She was Special Agent Dana Scully in The X-Files. She portrayed Margaret Thatcher in The Crown. She brought to life Dr. Jean Milburn in Sex Education and had something like a second sexual awakening while preparing for her role and reading My Secret Garden, Nancy Friday's book that was a milestone in the seventies.
Actress Gillian Anderson has now decided to update women's sexual fantasies with the eloquent title Want, in which she contributes with her own unfulfilled and lascivious desire. The reader is challenged to find it camouflaged among 170 anonymous stories gathered and selected from 1,800 by the 56-year-old actress, who was chosen in 1996 by the men's magazine FHM as "the sexiest woman in the world."
Gillian Anderson's appeal has been vital in turning Want, with its suggestive pink covers, into the current publishing phenomenon in the British Isles. "It's interesting to see how sexual fantasies continue to be a taboo despite series like Sex Education or Euphoria," she warns. "Not to mention the onslaught of the porn industry bombarding us with images at all hours in our faces, on screens, and on phones."
A woman fantasizes about making love tied to her dentist's chair. Another betrays her religious upbringing by fornicating on the altar of an abandoned church. Another imagines herself in the shadows of a pub in an orgy with waiters. Another engages with a nonchalant robot that fulfills all her desires. Yet, some dream of something as simple as their husband doing the laundry and telling them how beautiful they are instead of focusing on their double chin.
"My greatest sexual desire is dominance and worship", confesses another. "I want to feel like a powerful goddess. Nothing turns me on more than seeing a pathetic, whimpering man bowing down to each and every one of my whims."
A young woman who admits to being a virgin confesses that she fantasizes all the time about her boss: "I've always wanted someone to exert authority over me, to tell me what to do. I imagine having rough sex with him at the end of a workday. I even fantasize about him punishing me for messing up an important project."
Submission, More and More, Slowly Slowly... The entire galaxy of female fantasies - "less visual and more emotional" than men's fantasies, according to psychologist Susan Young - unfolds in 400 pages where there is also room for extreme domination with violent undertones...
"We have rejected letters with content bordering on illegality, bestiality, or incest", warns Gillian Anderson, in her role as editor and introducer of each chapter. In most fantasies, she notes, it is, however, the woman "who takes control, who decides how, when, how much, and with whom, when to stop and when to continue. Ultimately, it is an admission of empowerment and a revelation."
"Fantasies are vital as escape routes," warns former Cosmopolitan director Linda Kelsey, highlighting how women's sexual desires in the 21st century are surprisingly very similar to the contents of My Secret Garden, which caused a sort of collective sigh of relief: "Thank God I'm not the only one!"
Gillian Anderson, born in Chicago and invested as a Dame of the Order of the British Empire ("my genes are American, but my soul is British"), indeed takes on the role of a dominant matriarch in the female western The Abandons, which will soon be aired on Netflix. BBC presenter Katie Razzall challenged her in a recent TV duel to reveal which of the 170 stories included in "Want" is autobiographical. The shot backfired: "No way, my fantasy will remain anonymous."