Why Gillian Anderson Was the Queen of the Spooky 90s Photoshoot
In her X-Files days, the Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma star was featured in iconic editorials for the likes of Rolling Stone and Us Magazine
by Alex Kaan 9 August 2026
Rolling Stone
In honour of her 58th birthday, we’re looking back on Gillian Anderson’s grim yet glamorous 90s photoshoots.
Skyrocketing to fame with her starring role as special agent Dana Scully on the TV phenomenon The X-Files, Anderson was featured in several sci-fi and horror-themed editorials in the span of less than a year, from paying homage to Creature from the Black Lagoon for an iconic Rolling Stone shoot to cosplaying as Morticia Addams for Us Magazine.
The most famous of these was the February 1997 Rolling Stone cover story by their chief photographer at the time, Mark Seliger. The shoot saw the creature from the classic 1954 monster movie seize Anderson, who, wearing a bright red dress, looked to the camera in open-mouthed horror. Another image featured X-Files creator Chris Carter removing the creature mask, suggesting that he had been inside the costume the whole time.
Rolling Stone
Anderson worked with Seliger again on a May 1997 joint cover story with her X-Files co-star David Duchovny. Highlights from the shoot include a straight-faced Anderson holding a playful Duchovny, sticking his tongue out while wearing a pink skirt, and a morbid still of the pair posing as corpses in a morgue.
Us Magazine
A mere five months later, Anderson would again grace the cover of US Magazine, this time with a solo photoshoot. Working with Seliger, she posed as a red-haired Morticia Addams opposite Cousin Itt, while also wielding a human-sucking vacuum.
Us Magazine
Before the year’s end, Anderson’s December 1997 Allure cover story paired her with another renowned photographer, David LaChapelle, and put her at the heart of a sci-fi shoot filled with little pink aliens, foreign planets, and an uncanny background of multi-coloured eyes.
Allure Magazine
Anderson curerntly starts in Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, returning to the horror genre to play a reclusive final girl from an 80s slasher franchise who develops an intense romantic relationship with the young quer filmmaker rebooting the franchise (Hannah Einbinder).