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Film, Cinema Info Online
By Bob Strauss
Film Critic

Think Dana Scully is the cultural poster girl for self-control?

Then you should get a load of Lily Bart, the tragic heroine of Edith Wharton's "The House of Mirth." Despite also being played by Gillian Anderson in Terence Davies' movie adaptation, the repressed Edwardian would likely be viewed by "The X-Files' " accomplished Agent Scully as some kind of under-developed alien life form.

Which is not, thankfully, how Anderson sees her, as her acclaimed and demanding performance in the movie demonstrates. But the contrast between the two women, who otherwise display some strikingly similar personality traits, illustrates the wide gulf separating what was expected of "proper" women a century ago and how we think of them now.

"Lily's an extraordinary character," Anderson confirms, "but what's amazing about the role is that despite the wealth of emotions she felt, everything was all constrained at the same time. Everything was held so close to the chest, and that, potentially, makes for a very interesting conflict.

"But the restraint that Scully has and the restraint that Lily Bart has are very, very different," the 32-year-old actress explains. "Scully can do and say whatever she wants; she chooses not to. If Lily were to say and do anything that she wanted, even the smallest little things, she would be outcast from society. Scully might do something that gets her put on suspension at work or makes somebody shake a finger at her, but that's really the extent of it.

"Also, Scully works and lives in a world where she can be honest, she gets to tell the truth. Lily doesn't get to do that."

And considering that the truth is always out there -- and out of whack -- in the "X-Files" universe, Scully's relative freedom of action and expression put Lily's plight in even starker relief.

In the 1905 novel, Lily is an orphan of limited means who nonetheless moves in the highest circles of New York society. Supported by a small trust fund, a persnickety aunt and the fickle largess of wealthy friends, Lily is expected to comport herself via a complicated set of manners and conform to rigid behavioral standards -- the so-called social graces -- while pursuing the one acceptable goal for a woman of her class: marrying rich.

This is difficult for Lily, not because she lacks worthy suitors but because she is terribly in love with attorney Lawrence Seldon (played by Eric Stoltz). He seems to return her affections (but then, he also appears interested in any number of Lily's married friends), but, at the time, lawyering was considered a second-class pursuit -- and not remunerative enough to support Lily at the high scale she was conditioned to find acceptable.

Her love, however, made wealthier men personally unacceptable. Suspended tautly between her feelings and social pragmatism, Lily makes a few wrong decisions that may seem minor to modern minds, but were enough at the time to ruin her reputation, standing and -- ultimately -- her life.

The film was adapted and directed by Davies, the 55-year-old Englishman best-known for his highly subjective memory pieces "Distant Voices, Still Lives" and "The Long Day Closes." Utterly unfamiliar with Anderson's work (he has yet to watch an "X-Files" episode), he was initially drawn to the actress by a publicity photo that evoked to him the paintings of John Singer Sargent, the Gilded Age's premier portrait artist.

"I said, 'That's a Singer Sargent face,' " Davies recalls of first viewing the petite redhead's strikingly sculpted, porcelain features. "Gillian was in London; we had tea together, I told her about it. She came back to Los Angeles, I followed her after she'd read the script, I auditioned her for 1 1/2 hours. I said, 'I think you can do it. Will you do it?' And she said yes."

Auditioned for 1 1/2 hours? Anderson really wanted the role.

"First and foremost, it's such a relief and a blessing to be able to work on another character," says the actress, who has played Scully through 7 1/2 television seasons (and is contracted through one more after this year concludes) and one "X-Files" feature film so far. "And to be able to work with material of this quality is such an amazing opportunity."

Not that Anderson is tired of her groundbreaking television role, which is the main inspiration for a whole generation of pop-culture heroines who are as intelligent as they are physically formidable. Although she admits that she was getting pretty weary of the weekly grind, major changes in "The X-Files" this season, triggered by co-star David Duchovny's successful negotiations to limit his workload as Agent Fox Mulder, have revitalized the series for all involved.

"It was daunting at first," admits Anderson, about both having more responsibility than ever to carry the series as well as breaking in a new co-star, Robert Patrick, who portrays skeptical new Special Agent John Doggett. "But it hasn't felt like an extra burden. I've been aware of the subtle shifts that have taken place, but it's still showing up every day and doing the same workload, really. I feel a responsibility to do the best job that I can do -- and, maybe, more so than I have for awhile; I might have let that slip for a little bit.

"Also, at first, I didn't know whether we were gonna like the new guy and I was very skeptical about how they were going to write this new character. Either it was going to work or it wasn't; the audience was going to accept the change or it wasn't. But since Robert's come on board in the particular way that he has, everything's just kind of been OK. He's a great guy, he comes to work in a good mood and is genuinely happy to be there, is very nice to everybody, and he loves participating in the craft of the work."

A welcome change, it seems, from the atmosphere around Duchovny, who has for several seasons made it clear that he found the show's shooting schedule too time-consuming. Anderson, whom it's long been rumored has not personally gotten along with Duchovny, answers carefully when asked how she feels about her longtime co-star's cushy new deal -- which, besides less work, also included a hefty salary increase.

"I'm happy that David is finally getting to do what he really wants to do," she says, sounding like the more politically correct Lily Bart than the tell-it-like-it-is Dana Scully. "I know he's been wanting to do this for a long time."

Anderson claims to have no knowledge of future "X-Files" developments. Though Scully is expecting, she swears she doesn't know whether the father is extra-terrestrial, the missing Mulder or somebody else. (And no, Anderson, whose character was abducted out of the show when the actress was pregnant with her now 6-year-old daughter, Piper, is not expecting a second child in real life). And though it was announced this week that Annabeth Gish will be introduced as a new agent this season, possibly to step up if Anderson decides to depart in 2002, it is evident the pride of creating a character like Scully will never go away.

"If there's one good thing that's come from this, it's what 'The X-Files' has done in terms of interesting young women in science and medical careers," Anderson notes. "And, also, the fact that women of all ages find this character to be a role model. She is honest, she is independent, she is smart -- so they think, 'I can do this, too. I will do this.' How fantastic is that?"

All that, and a model of restraint, too.

"My own, natural personality isn't very self-controlled," admits Anderson, who is widely known to have gone through a piercings-and-tattoos punk phase during her teen-age years in Michigan. "I think that I implement a great deal of control in my life to accomplish certain things, but I am a much zanier, more eclectic person than either Scully or Lily. No, wait, I hate the word zany ... but I am a goofball, basically. I have a lot of fun, I laugh a lot."

Why, then, is she thought of so much for these tamped-down types, especially by casting people?

"Because I can do it," the actress reckons. "I have spent much of my life playing very serious, and so I have a lot of experience fooling people at it."

THE END

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