Gillian Anderson 'wished' she could be a detective – but says she's 'too stupid'

dailystar.co.uk:

Gillian Anderson is hoping to play a cold-hearted killer.The former X Files star says: “I’m very keen to play a murderer. I don’t believe I’ve ever murdered anybody.

You have to put yourself out there.”But if she wasn’t an actress, Gillian would love to be a real-life detective like Stella – who hunted Jamie Dornan’s serial killer Paul Spector across three series of the Northern Ireland drama.“I wish I could be a detective,” she says. “I’d love to, but I’m too stupid, and too clumsy and I don’t take enough stuff in.“I miss three-quarters of what is right in front of my face.“Also nobody would buy it.

If I knocked on people’s doors, or showed up on a crime scene, people would be like, ‘Is that Gillian Anderson?’. So I wouldn’t actually get to do it for real.”The fourth series of her Netflix hit Sex Education has been confirmed and the 53-year-old is gearing up to play sex therapist Dr Jean Milburn once more.The comedy drama is known for its graphic sex scenes and Gillian admits she initially threw the script in the bin – and also feared the consequences for her sons Oscar, 15, and Felix, 13.“The only risk I saw with Jean was for my two teenage boys,” she says. “When they’re having a mother who’s playing a character like this, it was going to seriously damage them psychologically.“I didn’t get it at first.

I have a tendency to appreciate much more subtle, ironic humour, and it was so broad that at first I thought ‘this isn’t for me, and nobody is going to like this’, and so I tossed it in the bin.“But I’m very glad I was convinced.