The Surprising Actress Who Almost Played Scully In The X Files

The Surprising Actress Who Almost Played Scully In The X-Files

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By Molly Conway/June 21, 2021 4:53 pm EST

Nothing against Pamela Anderson, but it’s hard (and frankly a bit painful) to imagine how the character of Scully would have been different if she had been written with Pamela Anderson’s fame and specific appeals in mind. Thankfully, executive producer Chris Carter insisted on Gillian Anderson saying that her read of the part brought the most integrity to the role.

Gillian Anderson considers the Scully effect a great honor and said, “At the time that Scully showed up, we didn’t see that type of female represented very much at all out in the world of television … And so, to suddenly have an appealing, intelligent, strong-minded female who was appreciated by her pretty cool male coworker was an awesome thing to behold, and I think that a lot of young women said, ‘That’s me. I’m interested in that. I want to do that. I want to be that’” (via Simon Fraser University).