Gillian Anderson on Making a "Choice Not to Work"
A sizable age difference between her eldest child — Piper Maru, 13 — and the son she expects in October gives Gillian Anderson the benefit of hindsight. The 39-year-old actress says there are at least some things she plans to do differently, and first and foremost on her list is taking a proper maternity leave, as she did after the birth of her second child, 20-month-old Oscar. When she delivered her daughter, Gillian’s then-hit television show The X-Files was at the peak of its fame. "Poor Piper lived in my trailer for the first nine years of her life," Gillian notes in a new interview, "So now, to be able to make the choice not to work at the end of my last pregnancy — because I worked right up to the end of Piper’s — and not to work for the first six months after having Oscar was quite wonderful."
Gillian says that shooting The X-Files: I Want To Believe, which hit theaters yesterday, presented its own share of problems, however. Not wanting to pull Piper from school, Gillian says she spent a month away from her daughter while making the movie, adding "it was the longest time I’d been away from her." Fortunately, Gillian says, Piper’s dad Clyde Klotz "and his partner came and lived in our house and took care of her for a month." Calling the effort to balance motherhood and her career "a bit of a challenge," Gillian also revealed that Oscar’s "just started to talk" and "can say his name now."
Baby-on-the-way and Oscar are Gillian’s children with boyfriend Mark Griffiths.
Source: Times Online; Photo by Tuukka Jantti/Pacific Coast News.
