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

Gillian Anderson has come under fire after the actor was filmed telling a group of fans that they were “distracting” her by repeatedly sitting in the front row while she performs in London’s West End.The Sex Education and X-Files star was filmed outside the Soho Place theatre where she’s performing in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, telling a group of fans: “You guys cannot sit in the front row. I do not care; you cannot sit in the front row. It’s so distracting.”Anderson, who is playing frustrated wife Martha 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 mad.”The 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 effort to clarify her position.“The video doing the rounds is me talking with women I go back over 20 years with – so please don’t say anything negative to or about them,” she wrote on X.“We’re thrilled to be doing this show but for people in the front row, please be aware that in such an intimate venue we can all see you and sometimes, it can be a tad distracting!”Anderson signed off with: “That’s all. All good. On with the show and love to everyone and thank you to all of those coming.”It’s not the first time this year an actor has made headlines with comments about theatre etiquette. Last month, Cate Blanchett asked the audience of her National Theatre production Electra/Persona to put away their phones during curtain call.“I understand you like filming the curtain call – and it is kind of flattering in a way,” Blanchett said. “But for anyone who is filming the show, please don’t, because it spoils it for the next group of people who come in and are present with us.”Rosamund Pike criticised an audience member for texting during her West End play Inter Alia in May. “I just wanted to say for anyone going to the theatre, it’s a huge thing that we’re trying to give you,” she told the audience at Wyndham’s theatre.“Somebody was texting in this part,” she said. “You know who you are … Maybe it was very important, and maybe you’re a doctor, and you’re saving someone’s life, and I hope you are, but we do see these, we do feel them.”In April, Wicked star Cynthia Erivo halted her one-woman performance of Dracula – in which she played all 23 characters – at the Noël Coward theatre after spotting an audience member illegally recording the show.In May, The Pitt star Isa Briones told fans to stop yelling references to the medical drama during her Broadway musical Just in Time. And Kristin Scott Thomas, who is due to perform in The Cherry Orchard at the Harold Pinter theatre this month, told the Financial Times she witnessed an audience member eating “a ready meal in the front row once” – but said she still prefers theatre to screen acting, adding: “For me it is telling a story to live, breathing, coughing, eating people and trying to drag them along with you. Which I find incredibly thrilling.”Other actors, including Andrew Scott, Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman, have spoken out about the decline in theatre etiquette. Lesley Manville told BBC Radio 4 earlier this year that she finds audience members who take photos during the curtain call “insulting”.“Clap or don’t clap, but don’t just stick up your phone in our faces,” she said.It’s not just the performers who have complaints either. Theatregoers at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Tempest starring Kenneth Branagh took issue with a baby cooing and gurgling through the first half of a performance in June. The mother and baby were asked to leave the Stratford-upon-Avon theatre for the second half after audience members asked for refunds.