Gillian's Scully effect 'WOMEN ARE IN SCIENCE BECAUSE OF ME!'

The X Files star has taken the path less travelled in her career and found true believers along the way

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So stepping into the sturdy hiking boots of her latest character Raynor Winn – in the biopic The Salt Path – was a surprise move for the Hollywood A-lister.

When it comes to walking, Gillian Anderson isn't what you'd call a huge fan. In fact, a leisurely trot around the block with her beloved labradoodle Stella is pretty much where she draws the line.

For the role, The X Files star, 56, rambled up hill and down dale, trekked across windswept beaches, teetered on rugged clifftops and sheltered from the elements in forest hollows.

And then there was the cumbersome backpack.

“It was more challenging than the Thatcher wig,” she laughs, in reference to her previous role as the former British prime minister in The Crown.

“It was a thing in and of itself. My character Ray carried her water right behind her head, which sloshes back and forth the whole time. Then there are plates and the cups, and everything dangling off. The whole thing is like you’ve got another human with you that’s kind of following you.”

But right from the start – when she read the memoir the movie is based on - Gillian knew she simply had to do it.

“I had read the book and was really profoundly affected by it,” she says.