Gillian Anderson channels her Sex Education role as she admits she enjoys getting X-rated in a tent or car and insists women shouldn't feel 'shame' in expressing sexual pleasure

Daily Mail​

22-05-2025

Gillian Anderson has taken a leaf out of her Sex Education character, Jean Milburn's book, as she confessed to enjoying having sex in 'uncomfortable tight quarters'.
The actress, 56, has become a notable supporter of female sexual empowerment, after her lauded role playing a sex therapist on the hit Netflix show.
And in a new interview, she cheekily admitted to being up for getting frisky in a tent or a car, when 'needs must'.
Gillian is next set to be seen in Marianne Elliot's big-screen adaptation of Raynor Winn's 2018 memoir, The Salt Path, which is set to be released on May 30.
The drama sees her playing Raynor opposite Jason Isaacs as her husband Moth, in the real-life story of the couple who became homeless after a business deal with a friend went wrong.
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After Moth was then diagnosed with a rare and incurable degenerative brain disease, the couple decided to make a 630-mile trek along the Cornish, Devon and Dorset coastline armed with only a tent and limited supplies.
In response to one scene in the film that sees Gillian and Isaac's characters get intimate inside their small tent, The Sunday Times probed the X-Files star on whether she would recommend the location for an amorous encounter.
A grinning Gillian affirmed: 'Well, sex in the back of a car, sex anywhere, I mean, yeah, why not? Uncomfortable, tight quarters, but needs must.'
The Scoop actress also admitted that she doesn't feel any shame in discussing sex and even released a book about women's sexual fantasies in September.
She explained that it was through doing Sex Education, filming scenes speaking openly about topics like sexual pleasure, genitalia and sexual orientation, that she first realised how comfortable she felt and how vital the conversations were.
She said: 'In playing Jean, having [sex] become a regular topic, I realised that I didn't have shame around it.
'Also, I suddenly realised the degree to which there still was so much shame around it and the degree to which the show helped many demographics blast through some of that.'
Gillian lamented that having frank conversations about sex, was still regarded as tabboo and shameful, with even couples struggling to be open with each other about their desires.
She said: 'In 2025 some of us seem to struggle to have that conversation with our partners. The conversation about "I prefer it like this" or "Can we take ten more minutes so I can actually get more pleasure out of this exchange?".
'Some of it is the fear that the partner might feel judged that they're doing something wrong, when actually that's not what you're saying.'
Gillian's book, Want, was inspired by Nancy Friday's 1973 classic My Secret Garden and compiles anonymous letters from women around the world revealing their deepest fantasies - including her own.
She previously explained that both women and men have been getting their hands on it in an effort to understand how women feel about sex when they have the freedom of being totally anonymous.
And she admitted that she had included one of her own fantasies into the book, but remained tight-lipped on which it was.
Appearing on This Morning last year, she recalled: 'I find myself talking about this topic a lot because of Sex Education and my involvement with my socials.
'But the act of actually writing particular words down, all of a sudden I froze, and I'm not prude.
'I can hear and see quite a lot without being affected and I was really shocked that by writing it down it felt dirtier than it was in my mind.'
Elsewhere in the interview, the actress added: 'What is surprising is that in 2024 there is such a taboo around fantasy and it's amazing in these letters to hear women still talk about getting their needs met in their own time - if they even do.
'Because they don't want the awkwardness, they don't want their partner to feel that they are judging how it is, they don't want to waste their time... it's really interesting isn't it?
'I'm an actor, I'm not a specialist, I'm not a therapist. I find this a fascinating topic and what I'm learning from the women who are talking to me is that there is a space and a need for this conversation to happen.
'Men are buying this book, not just for themselves to have a deeper understanding of the internal workings of women and what they want and maybe how they can help them get what they want.
'But also I've had men say to me that they've bought it for their daughters to counterbalance the toxic masculinity that's out there.'
Reflecting on the fantasies included in the novel, she added: 'They are on another level but there's also so much tenderness.
'Young girls who are yet to have sex, women in their seventies who have never been kisses, women who have been married for 35 years and just are exhausted by the same old same old.'
Gillian has previously delved into the shame that still surrounds women's desires, finding it 'shocking' that many women, including herself, still feel inhibited about expressing them, even in private.
She also admitted it felt surreal to be voted the world's sexiest woman in 1996, as there was a stark contrast between her glamorous pin-up magazine covers and her daily reality - which involved juggling work with motherhood.
Speaking to The Guardian, she said: 'It felt so preposterous to me. If you saw my life and where I am half the time, between work and set and kids and driving and drop-offs and pick-ups and all that sort of stuff – the fact that you'd end up with those pictures is just so…
'It's just part of the fantasy. It doesn't feel like it represents me at all.'
Gillian - who dated The Crown creator Peter Morgan for four years - expressed the project aimed to unify and encourage self-acceptance among women and encourage more openness and understanding, despite the cultural taboos that still linger.
Reflecting on her career, Gillian credited her role as the unapologetic confident DS Stella Gibson in The Fall for helping her step into her own sexual power in her 40s.
She said: 'Like only in the last three or four years have I felt comfortable enough in my own skin... to reveal more of that aspect of me.'
Now, as she approaches 60, Gillian admitted that she is embracing a new chapter in her life, both professionally and personally.
The mother-of-three revealed she is trying to set an example for women everywhere that it is never too late to start something new.