MovieChat Forums > The Crimson Petal and the White (2011) Discussion > Gillian Anderson on her character in The...

Gillian Anderson on her character in The Crimson Petal and the White...


I just did something else. I did "The Crimson Petal and the White" for BBC, and it's a very large production costume drama. I play an ancient brothel owner, the mother of the main character, very decrepit and gnarly and wonderful and layers and layers of costumes and trinkets, but very, very different-looking. It was nice to be approached for it, where that wouldn't normally be the case.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-conversation-20110213, 0,3096406.story


...rolling downhill like a snowball headed for hell...

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And she’s totally unrecognisable as the shifty brothel madam. Gillian Anderson was also in one of the best dickens adaptations ever a few back in Bleak house so this is not new ground for her.

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No she was also in an Edith Wharton adaptation The House of Mirth which is where I first saw her do period type drama. I only watched X Files intermittently so knew little about her. She is very, very good in the genre. I had of course forgotten Bleak House.

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Did you see her as the Duchess of Windsor in Any Human Heart? I barely recognised her. The voice is what finally made me realize it was her.

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Yes I did and you are right she isn't physically recognisable in it. That was another drama I enjoyed too.

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From the X-Files, Gillian Anderson has grown as a character actor in British period dramas. As she's aged, her face has gone from being People Magazine's Most Beautiful Woman of the Year category, to totally unrecognizable as crazy women in corsets. Brava Gillian.

-- Ew lover, you gonna make me clutch my pearls --

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Yeah, this is just a testament to her exceptional talent. It's no wonder to me though. She was an excellent actress right from the first episode of X Files. Of course, a few people never watched XF aside from 2-3 episodes here and there, and simply considered her overrated, and are now quite surprised she'd "so much talent!". Anyway, for her to have played who she did here, and then in Bleak House (2005) and House of Mirth takes oodles of talent.

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I'm alternately watching Bleak House and reading the book, I got tired and needed a rest, thought I'd take a quick look at this board, just for curiosity's sake hoping there are some new interesting thread, there's none so I look a little down below - since I usually note only what's the top thread when I visit - and was delighted to see the name here of Gillian Anderson.

I didn't know she was in The Crimson Petal ... so I think I'll do another re-watch (that'll be my fourth) of this tv show soon. I agree GA is a talented actress.

Thanks to the OPr.



Truth inexorably,inscrutably seeks and reveals Itself into the Light.

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She is a great actor. I've seen her in Bleak House, House of Mirth, Hannibal, The Fall, Great Expectations...lots of different characters and all of them magnificently done. She is a great one.

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