The SEX files

Why the actress nearly turned down her role in the hit series ‘Sex Education’

- Clark Collis

When Gillian Anderson was first given the script for the pilot of the critically acclaimed British comedy-drama Sex Education, she immediately tossed it away. “I read a teeny bit of the first episode and threw it in the bin,” she says. “Initially I felt that it was too on the nose.” The actress believed the setup for the show – about a professional sex therapist whose own teenage son sets up shop advising his fellow students on the subject of carnal activities – to be too obvious. Anderson’s mind was changed by her real-life partner, Peter Morgan, the creator and writer of The Crown. “Pete essentially took it out of the bin and read it and loved it, and said, ‘You’re mad. This will be really good for yo