Before becoming Dana Scully and spending years investigating unexplained phenomena on The X-Files, Gillian Anderson found herself in a teenage episode that could easily have ended up in one of those files.
The actress recounted that, as a teenager, she was arrested after breaking into her school in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at night. As she recently revealed, she was under the influence of crystal meth. The story appeared in episode 412 of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, which aired on August 17, 2026. In the episode, Anderson reflected on a period of her teenage years she had previously described as quite chaotic. The arrest wasn’t entirely unknown to the public; what she did add this time was the detail of what she had taken.
And no, that isn’t the only drug experience from those years Anderson has recently talked about: while promoting her new movie, the actress recalled a terrible experience with marijuana and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre that, she says, virtually kept her away from horror movies for decades.
Methamphetamine, High School, and a Failed Escape Attempt
The conversation with Conan O’Brien began with a rather prophetic detail: in high school, Anderson’s classmates had voted her “most likely to be arrested.” “And then you made good on that,” O’Brien remarked. Anderson confirmed it.
She said she and some others went to the school in the early hours of the morning with a peculiar plan: to glue the locks shut so the building couldn’t be opened the next day. O’Brien called the prank “aggressive.” Anderson replied that… yes. Basically, “that was kind of me at that time.”
It was her punk phase. Anderson wore pointed boots with buckles and a particularly thin sole, which had some decidedly unglamorous consequences when a guard began chasing …
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Author: Camila Berriex / High Times
