Gillian Anderson was once a young person experimenting.
“I don’t even know if I was questioning my sexuality but there were a couple of moments during my teen years where I was with women,” Anderson tells me candidly on a recent afternoon at a Beverly Hills hotel. “I haven’t really spoken about that very much.”
Though she won’t go into details about those early interactions, she remembers the isolation that plagued her. “In interviews, I’ve alluded to a relationship that I had later in my post-college life, but not about that particular time and how not even confused, but just alone I felt and how different I felt to the rest of the kids in my high school,” she adds.
For some time now, the once and forever “X-Files” star has leaned into episodic television (Netflix, she says, has become a great partner). She earned her second Emmy in 2021 for her blistering turn as polarizing British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in “The Crown.” Yet a major shade of her public persona has become her activism around sex positivity, encouraging women to open up about their needs and wants, both in the bedroom and as individuals in every aspect of their lives.
“It seems to still be an important topic for women to hear other women speak about,” she says. “I have come to love talking about it in the context of women’s empowerment, finding ways to embrace their own integral agency.”
Clad in a sleeveless bright green dress, Anderson, 57, radiates an ageless grace, undeniably sophisticated yet unpretentious in her demeanor. Her hair in a braid evokes the look of a figure from ancient Rome. When speaking in her unmistakable throaty voice, her expressive body language (hand movements often complement her sentences) reveals her assertiveness. That confidence makes it difficult to imagine she ever was a fragile teen.
Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson in the movie “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.”
(Mubi)
In Anderson’s latest movie, the horror-tinged, dreamlike “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” (in theaters Friday), Anderson plays Billy Presley, a reclusive former scream queen who was one of those “final girls” from a popular 1980s slasher horror franchise in which the killer was aptly called Little Death (a nickname for an orgasm, derived from a French phrase). Now Billy spends her days alone living in the woodsy location where her breakout movie was filmed long ago.
That is until auspicious indie filmmaker Kris (“Hacks” star Hannah Einbinder) comes to visit Billy with the intention of persuading her to act in a reboot. The two develop a friendship that empowers Kris to dive into her unspoken sexual yearnings — desires drenched in fear, violence and curiosity — with Billy as her mentor and, eventually, patient lover.
On top of her ability with accents (she does a Southern one here), Anderson physically commands the screen from the moment she makes an entrance worthy of a timeless diva. Her regal aura contrasts with the grotesque sensuality of a scene where fried chicken and dipping sauces take on an almost pornographic lure. Her Billy, a woman who can fluctuate between a loud cackle and an introspective speech about the lust-inducing “flesh and fluids” of horror movies, feels equal parts otherworldly and tethered to earthly urges.
“I knew on a deep level that I wanted to be a part of it, but it’s only in retrospect that I completely understand why it was so meaningful to me,” Anderson says. “It feels like such a salve for so many.”
“She put everyone at ease during those moments in a really beautiful way,” says director Jane Schoenbrun of Anderson’s work with Einbinder on their most daring scenes. “She is so physically tapped into her own abilities.”
(Mubi)
Einbinder, with whom Anderson shares scenes of blood-soaked eroticism, describes the veteran star as meticulous and diligent while also having a “lot of access to spontaneity.”
“I was a fan of her from, of course, ‘The X Files’ and a lot of her other work, so she just held this significance to me as an artist,” Einbinder tells me over the phone, “but meeting her, my expectations were surpassed because she’s really cool.”
“I didn’t want Billy to come across as a predator,” Anderson says. “I didn’t want her to be creepy or too maternal and so there were moments where she shows care, and it was a really fine line of how to play those beats. Even our first kiss and our sex scenes were very specific so that it didn’t feel not OK to be witnessing or representing.”
To Jane Schoenbrun, the movie’s writer and director, Anderson has the “elegance of old Hollywood, a classic mystique.” The filmmaker describes meeting her as a “strange coming home feeling,” since her “X-Files” character Scully held a special place in Schoenbrun’s formative years. “I spent as much time with her as I did with my siblings,” they add.
Schoenbrun credits Anderson as a “calming and nurturing presence” during the sex scenes between her and Einbinder — the first sex scenes the filmmaker had ever directed.
“Gillian had such an elegant, serious, professional but also caring perspective on how to talk about it and how to guide through it in a way that felt like it was going to be very present and alive on screen,” Schoenbrun recalls. “She put everyone at ease during those moments in a really beautiful way. She is so physically tapped into her own abilities.”
Anderson, seated with director Schoenbrun on the set of “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.”
(David Astorga / Mubi)
Anderson found her way into playing Billy through the character’s distinct accent. Having played the tragically romantic Blanche DuBois from “A Streetcar Named Desire” on stage in the past, she aimed for a different version of Southern. “What I liked about it was this particular pitch that holds strength and vulnerability in it, which I think is very much where Billy lives at all times, from minute to minute,” she says.
Other recent TV roles have steered Anderson in the direction of an unabashedly queer storyteller like Schoenbrun. Jean Milburn, Anderson’s humorously matter-of-fact sex therapist from the series “Sex Education,” represented a watershed beginning in 2019.
It was because of the success of that show that she was approached to write “Want,” a 2024 book that collected the sexual fantasies of anonymous women (a follow-up, “More,” is out in September from Abrams Press).
“Sex Education” also inspired Anderson to launch her own brand of soft drinks cheekily called G Spot (they are caffeine-free and infused with vitamins and minerals). Some retailers, she says, have refused to use the drink’s name. “We’ve had so much pushback on the name and I refuse to be cowed, to be shut down, to be told that it’s a dirty word or that it shouldn’t be in public spaces,” she says.
“The strange thing is I don’t identify with Scully in the same way I do with other characters that I played for much less time,” Anderson says. “Part of that is because of how square she was. I have such an intrinsically rebellious nature.”
(Ian Spanier / For The Times)
For Anderson, humor is an important component of the conversations she wants people to have about sex and sexuality. During her time on “Sex Education,” she started posting pictures on Instagram of props on set that resembled both male and female genitalia. Some of her posts kept getting blocked.
“There were all these amazing things, from chess pieces that were phallic to a soap holder that was a yoni,” she says, smiling. “We started to call them ‘penis or yoni of the day.’ Then fans started posting back to me pictures of penises or yonis of the day they would see in nature.”
Anderson doesn’t quite understand the swath of Gen Zers who deride sex in movies and is, in general, uncomfortable with the subject of physical connection.
“For my younger kids, who are late-teens, the thought of picking up a phone to [call] somebody that they’re interested in feels so intimate,” Anderson says. “If a phone call is intimate and your conversations on a regular basis are snapshots of your face making funny images, then the idea of going into deep intimacy must be absolutely terrifying.”
She’s hopeful that young people might start to turn toward in-person activities to bond. But while the subjects of pleasure and open-mindedness captivate her, on screen Anderson is not letting the industry pigeonhole her.
Anderson’s recent output includes playing a shadowy operative with icy conviction in the thriller “Animals” opposite Ben Affleck, and a Nazi guard in the limited series “The Boys From Brazil,” both coming to Netflix in the near future. And in last year’s “Trespasses,” another TV show, she became a Northern Irish alcoholic mother. “I wouldn’t have guessed that at my age I would be having so many different and varied opportunities,” Anderson says.
In the aftermath of her time on “The X Files,” Anderson moved to London, both because she longed for the city where she partially grew up and for a chance at reinventing herself professionally.
“I’d never had my own publicist before that,” she says. “Had I had one, they probably would’ve tried to convince me that moving to London was the worst thing I could do for my career.”
For a long time, Anderson’s relationship with Dana Scully was complicated. “I felt like everything that I did was in an effort to get away from Scully,” Anderson admits. “Then when people would bring it up or I would do a 45-minute interview and they would ask one question about ‘The X-Files,’ they would use my refusing to talk about it as an excuse to make it the headline.”
It made it challenging for her to be considered for film roles and even for TV projects of a different vein.
“Now you have A-list actors, the Nicole Kidmans, moving between TV and film,” she says, “but back during ‘The X-Files,’ if you were on telly, it was the B, if not C version of what an actor’s life could be.”
In England, though, the likes of Judi Dench, Maggie Smith or Glenda Jackson had always navigated effortlessly between the big and small screen and the stage. “That’s the life that I wanted,” Anderson adds. “The minute I moved there, the quality of the stuff and also the range of characters that I was being offered was so different from what I’d been doing for almost 10 years as Scully.”
“The House of Mirth,” Terence Davies’ 2000 period drama based on the satirical 1905 novel by Edith Wharton, represented a breakthrough. “At the very beginning, I remember I was so surprised that there were other people who thought that I might be able to do something else other than Scully.” (When I tell her how extraordinary she is in “Mirth” as a socialite caught between stability and something more passionate, Anderson replies with a bashful, whispered “Thank you.”)
And while she can now think of “The X Files” as the “blessing” that it signified in her career, Anderson is clear that she has more often seen herself reflected in other women she’s inhabited, such as Blanche or Stella Gibson, the detective she played in the series “The Fall” starting in 2013.
“The strange thing is I don’t identify with Scully in the same way I do with other characters that I played for much less time,” Anderson confesses. “Part of that is because of how square she was. I have such an intrinsically rebellious nature. I can, obviously, play square, but I think because of that, she didn’t necessarily get her hooks inside me in the way that some of these other characters that really push against the establishment did.”
Anderson is not entirely opposed to appearing on Ryan Coogler’s just-announced “X-Files” reboot, but she is far more excited about several sci-fi projects she is currently developing (one of them she describes as “huge” in scale). They will bring her back to similar territory, but this time on her own terms.
“It’s the first time that I’m properly going into the genre and embracing it and instigating that work,” Anderson says. “I’m very excited about those but no doubt when it comes time to do press around them, there’s going to be a lot of ‘X Files’ talk, inevitably.”
She’ll be ready for it. At once pragmatic and playful, Anderson seems to be taking on the world these days like someone who’s unraveled a deeper mystery.
However, she’s now revealed she won’t be back on screens for a while, with replacements stepping in.
Susanna confirmed that she’d be taking her annual summer break in a message on social media.
Alongside a snap of her in the Good Morning Britain studio wearing comfy slippers, she wrote: “SHOES OFF, OUT OF OFFICE ON! Time for my summer break – but also time to say goodbye to our wonderful Director @stuearl who has been the champion of this programme for a decade. Thank you for everything Stuart.”
Susanna went on: “@edballs and I will be back September 1st after our travels. THANK YOU to our amazing viewers for watching and for contacting us and sharing your views – never a “waste of time” being on this brilliant programme and thanks to everyone on Team.”
Susanna’s ‘waste of time’ comment appeared to reference a moment from the programme on Wednesday, July 22, after an interview with Robert Jenrick.
In an awkward aside, the Reform MP could be heard saying, “Well that was a waste of time” after his interview with Susanna and Ed.
After making light of the moment with her message on social media, Susanna was showered with support, while her co-stars also paid tribute to their colleague.
Kate Garraway wrote: “We’ll miss you both @susannareid100 @edballs and @stuearl – we’ll miss you so much – good luck with your next adventure!!!”
Strictly’s La Voix said: “Pyjamas for me and slippers for you! It’s contagious causal glamour!”
One follower meanwhile commented: “We will miss you. Enjoy your holiday,” as another added: “Love the slippers! Have a fab break, see you in September.”
Another echoed: “Aww going to miss you,, but have a lovely break with your family and friends.”
Susanna’s announcement comes after she took a break from the show earlier this year, teasing a “special project”.
After an extended programme that ran into Lorraine Kelly’s usual ITV slot to provide commentary after Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation speech, Susanna confirmed after the show ended that she was taking a break.
She teased on social media: “BREAKING! At 9.30 this morning the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer RESIGNED as Prime Minister live @gmb. ANOTHER resignation at Number 10 in the last DECADE after Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak.
“I’m on a special project and will be back @gmb on Monday 6th July, the week that nominations for a new leader open. See you then @itv.”
One person replied: “You will be missed Susanna.” Another said: “Oh it’s never the same when you’re not there!”
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1 and ITVX.
The industry saw immediately just how lucrative fear could be. More than a century later, there is always someone in the entertainment media willing to trade in racist tropes for money, as well as an audience ready to receive them.
Two new films, “Citizen Vigilante” and “Run, Fight, Hide: Infidels,” demonstrate that streaming platforms and social media no longer simply distribute controversial content but in fact thrive on content that provokes, polarizes and sustains attention, regardless of the social cost.
Both of these xenophobic and Islamophobic films are being pushed as “anti-woke” vehicles, deliberately engineered to bypass traditional critical reception and capitalize on a fractured media ecosystem. “Citizen Vigilante,” which features an American protagonist killing dark-skinned immigrants and Muslims in an unnamed European setting, was denied a rating certificate by the German government for inciting violence. Yet despite that determination, the film secured global reach through decentralized digital distribution and high-profile promotion from Elon Musk.
Similarly, “Run, Fight, Hide: Infidels” — a campus siege narrative evoking 1980s action film nostalgia that leans heavily into outdated, post-9/11 anxieties — relies on a built-in conservative media apparatus to guarantee financial returns. The film is produced by the conservative media figure Ben Shapiro and the Daily Wire, which he co-founded. It is a sequel to a 2020 film that was their film company’s premiere.
But while promoters of such films frame their work as a brave rebellion, the reality is much more sinister: rehashing 40-year-old tropes while invoking conspiracy theories of Muslims bringing sharia law to America, because outrage is cheap to produce and easy to monetize.
Stories matter. Stories shape how we see one another. They influence what we love, what we celebrate, whom we trust, whom we understand and whom we fear.
Since January, the Muslim Public Affairs Council has documented a sharp escalation in threats and attacks targeting Muslims and Islamic institutions across the United States, including vandalism, shootings, bomb threats, attempted assassinations and physical assaults. These are not isolated incidents. They reflect a broader climate in which dehumanizing representation increasingly manifests as real-world violence.
Entertainment and politics increasingly employ the same tactic as one another, recycling narratives of fear and “otherness” to mobilize audiences, voters and consumers. When political leaders encourage those narratives, as President Trump recently did by amplifying and commenting on a photo of young Muslim American students in hijab, they further normalize the same stereotypes that entertainment companies have learned to monetize.
Yet while the social costs continue to mount, the economic incentives remain firmly intact. “Citizen Vigilante” earned a 93% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes despite receiving just a 6% critics’ score. More tellingly, it quickly climbed to the top of Amazon’s and Apple TV’s paid video-on-demand charts.
And this isn’t just a Muslim and immigrant issue — and it’s not only about who is portrayed on screens, but also who is not. Representation has been backsliding, and audiences are left with fewer opportunities to see the reality and humanity of diverse communities, making them more vulnerable to fear-based narratives.
According to a 2026 report from the nonprofit Define American, which tracks representation across television and film, Latinos account for only 23% of immigrant characters represented on screen, even though they make up more than 40% of the immigrant population in the United States. In 2020, 50% of immigrants on screen were Latino.
The industry’s defense is that whitewashed and xenophobic films reflect audience demand. But the recent research by Define American challenges this assumption. Data show that nuanced, multidimensional storytelling, in which immigrants and minority characters are woven into the fabric of everyday narratives rather than tokenized or villainized, actually leads to greater audience engagement and deeper systemic understanding.
Entertainment doesn’t simply reflect culture; it teaches us who belongs within it. Studios, distributors, streaming platforms and filmmakers all have a responsibility to reject narratives that portray immigrants as enemies and instead embrace stories that reflect the diversity and complexity of our world. At the same time — as with voters — the power ultimately rests with consumers. The choice to demand storytelling that challenges prejudice rather than profits from it belongs to all of us.
The BBC Alba deal means there will still be some live coverage of the Commonwealth Games on free-to-air television in Scotland.
The commentary and presentation will, of course, be predominantly in Gaelic.
A similar deal is in place in Wales. This means there will be some live coverage on the Welsh language broadcaster S4C.
These deals happened because TV rights packages are available to cover many indigenous languages across Commonwealth countries – not just the main language.
The BBC was outbid for live English language rights in the UK by subscription service TNT. Channel 5 later secured a package of two hours of daily recorded highlights.
The Welsh and Gaelic deals ensure there will at least be some free-to-air live coverage.
BBC Alba and S4C are available to all viewers in Scotland and Wales respectively.
But the profile of the TV coverage will, inevitably, still be much lower to that afforded to previous Commonwealth Games in the UK.
The games in 1970, 1986, 2002, 2014 and 2022 got wall-to-wall coverage on BBC One.
The schedule on BBC One is currently dominated by the World Cup and Wimbledon. Major sporting events have the potential to bring large, diverse groups of people together to share memorable moments.
The deals covering BBC Alba and S4C are good news for these channels and inevitably some who do not speak Gaelic or Welsh will watch too.
But how will the scaled down Commonwealth Games fare without high profile live coverage on a major free-to-air channel?
Appearing as the amoral daughter of Joan Crawford at only age 17, Blyth’s short film career saw her work with many top stars of Hollywood’s classic era.
June 26 (UPI) — The Transportation Security Administration on Friday said that it expects to screen roughly 18.7 million travelers at U.S. airports during the July Fourth holiday week that runs from June 30 to July 6.
The agency said it has prepared itself for the traditionally busy week of travel to be even busier, as this July 4 is America’s 250th birthday amid the FIFA World Cup, which has games in 11 U.S. cities next week.
AAA has projected that this year’s week of holiday travel is set to break records, with roughly 72.2 million Americans expected to travel at least 50 miles from their homes — an increase from the 71.8 million that traveled in 2025.
“TSA security checkpoints are fully staffed and prepared to welcome these travelers and handle the large passenger volumes expected during the Fourth of July holiday period,” Ha Nguyen McNeill, a senior TSA official who is performing the duties of the administrator, said in a press release.
“We’ve implemented significant technology enhancements at key airports for the historic FIFA World Cup 2026, as well as for America 250 celebrations across the country,” McNeill said. “TSA is working closely with federal, state and local partners to safeguard the traveling public and manage security for large-scale public events.”
TSA said it expects that Thursday, July 2, will be the busiest travel day next week, with more than 3 million people moving through U.S. airports.
The Top 10 domestic destinations for Americans during the holiday week for July 4 include Seattle, Orlando, Anchorage and Fairbanks in Alaska, New York City, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Denver and Boston,
TSA also has prepared for teams, team staffs and fans to travel to the 11 World Cup host cities in the United States.
The 11 cities have some cross-over with the locations most Americans are expected to travel, which include Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle.
A collection of baseballs signed by former United States presidents is on display at a press preview event for Christie’s free “America at 250: Important Artifacts and Documents of History” exhibit in New York City on June 25, 2026. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
Donald Gibb, the actor who played the hulking fraternity bro Ogre in “Revenge of the Nerds” and Ray “Tiny” Jackson in “Bloodsport,” has died. He was 71.
Gibb’s son Travis confirmed his father’s death to TMZ on Tuesday evening after he died earlier that day at home in Texas surrounded by family. Gibb, a former professional wrestler under the name “Don Gibb,” succumbed to “health complications,” according to his son.
A statement from the family, provided to People, described Gibb as a father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, uncle, friend and actor.
“Known for his larger-than-life presence on screen and his kindness off screen, he brought joy, laughter, and unforgettable memories to countless people throughout his life and career,” the statement said.
“Above all else, Donald treasured his faith and the people he loved,” it continued. “His strength, generosity, and spirit will never be forgotten by those who had the privilege of knowing him personally and by the many fans whose lives he touched over the years.”
“Bloodsport” star Jean-Claude Van Damme remembered Gibb in an Instagram story, posting a photo from 1986 and writing “Rest in peace, my brother.” He also reposted a reel showing himself and Gibb in the 1988 movie.
“Whether he was the lovable brute Ogre in Revenge of the Nerds or the fearless Ray Jackson in Bloodsport, Donald brought a heart as big as his frame to every role,” the caption on the reposted reel said. “Watching him alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme was the ultimate display of brotherhood on screen. In the clip, JCVD asks, ‘What took you so long?’ It’s a bitter-sweet reminder that while he’s gone too soon, his legacy in the martial arts and 80s cinema world is timeless. ‘Anytime, anyplace, anywhere.’”
A representative for Gibb didn’t respond immediately Wednesday to The Times’ request for comment.
Gibb had about 100 credits, including the sequels “Bloodsport” and the movie and TV sequels to “Nerds.”
Born Aug. 4, 1954, Gibb started his career in the early 1980s with uncredited roles in “Any Which Way You Can,” “Stripes” and “Conan the Barbarian.” His TV credits included episodes of “Cheers,” “MacGyver” and “The Young and the Restless.”
He acted into 2011, then tagged on one last credit, for the 2026 movie release “Hands.” According to IMDb, that filmed sometime in 2023 or 2024.
