Actress Gillian Anderson has discussed the challenging effects of the specific anxiety felt by women in a new interview, revealing she’s “felt paralysed by fear” in the past.

Speaking to The Observer about the book she is co-writing on female empowerment, WE: A Manifesto for Women Everywhere, Anderson explains how she believes many women feel held back by fear – and that it is something she has experienced herself: “I have at times felt paralysed by fear, yes. Whether work-related or life-related.

“What I do know is that if I don’t get up when my alarm goes off, if I stay in bed even for an extra five minutes, I will be in trouble – my worries will take over. I’ve got kids to get me up, but I know that if I didn’t, my head might start spinning, and that affects every aspect of my life: how I relate to my family, how I move out into the world, how the expression behind my eyes in the photo shoot is.”

Anderson, who is returning to TV screens as FBI agent Dana Scully in nineties favourite The X-Files this month as well as filming the third series of BBC's The Fall and performing on stage in New York, also touched upon the topic of women ageing in the notoriously harsh acting industry – revealing how she was once reduced to tears.

“I have at times felt paralysed by fear” Gillian Anderson on dealing with anxiety and going grey