The actress portrayed British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on the hit Netflix series.
While there may be a huge clamoring from fans of The Crown to continue telling the royal family's story despite the series ending after six masterful seasons, don't count Gillian Anderson among those people.
The 55-year-old actress, who portrayed British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in season 4 of the hit Netflix series, says the storyline came to an end at exactly the right time, and it had everything to do with timing.
"Oh, no. I think it probably ended at the right spot," said Anderson when ET's Kevin Frazier asked if she wanted to see more of The Crown. "It was getting too close to present-day. It's much easier when it was further in the past, and I think people didn't have necessarily a direct relationship with the people on the screen."
Anderson contends that the storyline was catching up to present-day royals, and even if there was some truth to how they were being portrayed in the series "the more outraged seemed to spring up."
The sixth and final season of The Crown wrapped up in December when Netflix dropped the final six episodes. The final episode was set in 2005 -- nearly 17 years before Queen Elizabeth's death in September 2022.
The series paid homage to the brilliant women who played Elizabeth -- from Imelda Staunton to Claire Foy and Olivia Colman, who previously portrayed the queen at different points in her life in seasons 1 through 2 and seasons 3 through 4, respectively.
Anderson was also among the brilliant women who shined in the series. In fact, her deft portrayal of the famed Prime Minister earned her her first Primetime Emmy in 24 years.
Her latest project also centers around a royal, sort of speak. In Netflix's Scoop, Anderson portrays BBC journalist Emily Maitlis, who grills Prince Andrew (Rufus Sewell) about his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The explosive interview aired in 2019 on Newsnight and the interview had immediate ramifications, as Andrew announced he would step back from royal duties just days after the BBC broadcast the interview.
Scoop comes at a delicate time for the royals as they continue to grapple with Kate Middleton's shocking cancer diagnosis, not to mention King Charles III dealing with his own undisclosed cancer diagnosis, too.
"It's a moment where we understand they have asked for a bit of peace and quiet around what they're experiencing and it feels like that's the least we can do," Anderson says. "It's a complicated relationship that the royal family has with the press... I think in this instance with this latest double-whammy of news the least that people can do is give them a bit of a break and let the headlines settle down for them, to process this as the human beings that they actually are."
That being said, Scoop is less about Prince Andrew's bombshell interview and more about the valiant women (including editor Esme Wren and portrayed by Romola Garai) who tirelessly worked alongside producer Sam McAlister (Billie Piper) to land the coveted interview.
Scoop, directed by Philip Martin (The Crown), drops April 5 on Netflix.
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