14 DAY TRIAL // Gorgeous actress Gillian Anderson has a dark past about which she never mentioned a peep. In a new interview with Out magazine, the former “X Files” star admits to experimenting with women in high school.
The 43-year-old actress says that the reason she never said anything about the gay relationships she had was not because she was ashamed, but rather because she didn't feel like standing public trial for them.
Today, though, when everybody's talking about equality, seems like the perfect timing to send the message that there's nothing wrong with being gay – or curios.
“I was in a relationship with a girl for a long time when I was in high school,” Gillian says.
The romance came at a time when she felt like she didn't fit in anywhere, so she did her best to shock those around her by doing the things they least expected.
That doesn't mean the romance wasn't sincere, though. At the time, it felt so.
“[Afterwards] I was in a relationship with a punk rock drug addict who... Yeah, yeah, well it’s... You know, I’m old enough that I can talk about that,” she recalls.
“And then I was in a relationship with somebody who was way, way older than me. Everything that that kind of anarchistic attitude brings – the inappropriate behavior it leads to – was how I chose to be in the world at that time, which was, you know, not what people did,” the star explains.
At the end of the day, though, she still liked boys.
Asked about the reason she chose to keep quiet on the topic all these years, Gillian asks, “If I had thought I was 100% gay, would it have been a different experience for me?”
“Would it have been a bigger deal if shame had been attached to it and all those things that become huge life-altering issues for youngsters in that situation? It’s possible that my attitude around it came, on some level, from knowing that I still liked boys,” she continues.
Fans of her work can now see her in the new BBC take on “Great Expectations,” where she's playing against type the role of Miss Havisham.
Gillian's Out interview is here.