Gillian Anderson's best roles ranked as forbidden love story Trespasses launches on Channel 4
Dan Seddon | 12:01am Sun 9 NovGillian Anderson has been a bonafide pop-culture icon for over three decades now, but what are considered her best roles?
Born in Chicago, the 57-year-old actress considers herself equally British and American after spending years of her life in London. Yet it was through Stateside television where she really made her name on screen.
In between seasons and feature-length spin-offs from The X Files, Gillian managed to cultivate a solid portfolio full of dynamism and icy intellect via her characters.
So, as Gillian appears in Trespasses as bottle-hugging Gina, we’ve pinpointed her eight best roles.
8. The First Lady
In Showtime’s short-lived 2022 anthology The First Lady, Gillian emanated great warmth and poise as Eleanor Roosevelt.
She was the longest-serving first lady in history thanks to husband Franklin D Roosevelt’s four consecutive presidential terms (1933-1945). So because of this historical significance, her portrayer did all she could to replicate Eleanor’s famously kind nature.
The First Lady featured the real-life character rallying Americans during the Second World War. Sadly it was axed after just 10 episodes, despite its killer cast including Michelle Pfeiffer and Viola Davis.
7. Scoop
Gillian is no stranger to stepping into the mindset of real-world people, and in 2024, her portrayal of broadcaster Emily Maitlis was enjoyably steely.
Scoop (the only film in this list) retold the frantic journey to get Prince Andrew on current affairs programme Newsnight because of his questionable links to Jeffrey Einstein. As the disgraced royal interviewer, Gillian went much further than simply applying deep mahogany contact lenses… She nailed the firmness of a figure viewers had been familiar with for over 10 years on screen.
Together with co-star Rufus Sewell as Andrew, she marvellously recreated the interview that was later described as “a plane crashing into an oil tanker, causing a tsunami, triggering a nuclear explosion”.
6. Bleak House
For this 15-part adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel, Gillian gave fans a Lady Honoria Dedlock to remember – the wife of Sir Leicester Dedlock.
Period drama clearly suited the star as she went on to win a Broadcasting Press Guild Award – having also been nominated for a Satellite Award, Golden Globe Award, British Academy Television Award and an Emmy Award that year (2006).
Radio Times critic David Butcher found her to be a standout member of Bleak House’s exquisite cast, which included Charles Dance, Timothy West, Carey Mulligan and Anna Maxwell Martin.
He said: “Watching this extraordinary version of Dickens’ novel feels less like watching a TV drama and more like sampling a strange other world… It’s Gillian Anderson who, despite having only a handful of lines, is at the heart of the drama. It’s a magnetic performance (one of many) in a tremendous piece of television.”
5. Maggie Thatcher in The Crown is one of Gillian Anderson’s best roles
Season four of royal drama The Crown welcomed Gillian into the family as The Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher. And what a fantastic move that was.
To portray this polarising figure – Britain’s first female prime minister – there was no escaping the ocean-coloured combination of eye shadow and suit. Notice that slight tilt of her head as she spoke? Intentional. A drag to her voice? Intentional. Those mouth contortions? Same again.
Her scenes with Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II are dynamite and well worth your time.
4. Hannibal
In Hannibal, Gillian shared the screen with Mads Mikkelsen’s psycho cannibal Dr Hannibal Lecter.
As Dr Bedelia Du Maurier, Gillian entered the Thomas Harris universe as an original creation as opposed to a face plucked out of his novels.
She started off as Hannibal’s psychiatrist – his conversational equal in many ways – and diverted down a dark path indeed because of his menacing charm. By the end of the third and final season, Bedelia was served her own leg on a plate. What a way to go out.
3. Sex Education
Jean Milburn is the star’s third-best role to date and introduced Gillian to a whole new generation of fans.
Sex Education was a runaway success for Netflix. Much of its young cast made waves, including Eric Effiong actor Ncuti Gatwa who was eventually given the Doctor Who job. However, Gillian counteracted the hormonal chaos with grounded energy.
Jean’s standing as a leading sex therapist was a source of perpetual embarrassment for her teenage son Otis.
2. The X Files as Dana Scully
“How can Dana Scully not be at the top?” would be an understandable reaction, but bear with us. We’re right on this one.
The X Files is Gillian’s legacy role. She played a character that deservedly put her in the pantheon of greatest-ever. Yet you can’t help feeling like The X Files’ greatest strength was its endless originality – so well expressed in those unparalleled ‘monster of the week’ episodes.
Props have to go to paranormal sceptic FBI agent Scully for banging the drum against long-established gender roles on TV, too. This seminal character was SO much more than her will-they-won’t-they relationship with her partner Fox Mulder.
1. The Fall is Gillian Anderson’s best role
Never before or since has our subject commanded the screen like she did in sinister crime drama The Fall. That’s why we class this role as her best.
Airing between 2013 and 2016, this cat and mouse thriller took Gillian’s DSU Stella Gibson to Northern Ireland (a place she revisits in Trespasses). It ran for three seasons.
Gibson was tasked with apprehending Jamie Dornan’s Paul Spector, who by day counselled the bereaved and by night let himself into people’s houses with hideous intentions.
Thrillingly, the actress suggested in a 2021 Variety piece that The Fall could come back in some capacity, much in the same way Prime Suspect did after a hiatus.
Read more: The 50 best films on Netflix to watch in November 2025
