Netflix star Gillian Anderson 'haunted by ghost of Margaret Thatcher' after The Crown role

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TV and film star Gillian Anderson, 54, has revealed she couldn't get the Iron Lady out of her head after playing Margaret Thatcher in the popular Netflix show The Crown

Netflix star Gillian Anderson has revealed she was haunted by Margaret Thatcher after her role in The Crown (

Image: NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images via Getty Images)

As FBI agent Dana Scully, Gillian Anderson probed the world's strangest mysteries.

But now she has her own X File... she's haunted by the ghost of Maggie Thatcher.

Gillian, 54, played the former prime minister in Netflix hit The Crown.

But she says the voice and mannerisms she adopted have become second nature, and are even appearing in new roles.

The actress said, "She stayed a little longer than she was welcome to."

Gillian couldn't stop Maggie from speaking out when she played Dr. Jean Milburn in Sex Education, another Netflix hit.

Actress says she is haunted by Margaret Thatcher after portraying her in The Crown (

Picture:

Des Willies/Netflix)

She said: "I realized I was watching Sex Ed - which I started a month after finishing The Crown - in a few places there were still remnants of Thatcher in the Jean scenes. "

Gillian said she rehearsed so thoroughly to play the divisive ex-Prime Minister that the role was now part of her "muscle memory".

Speaking to the Christmas edition of Total Film magazine, she said: "It has to, at some point, become muscle memory.

"I started with research…listening to interviews, beginning to hear the rhythm of his voice.