Gillian Anderson responds to backlash after telling ‘distracting’ fans to stop sitting in the front row | Gillian Anderson

Gillian Anderson has been criticized after the actor was filmed telling a group of fans they were “distracting” her by repeatedly sitting in the front row while she performed in London’s West End.

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Anderson, who plays Martha, the frustrated wife in Edward Albee’s play about an unhappy marriage, then said: “You can’t come 20 times and sit in the front row, it’ll drive me crazy.”

Fans, who were not shown in the video, can be heard responding to Anderson’s comments with “I’m sorry” and “I know.”

After the video was uploaded to TikTok, the 58-year-old actor shared a statement on social media in an attempt to clarify his position.

“The video circulating is me talking to women I lived with over 20 years ago – so please don’t say anything negative about or about them,” she wrote on X.

“We’re excited to be doing this show, but for those in the front row, please know that in such an intimate venue we can all see you and sometimes that can be a little distracting!”

Anderson finished with: “That’s it. Everything’s fine. Keep the show going and I love everyone and thank you to everyone who came.”

This isn’t the first time this year that an actor has made headlines with comments about theater etiquette. Last month, Cate Blanchett asked the audience at her National Theater production of Electra/Persona to put their phones away during the encore.

“I understand you enjoy filming the encore — and that’s kind of flattering in a way,” Blanchett said. “But for everyone who is filming the show, please don’t do it because it will ruin the scene for the next group of people who come in and are there with us.”

Rosamund Pike slammed an audience member for texting during her play Inter Alia in the West End in May. “I just wanted to say to everyone who goes to the theater that we’re trying to give you a huge thing,” she told the Wyndham Theater audience.

“Someone was texting at the time,” she said. “You know who you are… Maybe it was a big deal, and maybe you’re a doctor and you’re saving someone’s life, and I hope that’s the case, but we see them, we feel them.”

In April, Wicked star Cynthia Erivo cut short her solo performance of Dracula – in which she played all 23 characters – at the Noël Coward Theater after spotting an audience member illegally recording the performance.

In May, The Pitt star Isa Briones asked her fans to stop shouting references to the medical drama during her Broadway musical Just in Time. And Kristin Scott Thomas, who is due to star in The Cherry Orchard at the Harold Pinter Theater this month, told the Financial Times that she saw a member of the audience eating “a meal prepared in the front row once” – but said she still preferred theater to cinema, adding: “For me it’s telling a story about living, breathing, coughing, eating people and trying to drag them along with you.” Which I find incredibly exciting.

Other actors, including Andrew Scott, Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman, have spoken out against the decline of theater etiquette. Lesley Manville told BBC Radio 4 earlier this year that she found members of the public taking photos during the encore “insulting”.

“Clap or don’t clap, but don’t just shove your phone in our faces,” she said.

Artists aren’t the only ones complaining. Audiences at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Tempest, starring Kenneth Branagh, took issue with a baby’s coos and gurgles during the first half of a performance in June. The mother and baby were asked to leave the Stratford-upon-Avon theater for the second half after audience members demanded a refund.