The Ghost Of Margaret Thatcher Haunted Gillian Anderson's Performance In Sex Education

Though we may always know and love her as Dana Scully, Gillian Anderson has been turning in consistently great and versatile TV performances lately, reminding us exactly why we love seeing her on our screens. Her two most notable Netflix roles could not be more different, and yet they perfectly highlight the amount of range Anderson offers as an actor. In season 4 of the awards season darling, "The Crown," which follows the interpersonal drama and exploits of the British Royal Family, she portrayed the ruthless "Iron Lady" herself, Margaret Thatcher. Her turn on "The Crown" earned her high accolades, including an Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe win for her supporting performance.

Closely after filming season 4 of "The Crown," Anderson returned to her regular role on her other prominent Netflix show, "Sex Education." In the coming-of-age teen comedy, Anderson plays Doctor Jean Milburn, a renowned sex therapist and the caring mother of her socially awkward teenager, Otis (Asa Butterfield). Despite the fact that many of the show's lead actors are pursuing their own projects (who else is excited to see Ncuti Gatwa play the Doctor?), season 4 of "Sex Education" has been filming and is currently on track for an early 2023 release.

In the 2023 Preview issue of Total Film magazine, Anderson was interviewed about her past credits and what to look out for in the upcoming season of "Sex Education." During that discussion, she revealed that when looking back on her performance as Jean Milburn after she filmed "The Crown," she noticed that Margaret Thatcher "stayed a bit longer than she was welcome."

When asked about inhabiting characters with distinct dialects and mannerisms, Gillian Anderson explained that to some degree, she needs to get to the point of "muscle memory" because a big struggle for her personally is connecting the voice in her mind with the mannerisms she's performing. When revisiting "Sex Education" after shooting "The Crown," she noticed some habits were hard to break:

"[Margaret Thatcher] is probably still in there somewhere. It took a little while. I realised when watching 'Sex Ed' — which I went into a month after I'd finished 'The Crown' — that in a couple of places there were still remnants of Thatcher in a couple of Jean's scenes."

Anderson's revelation made for a humorous transition into discussing where she is taking Jean in the fourth season of "Sex Education." When we last left the character, Jean was pregnant and had just decided to enter a co-parenting relationship with her ex-partner, Jakob (Mikael Persbrandt). By the end of the season, Jean has finally given birth to her new baby. This is a sharp right turn from the often emotionally guarded, technical-minded character we first met in the show. She's still fierce and independent, but her relationship with Jakob has led her to tear some of her walls down.

It can't be easy for Jean to deal with all that's facing her — becoming a mother once again at a later stage in life, healing from her past relationship with her unfaithful husband while getting into a unique one with Jakob, and finding her needs are at odds with her sensitive son. "I'm not sure she is coping," Gillian Anderson told Total Film. "Let's just say that. She's having a bit of a struggle."

Anderson points out that even though Jean has evolved in an unexpected direction since we initially met her, there are parts of her that feel more universal and relatable this time around. She shared with Total Film how Jean has changed since the show's first season:

"She's very different than how she started. And I've probably taken that to more of an extreme than perhaps it is even on the page. But she's a woman in her fifties with a newborn baby. She's in perimenopause. She's a single mother without a job. And so I think that the way that she presents now feels more recognizable than maybe imagining how we first met Jean. As a sex therapist she was fun to watch, and fun to imagine. And yet: What percentage of the population have been in that situation?"

Season 4 of "Sex Education" has no release date yet, but it's currently expected to premiere in early 2023. In the meantime, why not rewatch the show and try to find those hints of Margaret Thatcher that jump out in Anderson's performance?