See Gillian Anderson’s David Bowie Impersonation for ‘American Gods’
David Bowie has sadly left us, but his legacy lives on in countless ways — like, for instance, Gillian Anderson's impersonation of the late star in the fifth episode from the first season of American Gods.
Titled "Lemon Scented You" and scheduled to air May 28, the episode features an appearance from Anderson's character Media, one of the New Gods gearing up for a looming war against the Old Gods led by Odin, a.k.a. Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane). A shapeshifter of sorts, Media changes guises depending on the audience; as the Starz Network's bio for the character reads, Media takes "whatever form will deliver her message most effectively and is often personified by iconic celebrities."
Those celebrities can vary wildly depending on who Media's trying to reach — previous appearances have included Marilyn Monroe and a surprisingly raunchy Lucille Ball — but in "Lemon Scented You," it's all about Bowie, who appears to Technical Boy (Bruce Langley) in an effort to secure an advantage for the New Gods while keeping the fragile peace.
Bowie's ever-changing image gave American Gods any number of wardrobe choices for Anderson, and they picked his Aladdin Sane guise — the evolution of the persona he adopted for his 1972 breakthrough LP The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Fittingly, this isn't the first time Anderson's been depicted this way; an enterprising Photoshop artist previously overlaid Sane's trademark facepaint over a shot of the actor, highlighting the rather eerie similarities. Check out a clip from "Lemon Scented You" courtesy of Starz below.
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