Actor Gillian Anderson may have given Monica Lewinsky a run for her money with her own version of a meme based on lyrics from Taylor Swift's new song "Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?" in a viral post on X, formerly Twitter.
The song is on Swift's latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, which broke a Spotify record for passing 1 billion streams in just one week yet has garnered criticism for Swift's songwriting.
The lyric is as follows:
"You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me."
People are sharing the phrase alongside images that evoke memories of haunting moments, past eras, or childhood hobbies. A few days ago, Lewinsky—who became an international punchline for having an affair with then-President Bill Clinton as a White House intern—responded by posting a picture of the White House.
You can see her post below.
But Anderson's take has also gone viral given its equally personal touch.
Anderson, who shot to fame as the female lead of The X-Files, posted a photo of herself in character as Dana Scully alongside fellow actor David Duchovny, who played Fox Mulder.
You can see her post below.
Anderson's post was a snarky callback to prior statements she made about her experience on the show, which was not always a happy one and contributed to a feeling that she perhaps never "wanted to be on a set again ever."
She confessed in a 2021 interview with Entertainment Weekly that she had "a good couple of mini breakdowns during that [her time on the show], and at the end, could not talk about it, could not see it, could not see pictures, could not."
The actor admitted the stress she experienced on set challenged her perception of her career and influenced her decision to turn to the theater, particularly in England, where she's raised her profile starring in multiple productions on the West End.
She said she "needed to immerse immediately in theater in another country" and that it was only later that she felt more confident about returning to a set.
She added:
"And then after a while, I was able to embrace it again, but when I started to embrace it, it was almost like I separated myself so much that I was looking at the image as if it was another person."
"When you immerse yourself so entirely as we can, and we do for such long periods of time, there's not going to be no consequence to that. Of course, there's going to be consequence to that."
Anderson, who grew up in both the United States and the United Kingdom, said that "in London, you could move between theater and TV, and that was always my dream."
People knew exactly what Anderson was up to and ate it up immediately.
Anderson's career has thrived since her time on The X-Files.
After pivoting to the stage and earning acclaim for different roles including her performance as Blanche DuBois in productions of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire and her take on Margo Channing in All About Eve, she garnered more praise for diverse roles in film and on television.
Anderson was lauded for her performance in the film The House of Mirth and proved herself a valuable supporting player in other productions like The Last King of Scotland.
While she has returned to the character of Dana Scully more than once, her performances in television programs as varied as The Crimson Petal and the White, Hannibal, and The Crown have raised her profile considerably. For her role as former U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on The Crown, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.