'The X-Files' had a huge impact on me: Gillian

Actor Gillian Anderson, who has headlined 'The X-Files' across ten seasons, said that the hit show had a huge impact on her career and life.

The 49-year-old actor plays the role of FBI Special Agent Dana Scully alongside David Duchovny's Fox Mulder in the show, which ran on Fox from 1993 to 2002 and returned to for a six-episode tenth season in 2017. Anderson will be back for the 11th season, which she has announced will be her last.

"It had some huge impact. I was unemployed. I was 24, you know. I was sleeping on somebody's couch I think. So it had a huge impact on me," Anderson said in a statement. "And, you know, in retrospect to be a part of something that was so iconic and a character who was so beloved... I mean what more could one ask of if you're going to get into doing a character for such a long time." When asked how did the show survived for over two decades, Anderson said it is "comforting to people".

"I can't speak for new fans, but for fans that have been with it from the beginning I think there's something comforting about it. The fact that we were the beginning of appointment television," Anderson said.

"I've heard so many people say, I used to watch this with my dad when I was little and he passed away now. Or it bonded me with my mom who I didn't see because she was working all the time or whatever it is," she added. Anderson said coming to the role of Scully after 15 years was harder than moving on to other projects.

"It's actually harder in the reverse to come back to something that is so, that I'm so familiar with, is so a part of me and yet she's by the nature of the fact I've changed so much, was certainly feature wise."

"I don't look like the same person who was Scully back then. And so to figure out how to shake off all the other characters that I've played in between still to be discovered if that makes any sense."