Gillian Anderson’s book details women’s fantasies - she revealed how it felt to write hers

The Crown's Gillian Anderson at the 76th Emmy Awards. Photo / Getty Images

The Crown and Sex Education actress, 56, released her erotic book Want in September, including the sexual fantasies of hundreds of women from around the world, including her own.

Golden Globe-winning actress and X-Files star Gillian Anderson has now revealed it “felt dirtier” writing down her sexual fantasies than it did imagining them, sharing the story during a revealing interview with British show This Morning while promoting her new book, which includes a collection of women’s anonymous fantasies.

“We’re talking aliens, we’re talking Harry Potter, Harry Styles, we’re talking robots, Bigfoot,” presenter Alison Hammond said.

“Yes, it’s true, [and] other things that I won’t necessarily mention,” Anderson confirmed.

The actress said she was surprised that there was such taboo around fantasy in 2024, despite revealing the challenges of opening up herself.

The book includes Anderson’s fantasy, and the process of penning her own anonymous letter - which she did not reveal - surprised her.

“I can hear and see quite a lot without being affected, and I was really shocked that by writing it down it felt dirtier than it was in my mind,” she told Hammond and co-host Cat Deeley.

“It is amazing in these letters to hear women talking about women getting their needs met in their own time, if they ever do, because they don’t want the awkwardness and don’t want their partner judging how it is.”

She noted letters were from a variety of women such as “young girls who are yet to have sex, women in their 70s who have never been kissed, and women who have been married for 35 years and just are exhausted by the same old same old”.

Anderson has been promoting the book, which was published on September 5, in recent months. She explained that her intention behind the book was to “understand what made women tick”.

“As an actor, there is an inherent permission at the core of my job to give myself to an alternate reality, which is the very definition of fantasy. The women whom I embody, whose worlds I step into, also have inner lives, desires and fantasies, which are vital to understanding what makes them tick.”

Want is number 1 on @thetimes Bestseller List!! F*ck yeah 🤓 Thank you everyone @BloomsburyBooks who made this possible! Thank you every single person who has purchased this book 🩷💕 pic.twitter.com/I3MU5U6GoM

— Gillian Anderson (@GillianA) September 15, 2024

Anderson is no stranger to dealing with sexual themes in her acting career.

Famous for her role as sex therapist Jean Milburn in the hit Netflix series Sex Education, she previously told The Standard that the experience of filming the show exposed her to sexual activities she had “never heard of before”.

Want skyrocketed to No 1 on the Sunday Times bestseller list when it was released in September, with Anderson thanking everyone who worked on the book on social media.

Want is currently available in New Zealand bookstores now, $38.99 for the paperback.