Speaking with EW, Anderson says she connected differently with all of the characters she would play in the role—including Judy Garland, David Bowie, and Marilyn Monroe—but it was Lucy with whom the actress shared at least some semblance of a history.
“The only experience I really had in any personal way with any of
Media’s characters was a photo shoot I did with Mark Seliger many eons
ago where I was Lucille Ball,” Anderson says, referring to a 1997 magazine spread in which she vamped up as several television icons. (In fact, some Gods fans even mistook the portraits as an official first look at Media back when Anderson’s casting was announced last summer.)
“Funny enough, I actually looked more like Lucille Ball back then
than I do now, just in terms of the angularness of my face,” Anderson
continues. “So I had that experience of being her for a day, but it was,
of course, different from trying to figure out what aspect of her to
present in ratio with what aspect of Media, and who is Media, and how
does Media come through, and which bit of Media lives in each of these
characters?”
Gillian at American Gods press conference in London, May 3. Photo: Hawt Celebs
To that end, the challenge Anderson faced in waxing Ball, Bowie,
Garland, and Monroe was not just finding footing inside these
recognizable celebrities, but figuring out who the actual goddess of
Media is in the moments between her manifestations onscreen. “I think
that was the biggest challenge with all of them, and I guess it changed
as per how easy it was to take on a character or feel like I could
channel someone. [That] had some impact on how much Media showed up
within that character,” she says, adding that she made a key early
decision to avoid thinking too hard about what the abstract Media might
look like—if anything at all—in between her big moments. “I kind of
stayed away a bit from thinking about that,” she laughs. “That’s still a
very, very big question mark, even in my head.”
Full text with some spoilers (in case you haven't seen the second episode): EW