Gillian Anderson looks unrecognisable as she transforms into Eleanor Roosevelt for new drama The First Lady

GILLIAN Anderson looks unrecognisable as she transforms into Eleanor Roosevelt for new drama The First Lady. The former X Files actress is quite the chameleon, going from Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Crown to Jean Milburn in Sex Education. But in her next role, Gillian ditches her real life blonde locks for mousey brown […]

GILLIAN Anderson looks unrecognisable as she transforms into Eleanor Roosevelt for new drama The First Lady.

The former X Files actress is quite the chameleon, going from Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Crown to Jean Milburn in Sex Education.

But in her next role, Gillian ditches her real life blonde locks for mousey brown tresses styled in the fashions of the time for the period drama.

The 53-year-old actress also wears minimal makeup as Eleanor – the longest serving First Lady in US history.

Eleanor was the wife of President Franklin D Roosevelt but made her own mark during his time in office from 1933 to 1945.

As well as championing the civil rights movement, she also helped women make more strides in the workplace.

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The trailer sees her ask at one point: “You would like me to hold a press conference to discuss dusting?”

The Showtime anthology series follows three First Ladies, with Michelle Pfeiffer playing Betty Ford and Viola Davis starring as Michelle Obama.

This series will hopefully be one Gillian’s children can watch, after the actress previously admitted she had banned them from watching Netflix smash hit, Sex Education.

She said: “I am living happily in the denial that my children do not watch the show — I hope they haven’t. When it first came out, I told them they weren’t allowed to.

“But I have no control over what they do at their friends’ houses. I have no control over what their friends show them.”

Gillian, who won an Emmy for portraying Margaret Thatcher in The Crown last year, has two children, aged 12 and 14, with her former partner Mark Griffiths.

She also has a grown-up daughter Piper Maru, 26, from her first marriage to Clyde Klotz, an art director on The X-Files.