Welcome everyone, we're gonna start you off with a couple of nice softballs here brought to you by Sheki Hayes. My wife asked me the other day where I got so much candy, I said I always have a few twigs at my sleeve. Oh boy, well now hang on, we got one more, I keep listening, hold on, I can do 100 more. I can save yourself. Here's another one, oh I hate my job, all I do is crush cans all day, it's soda pressing. Welcome to SmartLess. SmartLess. SmartLess.
I went to go see a Broadway show last night, Seaney and I thought about you. What did you see? I saw O'Merry. Oh, and- You did see it. I did. It's the best. Okay, I was gonna recommend it to you, but you've seen it. Yeah, I've seen it, yeah. Great. Did you think it, well I loved it. I thought it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life. I was thinking about you the whole time thinking, oh my god Sean's gonna lose his fucking mind on this. It's so funny.
It seemed like he's, I mean I know he didn't, but it seemed like he's watched you do a thousand of your funny bits in front of us and stolen them all. Oh no, no, no, Cole is an original, he's a great Cole's, Cole's stars in the way. That's the show I was telling you guys go see him March. Yes, well, well, well, well, well, hang on guys, Will was first. I didn't go, I didn't go. Have you not seen it yet? Will, you'll pee in your pants.
So it was off Broadway then, yes, now it's on Broadway and it's Lortell. Yeah, Cole, Cole is Cole a plays Mary Todd Lincoln, who's an alcoholic, wanna be Cabaret star and Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln doesn't let her leave the White House. So he hires an acting coach for her so she could just, you know, explore her artistic. Don't reveal anymore. Okay, okay, that's it. You're gonna do those little spoilers. But how about the end? How funny was that? It's fucking great.
It's the whole thing is incredible. Yeah, it's really funny. Yeah, yeah, Willie, you got to get on it. Oh no, I don't know what it was. You saw, expose yourself to some culture, you know, get out of, um... Wait, did Franny see it? She did, she and I, we had a date night. She liked it. Yeah, what do you, you got your hand on a bug there? You pulling out? Yeah, I just gotta pull out. Sean's got three hands in his hair, do right now. No, I had a mole on it.
Just step on it, make sure you step on it. Look at that. You know, you don't have to do it while we're doing the... Yeah, no, I have to. You have to pick your scalp while we're doing it. You could have done it before. Or you could have saved it after we went in and known. I forgot to take it off this morning, but I need to let the air get through. How was your mole removal? It was good. Painful? Yeah, I know, it wasn't painful. It was just, it was big. Man, it was honking and he scraped off.
So this was a result of just a... Age. Well, you went in and you got yourself combed like a cat. You got checked for all your skin cancer. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, but they can... You mean like a chimp. You mean like when they do like that. Everybody's got to do that, by the way. We're joking, but you know, get yourself in there and get yourself in there. Get yourself checked if you're of a certain age. It's true. And vote. We do a lot of damage. And vote. We're like 20. And get out there and vote.
Yeah, and then go ahead and vote. Or vote at the place you get checked. Wherever, yeah, wherever. By the way, that'd be great if they did that. While you were waiting. Yeah. Vote. You know, see stuff like that where you can get... Bring back shit where you can kind of get a bunch of different shit done at once. You can get a mole. Or how about just to clear election day, a national holiday? Yeah. Let me tell you something. I know our surprise guest is a female. I can tell you that right now.
I can hear her and she's going in and giggling. There's another one. There's another one. Yeah, it should be a national holiday. Obviously, it should be a national holiday for all the obvious reasons. And but at the same time, imagine if you could on that day get a bunch of stuff done. You could get a... If you wanted to get a Brazilian, you could do that too. Oh, you would go, Jim. I'm just saying, if whatever your thing is... Yeah, it's damn poach.
And then in the back, you can go ahead and get yourself a shame coach. So that was our lead. My buddy, I'll leave. No, but wait. If you're a shame coach and in the back, you put your... You bring your patent and they get a shame pooch. Anyway, you have to wait. Anyway, you have to wait. It's a... You only get your dog wash. Yeah, it's shame. Wait, wait, wait. The patents. No, the pet will be the front... Wait, wait. The front place. Sean, get... Go ahead, Sean. Sorry.
Whenever you order food for takeout, like from a restaurant, do you sometimes order extras? So you don't have to, like, as grocery shopping, kind of. So, like, what? Wait, wait, wait, wait. Like, you're bored. I was just getting a Brazilian and now you're talking about shopping via... Now you're talking about getting cash back when you get groceries? What's going on? No, no, no. When you go... Yeah, can I get 18 bucks? What are you doing?
No, when you order takeout from a restaurant, sometimes on order an extra meal or something, put it in the fridge. So, like, my quote, grocery shopping. So that I don't have to... So that I just have a meal I could pop in the microwave. Wait, wait, wait. What do you do in college? What are you doing, man? It's true. That's what I do. How... Instead of grocery shopping, you just order an extra meal. America, this is spoken to you by a guy who's got a full-time chef. Yeah. Okay? No, I don't.
My full-time chef is me and... Well, I said five days a week. Sorry. Oh my god. So, is she offended at all that you're doubling up a tension? Because you don't have confidence in her. No, you fuck out. You should see. I never knew this guy. This is phenomenal information. That's all I can order an extra meal. Is this your way of... Because sometimes you feel bad because you've ordered so much food, so you justify it by saying, it's for tomorrow. Yeah. Something like that, yeah.
Wait, Seani, are you in New York? Is that New York behind you? Yeah. Yeah. Oh. How come we're not hanging out? What's going on? Well, because you work every day, five, 17,000 hours. But if you're not... JB, how you liking the weekend in the city, JB? It's the first weekend you've been there for a while. I'm not crazy about it because I feel like I'm missing my wife and my youngest daughter back in LA.
I should have gone back and picked up maple from a farm camp where she was living at farm camp for a month up in Northern California. Sleeping outside in a tent and taking care of it. I can't just say, and by the way, I think the farm camp is amazing. But can you imagine going back 150 years, bringing somebody back from the past and they come and they go, who's working on a farm like, what's this? It's farm camp. It's a new man.
It's a bunch of kids from LA in New York because they don't know what they're going to do. They're coming here to play farm. Old timing. These kids are even away. Did you go to school? Yeah, I went to school all the way until I was nine. Yeah. You know? No, I went to the farm. Farm camp. You got to get to our guest. You guys, we got to get to our guest. She's just sitting here listening to us, wasting our fucking day.
And Sean, you're going to love this because, yeah, she's done a lot of iconic stuff on TV. Stuff that I can't really mention, even stuff that was my favorite. But she's done a lot of theater. She's been nominated for a bunch of Olivier. She's done, she played Blanche de Boins, Streetcar, to great acclaim in the, well, she's sort of British kind of was raised there, then moved back and now has lived there again for years. Well, she was not far from here. But Sean, but born in Chicago, okay?
Sean, do you think she might have a story about maybe something crazy that happened on stage? She better get ready with that. She better get ready with the story with her family. Do you remember when you saw her hang out at Hanys and she, did you ever go to Hanys in Chicago? And that, so she's one of all these awards should be nominated for all this stuff. She's done dozens of films, but I loved her in that amazing series, The Fall. But I also loved her in the amazing series, The Crown.
But I also loved her in everybody else. It is the amazing FBI special agent, Dana Scully. Guys, please, it's Jillian Anderson. Jillian Anderson. Did you ever say special ainess? I think you almost said the special ainess. Well, that's what the notes gave me. I made the question, but they sent me that. Hello, Jillian. Oh my God. You guys are hilarious. Oh my God, you guys are so fun. Wow. Thank you so much for being here. It's so cool. And joining us on this, on this blessed day.
Jillian, you got, you got, go ahead, John. I was just going to say I've been such a fan for so long. I mean, I know you hear this all the time. I love all of your work. Thank you. But you know when you're a young person. But the one that really disappointed, sorry. No, just when you're a young person and stuff stays in your DNA, the ex files this day has, has, has, is part of me. Interesting. So therefore you are a part of me. So thank you. I get it.
I can feel that I woke up this morning feeling like I was part of you. What is the, what are the questions that you asked about ex files when you were when you were a public. I remember one time being after one of the awards standing backstage, you know, where they take you backstage and then you've got that, that the tier of, tier is a press back there from the back row. Somebody said, do you believe in aliens, which of course by that point I'd been asked every day of my life.
And I think I might have said, are you fucking kidding me? I literally out of my mouth. I was like, really? That's what you're going to fucking ask me. Oh my god. Sean, you do though, right? Absolutely do. Probably some sort of any, yeah, anytime anything is on TV about, is there, isn't there? I watch it and I'm all into it. Right. And what is it, Sean? You're just, you're, you find it like interesting. You find it exciting. You're hoping you want to get out.
Are you trying to get off this, this globe? Yeah. No, I just think it's fascinating that the whole concept that we come from something we don't know. So and I think there's answers there that that, that what have you got? I'd like for you to get abducted like they reveal themselves in you and then they start to like murder you. You're like, I thought you'd be fun and interesting. But are you saying that you think that alien life form, Sean, might be responsible for the start of my life?
By jumping in anytime you want to hear. I do believe that. Well, pardon me, believe that. Pardon me, believe that. Pardon me, believe that. Well, that, that mankind came from a higher sort of more complex life form of, of sort of aliens. And stuff as opposed to the aliens and mankind coming from sort of like a god like creator. I'm open to the, we come from the aliens. I'm open to both, but I lean towards the alien thing only because did you see Prometheus? Did you see the movie Prometheus?
I think so. You mean the Hollywood, the Hollywood feature film? No, when I saw a Star Wars, how much of that is true? Fine. What are you talking about? Please let's show it. I'll show it. You're right, you're right, you're right, you're right. He's got the answers, guys. So Prometheus, a hunter. You're right, like, you're right. I'm going to start writing. You ever watch Ancient Aliens? You ever watch Ancient Aliens? I have no. No. Oh, we watch it all the time.
And all these theories about all the Hilar Galifix that show, you know, engraved into the walls about like the, you know, things they're all looking up at these sausages flying. Right. And they're all kind of similar. I think 20 of our episodes, 20 of our 220 episodes were about those Hilar Galifix. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, how far, how far as your house from the nearest library do you think? Hey, anyway, Julian, welcome. So welcome, Julian.
Julian, speaking of extraterrestrial and stuff, the one thing I do want to ask you is, at what point, obviously exfiles play a huge part in the early part of your career. And you've gone on to do so many amazing things. And I think so many different things. Yeah. But I wonder how it's one of those things and Sean, you could kind of know what this is like in Jason, you do too. When you do something that is such a sort of hit that crosses all demographics, et cetera, at a young age.
When you look back on your experiences exfiles, is it a positive feeling to, are you like, oh, that was the greatest thing or did it open all these millions of doors or? Oh, is it, oh, just, this is what I'm using as a platformer. It was, you know, what happens when you're on a long running show is everything becomes so enmeshed and not incestuous, but you literally feel like you're living and breathing this, you know, the entire crew, the entire experience.
And so I think by the time we were done after, you know, it did nine years. Wow. I think I was well ready for it to be over and it took me a while to properly think of, I think I compartmentalized it. I so wanted to get off it and start doing the things that I thought my career was going to be before I said yes to that job. So I, you know, I imagined I'd be doing birch and I refilms and I imagine I'd be doing all this.
And so I really wanted to, on the one hand, forget that that happened and and bounce off it to the stuff that I really wanted to do. But then, you know, it was probably about five years when I suddenly, because when you're doing something like that, all anybody says is, oh my god, the show, oh my god, it's the most amazing. And you don't want to hear that anymore. You don't, you don't, you've heard it so much.
And I suddenly got what they were talking about, like five years after the show ended. I was kind of like, yeah, that was kind of cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I was on this really cool show. Yeah, like anything you need time and distance away to.
Yeah, but it is interesting how like the things that sort of like landed all four of us with a career are things that I'll bet you none of us would have said this would be the exact thing that would condition the audience and the industry to the kind of person and career I want to have. That's exactly right. And it's like, you basically, it's not that you take what you get, but you're appreciative of the job at the time.
But then by the time you're done with the job, guess what? That's who you are now. And now, what do I, what do I do with this? And this is, I hope I don't sound like I'm complaining at all, because I could not be more appreciative of, you know, because I'm sure you guys would agree where, where we're at.
But you, you, you, you, you, you, you tack towards what you're now identified and labeled as and and build on that or or or or try to offset that a little bit and have a little bit more of a different kind of career with it. But you need time to reckon with that. You need any time and space to be able to figure out what it actually means to you because for the last however long you've been hearing what it means to everybody else.
And, you know, I, you know, but we have those people on here all the time, Julian, that that have been fortunate enough to do what you do, which is you actually have gone on and created the whole identity for yourself as an actress as one of the leading voices and actresses in this in the business. And X file just happens to be one of the jobs you've done as a voice of the thing that identifies you.
But it's a, you know, it takes a while. It takes focus. It takes, you know, saying no to a lot of stuff, but it also. I remember at the beginning, one of the first things that I, because after the series ended, I didn't know if I could be on a set. Again, I didn't know that for myself. It just felt so. I knew that I just needed to get away from Los Angeles and set.
So I had grown up in London. I moved back to London and I, and I, the first thing I did was a play. But the second thing I did, I was offered was, you know, a British BBC a short series of, of Bleak House. And, you know, costume drama. And, and when they offered it to me, we went out in audition. I literally in the meeting with the producers. I said to them, what makes you think I can do this?
Because I, I knew I could do it, but I just spent 10 years doing exactly the opposite of that. And I was so curious. What did you see? How did you get that? Yeah, that I, that I, that I feel like maybe has been lost or that nobody. Yeah. Yeah. And what did they say? Do you remember? Oh, wait, I'm sorry. We thought you were. Yeah. We like, we like to watch people fail.
I can't remember what they said. I mean, I think that somewhere in the work that I did it, I suppose they cleaned that I could, you know, that I could act as opposed to what I felt like I was doing was not necessarily. But of course, I will. I mean, they were, you know, we got to, we learned how to be actors during that very time. Right. We'll be right back. And now back to the show. Where did you grow up in Chicago, by the way? Here we go.
Well, I kind of, I kind of didn't. I was born there six months later. We moved to Puerto Rico because my story goes that my dad wanted to go to film school. And he said to my mom, I want to go film school. Do you want it to be Los Angeles or London? And she said London. And so they didn't have any money to move to London. And so we left the apartment apparently moved to Puerto Rico where my dad's parents were living.
And we basically slept on their sofa for a year and a half so my parents could save money and we can move to London. So I only got like six months there. Do you remember where you were born? I was in Marys Hospital in Cook County. I actually ended up back there because when I went to college, I moved to like a Wicker Park, Bucktown area before it was Wicker Park, Bucktown. You know, it was still, you know, low income, Hispanic families. And how long were you in England?
Until I was 11. So from about a year and from 2 to 11. So your dad went to film school then, yes. When you were in London and your dad was an editor, is that right? No, no, he wanted to be a cameraman. He wanted to be a director, filmmaker. But then they fell in love with London. We were always going to stay. We eventually could afford to rent a decent, too better apartment.
So we stayed and he got various jobs working in various places. And then he got a call from a film school friend, a fellow American who basically said, I am starting to make industrial films come to Grand Rapids, Michigan and get rich quick. And he said, OK, yeah, I'm going to do that. So he went out and we ended up moving to Grand Rapids. We went from London to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Wow. And there you stayed until college, yeah. Which was where? To the Goodman Theatre School in Chicago.
So then your sort of your spark was kind of lit by your father's interest in the businesses that kind of outside. But no, I don't think it was. I think the high school that I went to in Grand Rapids, there was an English teacher. It was an academic high school. I said, I said this so many times, but the only reason I got in was because I had an accent. And I, you know, I know a lot of normal circumstances. I don't think I would have made it into the academic high school.
But so I got into the, and there was no theater department, no sports or anything. And so, but there was an English teacher who a couple times a year or a semester or whatever she would direct a play that would be put on in the lunch room. At one point, I think we did our town. I get who I played, but I think the middle of the girl she is in like a surprise. Yeah, any fun stories from the lunchroom? Shum, you had to care whether they're theater or food related, either.
No, but I remember asking for another sandwich so I could take it home later and have it for another meal. I remember I did that in my school. Great call back. Yeah. Anyway, so I think that was probably what ended up getting me interested. And then I started auditioning for community theater and stuff.
Wow. I love the good method I did to play there a few years ago. It's so great. But what was the first gig that you got that you're like, oh, you know what? I can really do this. I think that I, not I can do this. Not that I have the ability. But this is going to be, I can have a life doing this. I can have a career. I can make a living.
I think one of the, you know, one of the community shows that I auditioned for and was cast in, you know, it was the first time that I was properly doing something, you know, professional. And there must have been, you know, I think I've I suddenly felt like, oh, I can actually do that. Like I can do this. There is something I can do. And it really changed my life around. Do you remember what it was? Yeah, it was, it was an igniting girl saying it was a British. I think a world war two play.
Yeah. And, but anyway, you know, the applause or whatever got to me. How old were you? 16, I think. Wow, 16. That's young to have that kind of. Well, all of a sudden, you know, before that, I was sitting on the backstabs with the, with the, you know, smoking weeds in my lunch breaks and not doing my homework and suddenly something in that in the inspiration and feeling like suddenly I had a purpose.
It kind of shifted everything around. And I started doing better in school. And I was voted most improved student. And I was kind of a back in the compliment. Yeah. When the only way is up. Hey, you know what? You're not an idiot. Hey, but the only thing I said is because like, JB, you grew up doing this. So you always knew that it was a viable thing.
But for people like us who don't come out who weren't born into it, there is that moment. Sean, I don't know. I asked you the same thing, which is that moment where you're like, I think there are plenty of people who I grew up with who never thought that. I would ever be able to make a life out of doing this. You know, you have lots of good friends who go, yeah, you could, but a lot of people are like, yeah, nice try. It's a big fucking scary world.
Yeah, well, my dad, I mean, I think when I started to audition for, for theater schools, I mean, I auditioned for one. It didn't occur to me that I wasn't going to get in. Like I didn't have a plan. So I auditioned for the good theater school. I mean, while I only take, you know, 20 people every year, I didn't, you know, I don't know what I would have done if I didn't get in.
Anyway, but my dad sat me down and said, this is an impossible career to get into. And you've got to have a backup. And he was, he was trying to convince me to study word processing because he knew that computers were going to like be a thing. And, and that I could always get a job on the side when I wasn't acting or able to act or getting hired that I'd be able to teach people how to do word, you know, to help them on their computers, which is a fantastic piece of advice for somebody else.
It just, you know, there was no way in hell that I was going to never I would I, my brain just doesn't work that way. But it's a great piece of advice. Yeah, yeah. And the kinds of things that I'm saying to my sons right now, you know what I mean? But I have a contingency plan. Yeah. Yeah.
I know like this, this part of people's lives, I'm surprised there's not more stories about or or movies about or TV shows about because like there's tons of movies and TV shows about like falling in love or deciding to have children or grappling with mortality. And here comes death. And somebody's got a terminal, you know, diagnosis.
And so, like, no one ever does anything about like that moment where every young adult has that scary question about what am I going to do with my life? Who am I going to be? Who am I going to be? Is it going to should I pursue something that I'm passionate about? Yeah. To the extent that you even know what you're passionate about yet at that age? Or should I pursue something that's going to give me a path towards providing?
Yeah, but doesn't that feel like an idea from the 1980s or something these days? It's different. I guess it is, but there's always jumping off points and everybody has a different height from which they're jumping off. There's more different risk involved. Which is choosing what that lane is, what the industry is. It is so important. It's like one of the biggest forks in anyone's life.
What you're going to actually put your weight behind and choose to study in college or take that first job after college or before or during college, like, you know, I've got a 17 year old and a 12 year old. And like they're dealing with that right now. William, sure, you know, your boys are thinking about it as well. It's like it's like a big, big fork. Do you go left or right? Yeah. And no, he's going through it too. That's not.
I mean, it's not something that people talk about a lot. No, it's true. We all go through it as parents. We all experience that with the younger you figure that out, the higher success rate. Even if it doesn't end up being the thing that you do, it's like I always say like a lot of stuff happens on your way to something else. Like if you're just driven and motivated to do something, it's okay if it doesn't end up being that, but at least your feet are moving forward. Yeah, yeah, totally.
I remember moving to New York when I was 20 and I did not know a single person in New York. I just thought, fuck it. I'm like, I'm starting. Yeah, let's fucking go. I was in college and I already started. I dropped out because I thought, well, everybody's just kind of not, nobody has any real direction.
Getting really good at being a senior, 60 year senior, 70 year senior. Yeah, whatever it is. I mean, a lot of great people, but at the same time, I just thought, like, fuck, there's a whole world out there. I want to get in it. I want to get in there. But that's the thing that I think a lot of teens these days are.
The thing of the whole world as an oyster in a way that obviously that's a very privileged perspective to have. But I feel like kids these days, that's not necessarily the perspective that they that they have. It doesn't feel like that is what is on offer anymore. There's something. And I don't know what you know, the degree. It's harder. It's easier.
It's harder. So many kids are floundering right now. So many teens are just or are you young 20s. It's because of the. It's the fucking. Yes. It is. I'm serious. I'm. It is on the one hand. You're seeing the world out there because everybody's posting them in their holidays on yachts and this that and the other, but it feels so. Unreachable and so, you know, it actually has the opposite effect, I think, for a little bit.
I couldn't agree more in this idea that that you can kind of go into your phone and lose yourself into all four corners. You're not really experiencing anything. You're getting the micro double mean hits and stuff. There are lots of books about it right now. But at the same time, you're not actually getting that real world experience that we all had the privilege of getting.
While you're looking at it, you're sitting next to your friend, not having a conversation while they're looking at somebody's life too. And obviously, as you say, there's tons of books written about it. But I think it's a really serious problem today.
Julian, can I ask you, can I nerd out on the fall? I love that show so much. And I wish it's one of those shows that I wish I could watch it again for the first time because I found it so engrossing. It was so gripping. And what was that process like your character is very intense on that show?
Well, it was, I mean, the premise is great. So in the show, you're with the serial killer for an equal amount of a screen time as you are. The superintendent detective who is tracking him, which is me. And I think it was the first time.
I don't know what this first time, but it felt quite unique that that's felt quite unique at the time. And it was so it started, you know, it started where I was brought a script. And I've been in the in the process of producing something myself that I couldn't just I couldn't get there.
I was really, really struggling with the writers and and the other producers to get the script to where it needed to be. And then this script blended in my lap. And it was like, not that is that is writing it was so spare. It was just it was like and I've spoken about this before it felt like when I was reading it, it's my experience of the character it almost despite the fact that it was so spare. It felt like my fusion with her was almost alchemic.
And because there wasn't a lot to go on in a typical American way of reading a script where it's all just, you know, all the descriptions are in the directives in between where you get so much information you feel like you're slightly treated like an idiot.
But this was really beautifully beautifully spare and yet you got you just got who she was what the world was who the different voices were in it. And it was so it was really special. And, you know, I, I met them and the, you know, the producers and the director and and it was a fantastic experience.
But, you know, I just come off of I don't know which version of which Hollywood thing I had just finished doing. But all of a sudden I was in Belfast shooting this little series and it was a real collaboration.
You know, it was I went from from being on something where I was so detached and so not part of the creative process to all of a sudden being with these guys in Belfast and really immersed and included in the conversation and, you know, in the end got to make notes on the edit and all that kind of stuff.
So it was the first time that I was being allowed into that part of it. And, you know, if I wanted to go back to London, you know, it was a matter of texting the travel coordinator as opposed to sending an email to somebody at Fox in a month later. They tell you that yes, you're you, you can and cannot take that.
So it felt like the whole experience of it was like this is this is what this is the real thing. You know, this is what I want to do. This is what I want to do when it, you know, she was an extraordinary character. I felt from them before I aired when I started to do press. I remember saying to the press who hadn't really seen it yet. You know, they do where they don't watch the screeners at their scent.
And I kept thinking she's really good for women like she needs to be out there. There's something about her. I think that is going to be incredibly empowering for for women. And I don't think we've seen someone like her before on this screen.
And she had the same she had the same sort of impact to me as DCI Tennyson from Prime Suspense. There was a bit there are a lot of similarities. Very, very strong. I mean, you bring a lot of strength to your characters. You played the one of a bunch of very strong characters throughout your career.
Including Margaret Thatcher, I was going to say you kind of go from that to not directly do stuff in between, but then you do you play Margaret Thatcher which in the crown to great acclaim and really just a wonderful, incredible performance. And I just think like that that must brings with it its own set of risks and challenges and burdens and you invite a tremendous amount of criticism, right?
The thing is those kind of things come along and you cannot not say yes. I mean, you can't, you know what I mean, I think I've always, you have to say yes to those things and then deal with your fear afterwards almost. And you know, it's the same thing with doing theater is is saying yes to things that are terrifying. And then at some point when you're halfway through rehearsal, you know, you're feeling like what the fuck was I thinking?
What made me think that I could do this or that I should know I'm stuck and I've got to be do this in front of a thousand people every single night? Like what is wrong with me? Or then it's over and you've crushed it and now you've got the confidence and now you're ready to take on even something bigger. The next thing that you get to say yes to because yeah, that's what it's like.
You always thought that the confidence about stuff lives on the backside of actually doing it. It's completely appropriate that you're fearful beforehand and that you shouldn't worry about the fact that you're not confident going into it because confident lives on the backside of actually.
Like once you've done it, you've kind of, and then it gives you courage enough to say yes to the thing next time that is even a bit scarier or you know, one of the, yeah, or you don't worry about the result and you just do the work. Oh, shame, man, brother. Thank you. Thank you. I think for that, it was a bit of that which is okay, I'm going to do. I'm going to do everything I can to try and succeed with this. I'm going to start working on it here in advance. I'm going to study everything.
Watch everything. Read anything. You do the work. And then you show up and you just do your best job and you don't know until afterwards whether people are going to go, oh my god. Did you see that piece of like what was she thinking? Yeah. We'll be right back. And now back to the show. Do you remember that first day of being there with the hair and all of it and taking like here we go. Fuck this better fucking work because I am out on this mother fucking limb. Yeah, that's amazing.
I passed on it just so you know. I was first. You didn't agree with the wardrobe though. That was why. Yeah, I mean, but the thing is you see her silhouette. You know, the minute the wig goes on and you get into costume and you see the silhouette alone. I could have talked like Daffy Duck and you would have laid out as Margaret Thatcher because the silhouette was so spectacular. Had you been at already been living in England for a while before you started doing that?
Yeah, I'm so we finished ex files in 2002 and I moved to the back of the UK. We were always going to move back again when I was a kid and we just never did. And so it was always a dream of mine to at least be you know part of my life to be back there. So I went back and I did a play and then stayed. And so I've been living there since 2002. Wow. And was there extra pressure playing Margaret Thatcher being a resident now like because you know being in America you could play Margaret Thatcher.
And you know, you know, you could go sideways. You'd get a little more space between you know those who like. I think so I think because you know most of the theatre work that I was offered as a young person was what were British plays. You know, I did the philanthropist, I did apps and friends on you know, I did all that. I kept because of my accent because that was basically my first way of speaking was with a British accent. And so I was in living in the UK.
They've kind of adopted me from quite early on of being back there as a professional person post ex-files as being a you know they've taken me on as being one of them in a way. But playing somebody that has that iconic history there in that particular country. She is such a divisive character. I mean people feel really, really strongly about Margaret Thatcher and not all of it is positive.
So in playing her periods there or from over you know whether we shot it in the States to be aired there it would be the same reaction to people that hate her so hater and the people that the person still love her. It's interesting. Jillian just talked to you to us for a second. It's quite a responsibility being the person who asked the the the secret person on. You got to keep the show going. Yeah, you got to kind of keep it a little bit. Well, I want to talk to you about your book want.
And I wanted to ask if it came post doing your show Sex Education or prior to how did that all came. So in sex education I play it's in that flick series. We did four seasons. I play a sex therapist. In the process of or during the period of time of being on that show, you know, my character's house is filled with sex paraphernalia and pictures of vaginas and penises and all kinds of tantric stuff on the walls. And I kept taking pictures. And so I kept wanting to post these pictures.
And the girl who does my because I don't post things myself. And she does my Instagram. She kept saying you can't you can't post it. This is like a peanut that they're not going to let Instagram is not going to let you post a penis. Um, Sean, is that true? That is not true. I can tell you that is on true. Anyway, I started posting them anyway. I would do like a year of the day or penis of the day and then people would send me pictures of penises or youngies in nature like a poodle with the body.
Yeah, yeah. So it started this kind of thing. Penises of in nature. Yeah. Anyway, so my professional life started to mix mingle a little bit with my personal life in that Instagram. I was getting a bit of an example of anything to do with my personal life. I don't ever post personal things. But so there was a, you know, across pollination that was happening there. And so I, I, people would talk to me.
I mean, not in a therapeutic way, but I, a lot of stuff that came to me was since then has been part of that bigger conversation about sexual well-being. And, um, and particularly for women. And so in the 70s, Nancy Friday wrote a book called My Secret Garden. And she did the introductions to chapters and she invited women to send in letters to her about the sexual fantasies.
And it was a book that, so anonymous letters from women, particularly mostly in America writing about the sexual fantasies. And it was like a number one, but all of a sudden everybody wanted to get a little more care on it in their purses. And, but it was a real insight into, you know, what women think about when they think about sex. And we thought we discussed doing a modern day version of it to see whether, you know, in the age of sorry, for any pornography.
And, um, and, you know, shows like sex education or euphoria or, you know, where everything is out there all the time and you have access to it. Yeah. To what degree have fantasies, particularly for women, changed over time. And so I put a call out about a year and a half ago to women around the world to write to me anonymously.
Bloom's party set up a portal so that they could do it anonymously. And we collected about 1800 women started writing letters and we end about 800 of them finished them and then we've put about 174 of them in the book. Wow, that's wild. It's cool. So some of them didn't finish. Okay. Now, did you notice a big difference between the content of those sexual fantasies now versus years ago in the original book?
Well, the most interesting thing to me is the degree to which there are so many rules today about what is appropriate and what is not whereas back then animals show up and. Wow. I think it would be the opposite. Like it would be. You think it would be the opposite.
But, you know, we've got the most extraordinary letters from young teens who have yet to have sex, you know, talking about their fantasies to mothers of many children, single parents and what it's like trying to do the same old same old with your partner to, you know, 20
things in the dating world and how what exists in their head is different from what they experience out in the real world to, you know, it's a real, it's really interesting and we've got letters from literally all over the world. So there's we also ask the women, you know, we also invited the trans community and, you know, gender queer people and. Yeah, it feels quite egalitarian. It feels it's the hell that word mean equal.
Oh, oh, yeah, it feels like it's an equal opportunity for anybody to pitch in and to talk about their experience and it does it. I heard you got like thousands of letters from an Amanda A from Los Angeles. This is unconfirmed. Very unsatisfied. There was a run on stamps in our 10 our local post office. Amanda, where are you going? I'm running the post office. She just got stack of letters. She's really well, that's that's that's what what a awesome.
That's really cool. It's really it's it's really interesting inside. I would have thought that porn would have showed up a lot more in the fantasies. There's a lot of there's a lot of women no matter how intense the fantasy gets. At the end of the day, just wanting to be seen for who they are, just wanting to be held, wanting care, wanting somebody to look in their eyes, wanting, you know, or, or, you know, the opposite woman who by day.
Or in charge of 500 employees and and to see of this that and the other and they just want somebody else to be in control. So they, you know, and so it's just it's fascinating. Well, why are you crying? Well, not crying. I'm saying what is going on? I'm just saying hold me. Jillian Anderson, you have been more than generous with your time on what I imagined is your day off. And so thank you so much. Thanks for everything. Been such a fan of yours for the longest time.
Yeah, and your new book want is out now. Did you do an audio version of that book? Yes, yes, but it's not me. I think cool at Bayman. Do you do you read the letter? Do you? So I wrote the introductions to each chapter and I read the introductions, but then there are women, other women who read the fantasies. Got it. All right. I can't get the hang of the reading. It's top to bottom left. Right? Sure. Thank you. Thank you. It was so nice to meet you guys. Great to meet you. Great to meet you.
And yeah, thanks for my push. Enjoy the rest of your time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Great Jillian Anderson. Bye. Bye. Will. Nice guest. Yeah. Good guest, right? Yeah. She's a talent. She's a talent of, she's a, I mean, but it's interesting because she did Dana Scully as we pointed out her name. Yeah. Character that everybody knows, massive hit global, not just one of those shows. Yeah. It was huge, really big. And then I came back. Huge globally came back.
They made a couple movies in the interim. That was good too. And but to be able to kind of step out of that and then step into a book and not just step into one more iconic role, but step into like three. Or four other or eight or 10 great roles continuously and recreate, reinvent yourself. Yep. Super, super tough to do and super admirable and yeah, super talented. And by the way, it's always wild.
I'm, I'm, we talked a little bit about it when you associate somebody so much with the character that made them famous. Yeah. And then you see them and interviews are were outside of that world. Just her having that t shirt on the Wu Teng Clan shirt. And we're talking about her kit. You just see her as, and then Margaret Thatcher of course and all the other stuff. You see her as a completely different human being.
Yeah. And then she's like this totally chill, cool, really smart, interesting person. Yeah. Can we revisit Sean's theory on evolution? Yeah. I love to. Yeah. So, okay. So the spaceship. So do all the humans come out of the spaceship or just, just two of them and then like sort of like an Adam and Eve, they come down. We have to, we have to, we have to have. Right. We have to have had come from somewhere. Right. Somebody or something made us, right? Right. So it's have a little.
All right, I'll come with you so far. Right. But we're not, we're not the only planet in the entire. So you're not having this nonsense about the big bang, right? All the science stuff is the one for you. No, you have to. I am. Yeah. No, all that works. But I'm just saying, we can't be the only species. So because we're not the only species. And there is intelligent life. Like if you don't think there's more intelligent life than us, I don't think there's. No, we all agree.
That's not in dispute. But we're, I think people are saying that perhaps these other alien, the alien life form also came from what was originally sort of created with this sort of this big bang. Yes, yes. And it's responsible for the bang. Yeah, but I don't get that. You're suggesting that maybe the aliens let that fuse. Correct. I don't know if it's a who as much as it could be a what it could. Or a spaceship. Or a spaceship. I'm hoping with a real big exhaust system, right?
Yes. Just like boom, it was some sort of a backfire. Yeah, something like that. So, but you're saying you're saying at some point somebody from Tatooine came here. That's right. Right. And that went from, not from Naboo because give me a break. No, right. But definitely somebody from Camino and Tatooine, it came in there like, hey, let's go ahead. Jack, you're thinking about Jack who not no boo.
That's a. I'm sorry, Jack. You're, you know, Jack, you know, yeah, I'm not talking about Naboo, no boo Malibu. Right. You know, it's funny. My cousin, he's from my cousins from all he's from Alderan and he, um, and sorry, I'm sorry about his passing. They blew up that whole planet. They blew up that whole planet. Don't know stuff about it. Yeah, Alderan. Okay. Stop knowing shit. None of it's real. You may find one ready. Remember?
So if you know everything, Sean, then what would you call someone who's got dual citizenship like she does, you know, she's from, she's got England, she's got America. Well, you might call her. What would you call her? Bye coastal. No, no, no, no, it's not coastal. It's not coast. What is it? No, I go back to the microphone. She would be by what? By what do you mean? Anything but coastal, mother fucker, it's two countries, bro. It's just bilingual. No, no, no. By what?
No, it's, it was speaking English. I don't know. You listen, I don't know the answer, but I want to be better than by coastal. Guys, guys, guys, guys, hang on it, Sean. We'll got it. Hang on, Sean. Sean. Jason, you guys are at odds right now, and I want you to be in the world. I want you to be more in sync, and I want you to be, bye, bye, bye. Don't move the microphone away like that's got it. Like a guy, like a guy, like a guy, that's person of a mic drop.
Off of in sync, we're going to appreciate the effort on that, and judges will allow. Bye. Bye. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smartless is 100% organic and artisanally handcrafted by. Rob Armjurf, Bennett Barbaco, and Michael Granterry. Smart. Smart.