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By Jessica Earnshaw
Entertainment Editor
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Gillian Anderson has revealed that she "didn't know" if she could ever work on a television or film set again after completing The X-Files.
The actress portrayed FBI Special Agent Dana Scully across nine seasons of the science fiction drama, before it came to its original end in 2002.
The 56-year-old reprised her role alongside Fox Mulder actor David Duchovny for two films and the 2016 reboot, a surprising feat considering she has now said she was "well ready" for the show to end after its initial run.
Read More on Entertainment
Speaking on Monday's SmartLess podcast, the star opened up about her career to hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett.
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Fifteen minutes into the recording, Anderson was asked how she'd managed to shed simply being known for the long-running hit show.
"It takes a while, it takes focus, saying no to a lot of stuff," she said. "After the series ended, I didn't know if I could be on a set again.
"I didn't know that for myself. I knew that I just needed to just get away from Los Angeles and set."
Anderson, who was born in Chicago before moving to the U.K. as a child, explained how she returned to London and took on a play, making her West End debut in Michael Weller's What The Night Is For.
She explained: "The second thing I was offered was a British, BBC, short series of *Bleak House—*costume drama.
"When they offered it to me without an audition, I literally in the meeting with the producers, I said to them, 'What makes you think I can do this?'"
She said she "knew" she could, but: "I just spent 10 years doing exactly the opposite of that and I was so curious."
Unable to remember what they had specifically replied, Anderson remarked that they'd "gleaned" she could act on The X-Files.
"We learned how to be actors during that period of time," she added in the interview.
Anderson had had very few credits to her name prior to the famous series created by Chris Carter.
These had included 1992's The Turning movie with Raymond J. Barry, who later also appeared in The X-Files, and Class of '96 a year later—an American drama following seven students at Havenhurst College, New England.
However, X-Files shot Anderson firmly into the spotlight and she won numerous awards for her part, including an Emmy and a Golden Globe.
Talking about her fame exploding, she told The Guardian in 2012: "It was almost too much to take in that I think I split myself—'that' is somebody else, and I'm just going to work and raising a child and trying to do these hours without collapsing. It felt very separate from what the rest of the world thinks."
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