'TV shows didn’t have strong, intelligent, powerful women' - Gillian Anderson stuns in a red suit as she shares rare tribute to her iconic X-Files character Dana Scully

Gillian Anderson has shared a special tribute to her breakout role as Dana Scully

Gillian Anderson
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Gillian Anderson has shared a special message about her breakout role as Dana Scully in The X Files, sharing how the character was ahead of her times - with a wardrobe to match. 

In Netflix's Life In Transformation franchise, Gillian Anderson, who is currently starring as legendary Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis in Scoop, posted a series of videos and clips from her roles over the years alongside the caption from Netflix 'From Scully, to sex ed, to scoop — icon @gilliana on who wears the trousers.' Gillian began the gallery with a powerful tribute to Special Agent Dana Scully, wearing a striking red trouser suit. 

"The TV shows very much didn’t have strong, intelligent clear-thinking powerful women at the top of their fields," Gillian begins in the video. "The fact that there was this young professional woman wearing these clothes. Whether it was a pantsuit or a skirt suit, she was owning her career and very confident in herself.

"It was really the first time that it was being seen and, you know, people responded very positively in that they were shocked and she made a mark."

Now all we need is for Gillian to follow up the tribute with a Mulder and Scully reunion the entire world wants to see. Fans were quick to show their appreciation of the post and Gillian's role of Dana Scull, with one writing, 'Me and my husband are rewatching X-files and I’m just stunned at Gillian’s presence and performance.' 

While another said, 'Not to be dramatic, but I’m obsessed with this woman.' And a third wrote, 'I admire her in so many of her roles and Scully is a very special icon to me ❤️ And also thanks to Gillian's brilliant performance.' And another shared, 'Seeing Scully at a young age helped inspire me to become a woman in STEM'

Netflix also then commented in appreciation of Gillian, writing 'Some of these comments are making me cry. @gilliana the woman that you are.' I think we can all agree she's completely fabulous!

As is the killer-red suit the Sex Education star wore for the video. Want to mimic Gillian's bold power dressing? We've rounded up our favourite red blazers below. We'll be adding this to our own workwear capsule wardrobe.

Lauren Hughes

Lauren is the former Deputy Digital Editor at woman&home and became a journalist mainly because she enjoys being nosy. With a background in features journalism, Lauren worked on the woman&home brand for four years before going freelance. Before woman&home Lauren worked across a variety of women's lifestyle titles, including GoodTo, Woman's Own, and Woman magazine.