role in The Fall, where DSI Stella Gibson is an icy but gifted detective who strides down the corridors of Belfast’s central police station. Brought in from the Met to solve a series of murders, she terrifies male colleagues with her confident sexuality and incisive brain. The show is shot in Belfast and a third series is expected this year. Anderson is known for playing strong, outspoken females, and her role in The Fall is no exception. “Stella is one of the most difficult but creatively satisfying characters I’ve ever played,” she says. “It’s been an honour to be in her company, even though it’s a complicated process for me to play her. It’s also easier to work when you don’t have to be on a plane all the time and you feel you’re not disrupting your life with your children as much.” In 2014, Anderson took a job even closer to home when she played Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams at the Young Vic, for which she won the Evening Standard
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APRIL 2016
29/03/2016 15:22