THE X-FILES star Gillian Anderson has revealed that she wasn’t the first choice to play her character Dana Scully as the show bosses originally wanted someone “bustier, taller, and leggier” than her.
Gillian, 56, shot to fame playing Agent Scully, on the supernatural drama, but this may not have been the case had a major Baywatch star turned down the role of the FBI paranormal investigator first.
The X-Files premiered in 1993 with Gillian and David Duchovny in the lead roles of special Agents Scully and Mulder. However, Mulder was almost partnered up with someone completely different as actor and model Pamela Anderson was originally offered the role.
According to Gillian, Pamela, who was already a household name, turned down the role.
During an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, she recalled getting the job after Pamela, saying, “Pamela was somebody who was more familiar to them in terms of what was on TV at the time.
“They were looking for someone bustier, taller, leggier than me. They couldn’t fathom how David [Duchovny] and me could equal success.”
However, the show did garner huge success, and bosses were proved wrong.
Gillian played Agent Scully for 11 series, initially from 1993 to 2002, and then again from 2016 to 2018.
She won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1997 for her role.
From there, she has gone on to have a prolific career, notably playing Margaret Thatcher in The Crown, Jean Milburn in Sex Education and Emily Maitlis in Scoop in recent years.
Meanwhile, Pamela, who rose to fame as a Playboy Playmate, received international recognition for starring as “C.J.” Parker on the action drama series Baywatch from 1992 to 1997.
She went on to star in a number of movies following her stint on Baywatch, including the 2017 reboot film of the same name.
More recently, she also collaborated with Netflix on Pamela: A Love Story, a documentary about her life.
Pamela is one of many famous actors who turned down iconic roles.
Acclaimed actor Brian Cox, who is best known as Logan Roy in Succession, notably rejected the part of Robert Baratheon in Game of Thrones.
Rob Lowe was also offered the part of Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd in Grey’s Anatomy, but thankfully for Patrick Dempsey fans, he decided to go in a different direction.
All 11 series of The X-Files are available to stream on All4.
