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About The Production - Casting The Film

Gillian Anderson plays Eleanor Johnson, the PR doyenne of New York who represents both Sophie Maes and Vincent Lepak. Stephen Woolley says: "We had no idea that we could get somebody as great as Gillian to play Eleanor. She's a terrific actress, as she's proven on the stage in London, in Bleak House on TV, and of course in movies, in Terence Davies' film, she was absolutely fantastic. The interesting thing about Gillian Anderson is that, despite the amazing career she's had - of course all the episodes of The X Files - she has rarely played humor. So she brings a great sense of sophistication to the role of Eleanor.

"Eleanor is in the sassy Bette Davis mould. I always think about, whenever I see Eleanor in her costume strutting around the office, Davis in All About Eve - that sort of cutting, clever wit, and that sort of obsession, so self-obsessed and yet so seemingly caring about other people. She doesn't simply see Sophie Maes as just another instant meal ticket. She grooms her! Eleanor's very cagey, very sensitive, very sly, very attractive, and I think Gillian brings all those things to the part.

"There was a little bit of a concern about Gillian being kind of too attractive, because she's a gorgeous person and a knock-out, but I think she's played it so perfectly that you really can't like her very much. She comes across, from the first moment you meet her, as being just not the kind of person you want to hang out with"

Gillian was primarily drawn to the script, she comments: "It was witnessing a purely funny script which doesn't happen very often. I'd recently become a fan of Bob's after having been exposed, ten years on, to Curb Your Enthusiasm for the first time. The attachment of Simon, who I've been a big fan of for a while, also helped"

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After another four hours sleep, we were up and at 'em and headed for NYC and Late Night With David Letterman. Mercifully, I slept on the plane and thus charged my batteries for my final press engagement of the Spaced Invasion tour. Got into the Bowery Hotel, showered, went out and bought a shirt, met up with my friend Tony, then went to The Ed Sullivan Theatre. Got to my dressing room to find a message from Gillian Anderson scrawled on my mirror in lipstick: PEGG - I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE NOT COMING TO MY FILM. DIE SCUMBAG!!! - DANA. I was supposed to be going to the X-Files premiere when I got home but couldn't go because we had friends from LA getting in that day for Nick's wedding on Friday.

Letterman went well, with me grossing out the audience with talk of snogging my dog (anything for comedy, right?). I then posed for a few photos outside, said a quick hello to Gillian, before being whisked off to JFK to fly home.

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