It took Gillian Anderson 5 years to get all the hype after 'The X-Files' ended

Gillian Anderson is the best known The X-FilesBut he admits there was a time when he didn't really appreciate the sci-fi phenomenon.

“Because when you're doing something like that, everybody's like, 'Oh my God. The show. Oh my God. It's the most amazing. [thing]!' And you don't want to hear anymore. You don't,” he said in a recent episode Smartless podcast, which is hosted by fellow actors Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes.

And then, it hit her.

“I suddenly got what they were talking about, like five years after the show ended,” Anderson said. “I was kind of like, 'Yeah. That was kind of cool. I was on this really cool show.'”

The X-Files Originally aired from 1993 to 2002, before being revived in 2016, when it ran for two more seasons. Mostly, she played Dana Scully, an FBI agent partnered with David Duchovny's Fox Mulder, to investigate unsolved cases on the 15-time Emmy-winning series.

Anderson said he needed some space after so long in the role.

“You know what happens when you, you're on a long-running show when everything is so enmeshed and not just brutal, but you literally feel like you're there, you're living and breathing, you know, the whole crew, the whole experience, ” he said “And so I think by the time we were done — you know, we did nine years — and I think I was ready for it to be over.”

Sign up for Entertainment WeeklyIts free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars and more.

Anderson said that, for a while, he had “compartmentalized” the series.

“I wanted to get out of it and start doing things that I thought were going to be my career before I said yes to that job,” he said. “You know, I imagined that I would film Merchant Ivory, and I imagined that I would do all of this. You know? And so I really wanted, on the one hand, to forget what had happened and bounce back from the things that I really wanted to do. It's off.”

Anderson previously said she appreciates what the show has done for her career, even though it was unexpected.

“I was so green in the beginning, and so young, and I was just exploring,” she said diversity In January 2018. “I showed up and hit my mark and learned my lines and got pulled into this whirlwind of this hit show. It was my first professional, proper gig, and it was kind of a cannon.”

Outside of playing Scully, Anderson has appeared in roles such as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Crown 2020, 2022 Showtime Series Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt first lady, and as sex therapist Gene Milburn on Netflix sex education (2019-2023) series.