Gillian Anderson almost passed on playing professional sex therapist Jean Milburn on the critically acclaimed British comedy-drama Sex Education.
The former X-Files star told Entertainment Weekly that the first thing she did after reading the script for the pilot was throw it in the trash. “I read a teeny bit of the first episode and threw it in the bin,” she told EW. “Initially I felt that it was too on the nose.”
But all that changed after Anderson’s real-life partner, creator of The Crown, Peter Morgan, read the script and set to change her mind. “Pete essentially took it out the bin and read it and loved it, and said, ‘You’re mad. This will be really good for you to do.’ I read it and I thought it was hilarious.”
And now that Sex Education is a huge success, Anderson added: “he does keep reminding me that the success of it is all down to him.”
Season 2 of Sex Education is now streaming on Netflix.
