Gillian Anderson wasn’t the actress Fox wanted to play Dana Scully on the show X-Files. Another well-known actress was the number one choice of the American channel!
Broadcast from 1997 on Fox, the series X-Files: On the Borders of Reality was a huge success for eleven seasons. It was even voted second cult series of all time by the magazine TV Guide in 2004. X-Files follows the story of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, two FBI agents who must solve unsolved cases called X-files and which have a connection to the paranormal. As Fox Mulder tries to find his missing sister, he will also try to convince his teammate that there is a plot between the government and aliens. A thesis that has a lot of trouble convincing Dana Scully played by Gillian Anderson.
An actress fromBaywatch slated to play Dana Scully
The American actress, now 54, played Dana Scully for all eleven seasons of X-Files. And yet at the base, it was not she who was to obtain this role! Against all odds, it was Pamela Anderson who was scheduled to play the character of Dana Scully. Originally, Fox wanted a familiar face to play this lead role. At the time, Pamela Anderson was at the height of her notoriety, since since 1989, she played Casey Jean Parker alias CJ in the series Baywatch.
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“Nobody believed that I could do anything”
“They were looking for someone bigger, taller, more muscular than me. They could not imagine how David and I could find success… At the beginning, nobody believed that I could do anything. I had no work behind me. Fox was certainly very convinced that I was not the right person for the job.”, revealed Gillian Anderson. And if she got the role instead of Pamela Anderson, it’s thanks to executive producer Chris Carter who only saw her to play the character of Dana Scully. The American chain then folded and it should not have regretted in view of the enormous success met by the series.
Article written with the collaboration of 6Medias.
