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Gillian Anderson talks about role as therapist, who faces misogyny and ageism in latest series of Netflix smash
GILLIAN Anderson has had to battle aliens and the supernatural in The X-Files and disdain as Margaret Thatcher in The Crown. And now she has to deal with “ageist, misogynist” comments as an older pregnant female in the third series of Netflix’s Sex Education which begins streaming from today. The 53-year-old stars as sex therapist Dr Jean F Milburn, whose son Otis (Asa Butterfield) struggles with her job but often asks for relationship and sex advice in the brutally honest series about horny teens. At the end of series two, viewers discovered that Jean was pregnant with Jakob Nyman’s baby, despite Jakob (Mikael Persbrandt) having had a vasectomy. The new series opens with her seven months pregnant. Gillian – who has three children of her own, daughter Piper, 26, with her first husband and sons Oscar, 14, and Felix, 12, with a former partner – said: “We find her struggling with how to share that information with Jakob. “Jean is stressed as it is with being pregnant in her late 40s, and navigating the judgment she gets from people – she fields some ageist, misogynist comments this season that are quite surprising to her. “It’s a real hurdle for Jean and a real hurdle that women face in real life.” The storyline was inspired by creator Laurie Nunn’s own mum, who had her siblings when she was older.
Nunn said: “I was really interested in exploring the judgment from society that women face when they have babies later in life.
“I watched my mum deal with similar experiences. Women still have to justify the choices we make about our own bodies.”
It’s not the first time Gillian has played a character who becomes pregnant despite life being complicated enough.
In the seventh series of The X-Files, she found out she was pregnant with partner Mulder’s (David Duchovny) baby as he was abducted by aliens. In the second series of the show’s reboot in 2018, Scully found she was expecting again – at the age of 54.
For Sex Education, Gillian had to wear a prosthetic belly – and she was thrilled at the level of detail, which included a piercing scar from the belly button rings she wore when she was younger. She said: “The level of detail they put into this belly was so amazing that they even included a little dark spot to mimic my old belly button ring piercing.” Gillian went from filming the fourth series of The Crown as Margaret Thatcher back to playing Jean in Sex
Education when the show began filming in September last year.
Her portrayal of the former Conservative Prime Minister was lauded and has won a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award .
She is up for an Emmy at this Sunday’s awards ceremony in the outstanding support actress in a drama series category. If she wins, it’ll be her second Emmy – 24 years after she won for her role as Dana Scully in The X-Files.
The success of her Thatcher characterisation is down to her making sure she put to one side any pre-judgments on her part
or worries about what people thought about the divisive leader.
She added: “You really just have to focus on the framework of the story and within that try and stay true to the human being.”
But playing such a character was difficult to shake.
Gillian said: “It might just be me, but I think there were definitely a couple of moments where it felt like Margaret Thatcher snuck into Jean a little bit — mostly just facial expressions I hope!”
For Sex Education fans there is a surprising final scene with Jean which shocked Gillian.
She said: “I think I gasped when I first read it.
“But you’ve got to keep Jean interesting, right?
“And this ending will make for good future scenes and good future conflicts.”
The third series of Sex Education starts streaming on Netflix from today.
A real hurdle for Jean that women face in real life