Gillian Anderson Reveals The Intimate Way She Once Connected With Bill Clinton
Gillian Anderson may be portraying former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt on her new Showtime series, "The First Lady," but she told Jimmy Kimmel on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" she's only met one President of the United States once. It was Bill Clinton, it was 1992, and as Anderson told the story, it was kind of an intimate introduction.
Anderson will be playing Eleanor Roosevelt on Showtime's upcoming series "The First Lady." However, according to her at least, she's much too short for the role. "Isn't it nice to be at a point in your career where somebody offers you a pretty great part and you're like, 'Are you guys sure? I don't know if I'm sold,'" Kimmel joked when Anderson said she wasn't sure if she was the right person to play the iconic former first lady. Anderson is only listed as 5 feet, 3 inches by Celeb Heights. The longest-serving first lady in American history was a towering 5 feet, eleven inches.
Now Anderson is an accomplished star with an OBE, but back in the early '90s, she was as capable of being starstruck as anyone else.
Gillian Anderson thought Bill Clinton might have called her
Gillian Anderson told Jimmy Kimmel that she met Bill Clinton in some receiving line at a fancy fundraiser back when he was running for president the first time — and there was maybe even a bit of flirtation going on. "He did the most miraculous thing in the world, you know, where he shakes your hand, then he grabs your elbow and at the same time he holds your arm further up, a slightly intimate little thing," Anderson said. "And he makes eye contact. And he moves on to the next person. Then he looks back at you." Kimmel agreed that he experienced almost the same thing when he met Clinton — only Kimmel didn't get the glance back.
Anderson said she was so taken with him, "I literally thought that I was going to go home to a message from him. I did. It was that real." Kimmel joked that the then-future president's message must have gotten lost. But while Anderson and Clinton may not have made a real love connection, that little bit of eye-contact was enough to get her to vote for him for President.
Anderson probably didn't know then that in 2016 she would be telling her fans to vote for Clinton's wife, Hillary Clinton, for president, writing on her Instagram: "Regardless of your feelings about Hillary, a vote for Hillary is a vote for the rights of women everywhere." Life's funny that way.