{"id":645768,"date":"2026-10-05T20:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T20:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/645768\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T20:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T20:08:07","slug":"we-can-all-see-you-gillian-anderson-addresses-distracting-fans-in-front-row-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/645768\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We can all see you\u2019: Gillian Anderson addresses \u2018distracting\u2019 fans in front row \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gillian Anderson<\/a> has come under fire after the actor was filmed telling a group of fans that they were \u201cdistracting\u201d her by repeatedly sitting in the front row while she performs in London\u2019s<\/a> West End.<\/p>\n

The Sex Education<\/a> and X-Files<\/a> star was filmed outside the Soho Place theatre where she\u2019s performing in Who\u2019s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, telling a group of fans: \u201cYou guys cannot sit in the front row. I do not care; you cannot sit in the front row. It\u2019s so distracting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson, who is playing frustrated wife Martha in Edward Albee\u2019s play about an unhappy marriage, then said: \u201cYou can\u2019t come 20 times and sit in the front row, it\u2019ll drive me mad.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fans, who were not shown in the video, can be heard responding to Anderson\u2019s comments with \u201cI\u2019m sorry\u201d and \u201cI know\u201d.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe video doing the rounds is me talking with women I go back over 20 years with \u2013 so please don\u2019t say anything negative to or about them,\u201d she wrote on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson signed off with: \u201cThat\u2019s all. All good. On with the show and love to everyone and thank you to all of those coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time this year an actor has made headlines with comments about theatre etiquette. Last month, Cate Blanchett<\/a> asked the audience of her production Electra\/Persona to put away their phones during curtain call.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Gillian Anderson: I want women to tell me what they think about when they think about sexOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand you like filming the curtain call \u2013 and it is kind of flattering in a way,\u201d Blanchett said. \u201cBut for anyone who is filming the show, please don\u2019t, because it spoils it for the next group of people who come in and are present with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosamund Pike<\/a> criticised an audience member for texting during her West End play Inter Alia in May. \u201cI just wanted to say for anyone going to the theatre, it\u2019s a huge thing that we\u2019re trying to give you,\u201d she told the audience .<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody was texting in this part,\u201d she said. \u201cYou know who you are \u2026 Maybe it was very important, and maybe you\u2019re a doctor, and you\u2019re saving someone\u2019s life, and I hope you are, but we do see these, we do feel them.\u201d<\/p>\n

In April, Wicked star Cynthia Erivo <\/a>halted her one-woman performance of Dracula \u2013 in which she played all 23 characters \u2013 after spotting an audience member recording the show.<\/p>\n

In May, The Pitt star Isa Briones<\/a> 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 this month, told the Financial Times she witnessed an audience member eating \u201ca ready meal in the front row once\u201d \u2013 but said she still prefers theatre to screen acting, adding: \u201cFor 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201cinsulting\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cClap or don\u2019t clap, but don\u2019t just stick up your phone in our faces,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the performers who have complaints either. Theatregoers at the Royal Shakespeare Company\u2019s 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. \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gillian Anderson has come under fire after the actor was filmed telling a group of fans that they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,44607,61,60,99],"class_list":["post-645768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gillian-anderson","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-london"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}