Gillian Anderson, who plays Margaret Thatcher in the fourth season of The Crown, had never experienced anything as grand as being part of this series. Taking on the role of Great Britain’s first female Prime Minister was also a welcome challenge that made the former star of the X-Files series transform her looks, mannerisms and speech patterns to portray a woman whom the world knew as the Iron Lady, and who ruled her nation with a strong hand for 11 years. It was an exciting history lesson, too, and an exciting journey into a powerful woman’s mind. We spoke to Gillian from her home in London.

You play Margaret Thatcher in The Crown – a character that people all over the world of a certain age know very well. What were your thoughts about this from the time when you got the role to when you were finally putting on the wig and fat suit and actually stepping into her shoes? Was it a bit daunting?

I did not actually know all that much. I don’t think I had ever properly paid attention to where she was from or what her background was, or really known much about her at all. It was a big education to jump in and do research. The research process can be fun. It’s fun to dive into the beginning, middle and end of somebody’s life and I found that really enjoyable. Then the process of working with the wardrobe team and hair and make-up team to put together a look can also be a really enjoyable process, and it very much feels like a collaboration. So at the end, when you have shoes like hers and costumes and wig to look like her, you slowly but surely start to feel like her from the inside.

Doing your research, was it like a history lesson for you where you also read about her political views and her political achievements?

Yes, I read about her whole life. Her life as a child. Where she grew up. Her relationship with her mother and father, which had a big impact not only on her childhood but on her as Prime Minister, and affected how she felt about many things and how she ran some of her policies; it also affected her in terms of her radical thinking, which was partly based on Methodism, which was how she was brought up. So a lot of it was getting an understanding of how she got to be the woman that she was, and what her motivation was.

She was called the Iron Lady. Did you come to agree with this term used for her after getting to know her as intimately as you did?

Yes, I think there were a lot of different aspects of her and there was certainly a part of her that made this make sense. She was as hard as iron sometimes. I think it was the Russians who gave her that nickname. She decided to turn it into a compliment. There were many different sides to her, and that is what Peter created since we are actually talking about a character that was developed for a television series: it is not a biopic about the individual. Peter’s version of her feels like a much more three-dimensional human being than maybe what the name Iron Lady or some of the other names that she was called over time suggests. She is more three-dimensional than how we have seen her before.

The script depicts her as a woman with a lot of wit and humor and also some warmth – for instance, she insisted on being close to her husband when going to bed. Was this what you, too, found when you did your research?

I don’t know if I would use the word “warmth,” and I am not sure she necessarily comes across as warm at all in the show. I think that the character as you see her in the series certainly has an intimacy with Denis that is warm, but I am not entirely sure that it is actual warmth that we see between them, and I don’t think that you see that projected anywhere else. But she does have a sense of humor. I am not sure she got other people’s sense of humor, but she did have a sense of humor herself and she was very quick-witted: very often when people were trying to make fun of her, she would in an instant turn it around into a joke. It would not necessarily be a joke on them, but it certainly added humor to something that was meant much more sharply. You do see some of that in the series.

There is a scene where Margaret Thatcher is posing with her parliament. She is in the center of the picture surrounded by men in dark suits. Can you imagine what it was like being the only woman in this kind of work environment with powerful men around her?

As I understand it, it sounds like at the beginning, even though she had been in opposition for some time, she found it challenging, and it took a little while for her to find her footing. But as much as she found herself immersed in an entirely men’s world if she had issues with that, she did not then do herself any favors by bringing in more women. I think she thrived in that space, and I think she believed that she could handle it and that if there were anybody who was able to handle it, it would be her. I don’t think she thought that any other woman would be able to cope. She thought that only she was confident enough.

We see her out of her comfort zone at the royal family’s vacation house, and she apparently had a difficult relationship with the Queen. What is your impression of her relationship with the royals?

In terms of the Queen, Thatcher was a monarchist, and grew up a monarchist, and had a lot of respect and sense of loyalty for the institution. At the same time, I think she and the Queen were both aware of how different they were as women: even though there were some similarities in terms of faith and age, I think the way they both operated, and the nature of their work and the way they approached their jobs, was entirely different, and I think that sometimes they might have rubbed each other the wrong way. It was a longstanding relationship where they had weekly meetings. and I am sure that, as with any relationship that runs overtime, there was going to be a strain. There was a lot of upheaval at the time Thatcher was in office, and I think they both did incredibly well.

The creator of the show, Peter Morgan, suggests that both the Queen and the Prime Minister – the most powerful women in Britain at the time – were menopausal at that time and that this could have affected their relationship. What are your thoughts on this?

It is a joke that is made by Thatcher’s husband. That doesn’t make it true. That is the only time that it is referred to. But certainly, most women do enter menopause at that age, and I have to imagine that for either of them – and in particular for Thatcher – if that were going on at the same time, she was not of the type of personality to stop and try to figure out or indulge her emotions or her feelings or any of that. So I am sure that if that was her experience, it came out in different ways. I am sure no one will ever have that information, but I guess, for both of them, to have the responsibilities that they both had, and not to either be able to or be expected to talk about that, or even hint that there might be something going on – that could only add to the strain for both of them, and also make us feel a little bit more compassionate towards them both.  

The Crown is an amazing production in all regards. Talk about being on location or being in the studio where the real places were recreated. How was it being part of something as grand as this?

It was pretty amazing. I am not sure if I have ever been on a project that is as grand and grown-up as this is. Even before I joined, when Peter and I would visit a set together, it was obvious just from visiting that it had something really special about it. It was really friendly and calm and well-run, and I think anybody who has worked on it feels very, very lucky to have had the opportunity to do so. I feel incredibly grateful and pleased to have gotten a chance to be involved in it.

You are in a relationship with the creator of the show, Peter Morgan. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this?

We found a really good balance. We decided not to talk about it too much during the filming of it. Directing is such a huge part of his life every minute of every day. Therefore, it has become a big part of my life too, whether I am working on a project or not, and so to that degree, nothing had changed. But we had specifically decided not to talk about this season, not about concerns or opinions, or about anything really. We kept things to ourselves because it felt like it was important to have those boundaries, both to protect our relationship and to protect ourselves as individuals. That worked for us. We were pleased at the end that we survived it and enjoyed what collaboration there was in working together, and look forward to the next one.

Now, that you are done shooting the show and it is airing, are you and he having different conversations about it now? Are you allowed to talk about it?

Oh yes! I think it became easier to talk about once we realized that I had done an OK job. I think if I had not done an OK job, it would have been harder to talk about. But given that it looked like it was going to be OK, and that I was going to be OK, we found we could then discuss it; and sometimes if I saw a scene, it was OK to say, “You know what, I think there is a better take than that,” or, “There’s another take where I walk more like Thatcher – could you please ask them to use that?”