Gillian Anderson has revealed the intimate fantasies in her latest project Want – a volume of anonymous female correspondence about sexual desire.
The actress, 56, seems to have embodied her sex positive character from Sex Education as she delves into a range of women’s fantasies in the book and reveals she is ‘very comfortable’ talking about intimacy.
Inspired by Nancy Friday’s 1973 classic My Secret Garden, the book compiles anonymous letters from women revealing their deepest fantasies, one which even features Harry Styles himself.
Speaking to the BBC ahead of the book’s release on Thursday, Gillian confessed there is one fantasy which features ‘very hot, sensual, passionate sex’ with the Watermelon Sugar High hitmaker.
Other fantasies include one contributor who is forbidden from stepping up to the altar in a church due to their Orthodox religion.
Gillian Anderson has revealed the intimate fantasies in her latest project Want which includes ‘passionate sex’ with Harry Styles, religious romps and voyeurism
Speaking to the BBC ahead of the book’s release on Thursday, Gillian confessed their is one fantasy which features ‘very hot, sensual, passionate sex’ with the Watermelon Sugar High hitmaker
Therefore their fantasy is about getting intimate on an altar in an abandoned church.
Encouraging women to be completely honest and open, others include fantasies of sex with strangers as well as being turned on by the idea of voyeurism.
Gillian explained: ‘What I was most interested in was the joy and the enjoyment that the women had clearly in writing, how much it opened them up to understanding themselves more, it seemed.
‘Ultimately, this is not my book. This is the book of every woman who contributed.’
While Want includes the fantasies of 174 anonymous women, Gillian has also slotted in her own.
However the X Files star, who was voted the world’s sexiest woman in 1996, admitted even she struggled to express her own sexual fantasy in words for the book.
‘Suddenly describing the imagery that’s been in my head for a while and the action of doing that, added a level of intimacy that I wouldn’t have expected, and I wouldn’t have expected myself to be so shy around it,’ explained Gillian.
She also revealed she received 1,800 anonymous submissions from women around the world and has categorised the chosen submissions into 13 chapters including ‘To Be Worshipped’, ‘Exploration’, ‘Power and Submission’ and ‘The Watchers and the Watched’.
Inspired by Nancy Friday’s 1973 classic My Secret Garden, Want compiles anonymous letters from women revealing their deepest fantasies
Gillian explained: ‘What I was most interested in was the joy and the enjoyment that the women had clearly in writing, how much it opened them up to understanding themselves more, it seemed’
Gillian plays sex therapist Jean in the Netflix success Sex Education and has admitted she feels ‘very comfortable’ talking about initimacy (pictured with her on screen son Asa Butterfield)
The contributors were self-selecting and anonymous detailing only sexual identity, age, income, relationship status.
Gillian also encourages particularly young people to read her book as it helps shine a light on different versions of sex outside the lens of the porn industry.
She added that the book focuses on tenderness, romance, and women wanting to be seen for themselves.
Other women said they found it hard to determine the difference between their fantasies and the ones the porn industry tell them to have.
One fantasy reads: ‘I found it so difficult to understand what truly my own fantasies are. So much of what is played out in porn is geared towards men, and so many expectations set on us as women, that I have a very difficult time navigating what really turns me on versus how I feel I should perform.’
Speaking in an interview with The Guardian last month the star 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.
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.’
The star admitted it felt surreal to be voted the world’s sexiest woman in 1996, explaining it was in stark contrast to her daily reality (pictured in 1997 at the SAG Awards)
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
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.
Gillian lives in London with her teenage sons, Oscar and Felix, who she had with ex-partner, Mark Griffiths.
She is also mother to her older daughter, Piper, who she had in her 20s with her first husband, Clyde Klotz, an art director she met on the set of The X-Files.