'X-Files' Reboot Cast Member Gillian Anderson Says She's Having Trouble Playing Agent Scully After All These Years

While fans eagerly await Fox’s revival of “The X-Files” in January, half of the alien-investigation crew is saying that she’s having a little trouble getting back into the swing of things. Actress Gillian Anderson recently revealed that it’s been difficult to get back into the Agent Scully mindset after all these years away.

The last time Anderson got into her “X-Files” character was seven years ago in the 2008 film “I Want to Believe.” Prior to that, she’d had the character on ice since 2002 following the TV series’ finale. With so many years and other roles behind her, she confessed to TV Line that she’s had a reasonably difficult time getting back to the basics.

“It feels like it’s been a long time since I’ve played her,” she said. “I can’t remember what year the movie was, but it felt like [Scully] was further away from me than I’d thought she would be. But I’ve also worked really hard at putting her entirely to sleep, so that was successful; she’s just taken longer to wake up.”

It’s not surprising that the 46-year-old actress is having a difficult time getting back into the role. After all, she’s taken on a surprisingly large number of complex characters over the years in projects like “The Fall,” “Crisis” and the very popular NBC hit “Hannibal.” In fact, she recently confessed to The Wall Street Journal that she wasn’t able to really allow herself to think about the excitement of the “X-Files” revival until she finished with all of the other things she had on her plate. Specifically, she was referring to the Season 3 premiere of “Hannibal.” However, once she made it to the Vancouver set, she says that started to go away.

“I think since I’ve come up to Vancouver [to shoot ‘The X-Files’], I’ve become more excited, emotional and embraced the journey we’re about to go on. I’m actually really excited,” she said. “I don’t think it initially hit me in the first read, but it was more to do with my needing to compartmentalize and not really address the fact that it was all about to happen until I actually got up here because there were too many other things I have to think about.”

Hopefully, for fans of “The X-Files,” she manages to find the right tone for the 2015 Agent Scully quickly, as she’s currently filming the show alongside her former co-star and current “Aquarius” star David Duchovny.