David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson X Files Interview

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David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson X Files Interview DUCHOVNY AND ANDERSON RETEAM IN X FILES David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, X Files Interview by PaulFischer.

It may be onr of the summer's most anticipated films of the year,at least for ardent fans of the Emmy winning TV series. The movie'stitle, I Want to Believe, refers to Duchovny's Mulder returning tothe FBI to help solve the disappearance of an FBI Agent. The oneclue is at the hands of a psychic paedophiliac priest [BillyConnelly]. At his side is the more cynical pragmatist, Scully[Anderson] ex-lover and partner. The pair seem as comfortable offscreen as on. PAUL FISCHER reports.

Paul Fischer : Can you talk about getting back into these characters after afive or six year period?

David Duchovny : Well, I had two weeks before Christmas of basically runningaround and chasing Callum Rennie who plays the running bad guy thatI chase all over the place. That took a good two full weeks ofrunning even though I know it's only about ten seconds in the movieand then Gillian and I started working on it after Christmas break.The first two weeks I felt a little awkward and I didn't reallyfeel like I wanted to do longer scenes. I was just fine runningaround. Then as soon as Gillian and I started working and it wasMulder and Scully, then I kind of remembered what it was all aboutand that relationship kind of anchored my performance just as Ithink the relationship anchors this film.

Gillian Anderson : I had a similar experience. This feels so weird. Summertime. Ididn't have all the running around that David had to do, but I didhave my own unfortunate beginning which was starting with one ofthe most difficult scenes for Scully in the film where it's lateron in the script and she goes through a range of emotions inconfronting Billy Connolly's character. I just had a really timefor those first couple of days that that scene was. I had a reallyhard time just finding her, finding her voice. I think I must'vegone through ten other characters in the process of trying to getto her when I had assumed that I would be able to show up on thefirst day and it would just be there. It wasn't until I think daythree when we got to work together, not just necessarily in afamiliar environment which it really wasn't, but in the environmentof each other and the relationship and that it kind of felt naturaland familiar and I felt like I'd landed this time.

Paul Fischer : The film was very heartfelt and thought provoking, similar tosome of the early episodes. Did that play a part in coming back tothis after all this time?

David Duchovny : No. My coming back was not based on script. At this point I havealmost complete blind trust in Chris [Carter] and Frank [Spotnitz]to come up with the goods. So my only concern was that it should bea stand alone and not something that you needed specific knowledgeof 'The X-Files' to enjoy. When I read the script I saw that it wasthat. Other than that I had no hopes or plans for what this wouldbe. I just knew that the world we dc made and the world that Chrisand Frank would remake was going to be satisfying to me.

Gillian Anderson : I had stated my interest in being onboard sometime ago as welland by the time I read the script it was kind of a given that thiswas something that we were going to do. So I don't think there wasever a point where I jumped more onboard or had an opportunity toback out of it...

David Duchovny : She wanted a musical.

Gillian Anderson : We'e I not allowed to sing.

Paul Fischer : What do you think the secret is to your chemistry when you twoplays these characters as actors?

Gillian Anderson : We've actually been having a fifteen year affair.

David Duchovny : I don't know why in the beginning, maybe just luck in thebeginning. But after this long we actually do have a history and sowhen I look over at Gillian or I'm Mulder looking over at Scully,there's a lot of shit that I can call on. We have a lot between usand so you don't really have to make it up. I think that just aspeople, now fifteen years later, we have just shared so muchregardless of how much we speak to one another. I expect to seeGillian even if I haven't seen her for a year. She's not evenlistening to me. Gillian Anderson : I was, I was!

David Duchovny : You just heard the last line.

Gillian Anderson : I did. I was really distracted. I was listening to every wordthat you said.

David Duchovny : I don't have a window like you do over there.

Gillian Anderson : You can tune out now. Whatever it is that's between us was therefrom the second that we started working together and it's notquantifiable. I think it's something that is unique and yes, theygot lucky, but it was something that Chris had seen which is why hefought so hard, specifically, and this is something that's beenwritten about a lot, to cast me over someone else. He saw somethingbetween the two of us that was unique. Whether it's luck or that wewere meant to be with each other all along, I don't know.

David Duchovny : I mean, there's chemistry in life and there's acting chemistry.I'm not saying they're the same thing, but they're as mysterious.

Paul Fischer : There's the fact that you've both had children and have hadchildren over the past six years or so. Does that align you morewith a Mulder or Scully in terms of personal philosophy?

Gillian Anderson : I mean, when Scully had a child I'd already had a child.

David Duchovny : Gillian had a child the first year of the show.

Gillian Anderson : I had a child when I was three [laughs]. But I think that in theseries, from what I remember, Scully thought that she had a childearly on - Emily. Right?

David Duchovny : Oh, yeah.

Gillian Anderson : I don't think that I would've been able to get there as an actorrealistically, if I did do it realistically because I can't reallyremember, because obviously that experience would've been informedby the fact that I was already a mother. I'm sure that ourconversations that we do have from time to time about this childthat I gave away must be influenced by the fact that I've hadchildren, but the show was so not about maternity. It wasn't aboutparents. It wasn't about that. They were actually anti-parents in away.

Paul Fischer : But in terms of having your own children, does that make you moreof a sceptic or a believer of miracles or in absolutes?

Gillian Anderson : That's interesting. I never related the two. Probably absoluteson my end.

David Duchovny : I'm gonna look out the window [laughs]. It's miraculous. It'sspiritual. It's otherworldly to have kids. It's more Mulder, Ithink, but I don't know.

Gillian Anderson : But then also when you have kids, when your kids get sick or whenfamily members do, not just your kids, but when there's deaththere's also absolutes and that can hit home at any stage of one'slife.

David Duchovny : See, we're starting to argue.

Paul Fischer : When you play characters this deep for so long and then it stopshow much of that stays with you for life? Does it impact yourpersonality in some way for life?

David Duchovny : That's a very interesting question and I wouldn't know how toanswer it. I mean, it impacts your life because strangers can seeyou that way. I'll sit here and I'll answer questions about thisfictional person and so it stays with me in that way. I wouldn'tsay that I ever get up and think of Mulder unless I'm working onit. I think that I liked a lot about the guy. When I played him Iliked his courage and I liked his energy to get to the truth and tothe quest and all of that and I think that at one point I'd learneda little from that, like a fan might. I was a fan of the guy. Sothat's as far as I go in terms of saying that he lives in me.

Gillian Anderson : It's the same for me. I don't do things, mannerisms or somethingand think, 'Oh, that was kind of like Scully.' But by the sametoken I don't know how much of me today wasn't influenced by thefact that I got to play her for such a long time. It's possiblethat there are aspects of my seriousness or my independence or myinquisitiveness about the medical profession or science orsomething that aren't directly related to the fact that I livedwith her for such a long time. But that's hard to qualify and hardto say.

David Duchovny : When Gillian operates on a human being -

Gillian Anderson : That's when I'm reminded of Scully.

Paul Fischer : Gillian, Scully was always rocking a cell phone way beforeeveryone else. Always on the cell phone and using it. What's yourown relationship to your cell phone, and how do you think that thecharacter has informed strong female law enforcement characters?

Gillian Anderson : I think I only ever talked to Mulder on that cell phone. I don'tthink that there were any conversation that was ever had withanyone else except for Mulder, if you remember.

David Duchovny : You were in my fav five.

Gillian Anderson : Was I number one or number two? Remember how big our cell phoneswere? We just happened to have them in our pockets.

David Duchovny : Yeah. You had to have like a trench coat to have them in thepocket.

Gillian Anderson : A cell phone in one and a Xenon flash in the other.

David Duchovny : 'Hello? I'm talking to you on a phone that's not attached toanything.'

Gillian Anderson : I've had letters from people, even actually recently, who havesaid, 'Funnily enough I've been a fan for many years and it'sbecause of Scully that I'm now a forensic pathologist -' or 'I'mnow a medical doctor -' or 'I'm now in the FBI -' or any of thefifteen things that she was as a professional to be able to say allthose complicated words.

David Duchovny : You were talented. The cell phone question is interesting becauseI think that it extended the life of the series because Gillian andI were so fatigued and the advent of the cell phone, in what year?'96? I don't know. But it was instrumental in us being able to havetime off because we could split up and we didn't have to be in thesame room to have a conversation. I'm being totally serious. Icould have some time off and Gillian could have some time off andwe'd just talk on the phone to one another rather than being inevery scene together.

Gillian Anderson : It's very true.

David Duchovny : So if not for the cell phone no second half of 'The X-Files'.

Paul Fischer : In terms of what's on film how much does Chris encourage a senseof humor?

David Duchovny : Very, very, very little. Chris and I have always kind of battledover that. In the series it got in more and more for both of us aswe went on and did what we thought of as the funny episodes and weboth enjoyed doing those because they were like vacations andcertainly Chris, as the show runner, was guiding that and lettingthat happen and saw the virtue in what a huge tent this show sothat it could encompass everything from stand alones to mythologyto parody of itself. I can't think of another show that ever didthat. We just never did the musical. We never did that, but that'sthe only thing, thank goodness. But in terms of me coming up withstuff in the moment, usually Chris doesn't like that because he hasa different theory about the tension than I do. He really feelslike it lets the air out of things and he doesn't like to do that.I feel like I like to let the air out. So that's just a differenceopinion we have. I don't know what your take on that is.

Gillian Anderson : I'm not funny.

Paul Fischer : Did you ever ask her to the No Pants Restaurant?

David Duchovny : No, I never did. But I think I will.

Gillian Anderson : Give me a few months, please [laughs].

Paul Fischer : David, you famously sort of distanced yourself from the show inthe last season, being fatigued, and then we hear that you'rereally who was big into getting this movie done. Can you talk aboutthat? Is it a love/hate relationship?

David Duchovny : I wouldn't characterize me as the one who really wanted to get itgoing, but I'm certainly someone who would always say yes wheneverChris and I would talk about it. The love/hate has nothing to dowith the actual content, the actual people, the actual anything.The love/hate had to do with me wanting to get on with the rest ofmy life, the rest of my career and when you think about it, that Idid eight years and Gillian did nine, that's a lifetime. There areno other dramas that keep the same characters that run that long.If you look at 'Law & Order' or 'ER', they're twenty years old orwhatever they are, but they're completely recast. So it's just notsomething you see. You don't see actors not get fatigued and notget frustrated in a drama where we're working, cell phones or not,everyday for many, many hours playing the same characters. So it'sjust natural to burnout. There was always love for the show andlove for the character. There was never any hate for that.

Gillian Anderson : But it's interesting that it's always something for the press tolatch onto. It's always a surprise, in some way or it's a goodheadline, that someone wants to leave. It creates good drama and soit always becomes this thing where actually it's just a naturalthing.

David Duchovny : Right, like you're ungrateful in some way. Yes, I love 'TheX-Files' and I love Vancouver. Those things are true.

Paul Fischer : Can you talk about working in the severe weather conditions up inCanada?

Gillian Anderson : This time around I didn't have as much exposure to it as Daviddid. Fortunately, Chris didn't write those words in the script forScully. But I was up there in Whistler and when I arrived it wasabout eighteen below. Fortunately it didn't stay there for toolong, but I was out there for probably a good couple of weeks, Iguess and it's beautiful, but it's also exhausting.

David Duchovny : Yeah. Let me try to say this in a way that's right. Just doingquotation marks is going to get me in trouble. I had to work in oneof the most beautiful ski resorts in the world for almost threeweeks. Pity me. I think it's hard sometimes. The logistics of it isif you're out in the middle of nowhere and you're running around inthe freezing rain or snow you don't get a chance to go off and warmup in your trailer because you're seeing so much that your traileris on the other side of the town. So you are stuck in clothes thataren't fitting for the environment for a long time. So, yeah, it'sa pain in the ass, but you just suck it up and it's not going to bethat long and your feet are cold and your ass is cold and yourhands are cold and your muscles are cold. You just suck it up.

Gillian Anderson : I think one of the more physically challenging aspects for me atthe time were that there were a couple of scenes where we had quitea bit of dialogue and when you're in that kind of weather and thewind is slightly blowing and the snow is coming down, your lipsactually do freeze. They do. There were a couple of times that werereminiscent of the pilot. There was a scene in the pilot wherewe're in this pouring forest rain that's freezing and I'mscreeching at him about one thing or another -

David Duchovny : 'You mean to say thirty miles?! Came here?!'

Gillian Anderson : Are you making fun of me?

David Duchovny : No. I just remember it.

Gillian Anderson : I remember it too. It felt very much like that, but what wasreminiscent was the fact that my mouth wouldn't work. I had allthis stuff to say and it just comes out as gobbledygook.

David Duchovny : But when you see it on film it's just gorgeous. You look at thosebig snow flakes coming down in the movie and it's worth it.

Gillian Anderson : It's beautiful.

David Duchovny : You have to know that when you're putting up with it, that ifyou're experiencing this discomfort it's probably going to lookpretty good on film.

Gillian Anderson : If there's pain involved.

Paul Fischer : What are your next projects? And was the George Bush/J. EdgarHoover thing scripted or did it just come about?

David Duchovny : Yeah, that was completely scripted and that was an example ofwhere I was trying to be what I thought was funny and Chris waslike, 'No. No.'

Gillian Anderson : Probably because he knew in the back of his mind that that littlebit of music right there was going to be in there which kind ofdoes the humor for it.

David Duchovny : Yeah, so no. That was actually always in it and was written in,literally as George Bush and J. Edgar Hoover.

Gillian Anderson : We tried a few other versions of it.

David Duchovny : Yeah, what did we do? I thought they were funny. It was funny. Ican't remember.

Paul Fischer : Your upcoming projects?

Gillian Anderson : I've got a couple of things coming out, but the next thing I'mgoing to do is a play in London. I'm going to do a play there acouple of months after the baby is born.

Paul Fischer : During your run of the show and of the movie, because of thethings that you guys handled, did you ever experience any realparanormal happenings either on the set or outside of it?

Gillian Anderson : At Riverview. There was a place that we shot during the seriesand also during the film that was an abandoned insane asylum -

David Duchovny : But not so abandoned. It was like half abandoned and half not.

Gillian Anderson : Yeah. The top floor was being used for something.

David Duchovny : But there were some crazy people wandering around.

Gillian Anderson : Yeah. It was miles and miles of institution and insanity.

David Duchovny : Actually, where we did the photos for this movie, that was where-

Gillian Anderson : That was really creepy.

David Duchovny : We went into these rooms, tiny little rooms, that only had loopson the floor for where you would hook someone's retraining ironsonto.

Gillian Anderson : There's paint peeling and all of that stuff.

David Duchovny : But I've never really had a paranormal experience per say in mylife. I believe in the spirit and the energy, but I've never seenit. I've felt it, but not seen it.

Paul Fischer : David, what's your next project?

David Duchovny : I believe I will be doing this movie called 'The Joneses' andthen 'Californication' season two is coming out in September. Ihave just three more days of filming of that and then we're done.


THE X-FILES™: I WANT TO BELIEVE Starring: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Amanda Peet, Xzibit,Billy Connolly
Director: Chris Carter
Screenwriter: Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz
Producer: Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz
Composer: Mark Snow
Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy

THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE is a new motion picture based on thephenomenally popular, award-winning series The X-Files.Long-anticipated, the film reunites series stars David Duchovny andGillian Anderson under the direction of series creator ChrisCarter, who co-wrote the screenplay with Frank Spotnitz. In grandThe X-Files tradition, the film's storyline is being kept underwraps, known only to top studio brass and the project's principalactors and filmmakers. This much can be revealed: The supernaturalthriller is a stand-alone story in the tradition of some of theshow's most acclaimed and beloved episodes, and takes thealways-complicated relationship between Fox Mulder (Duchovny) andDana Scully (Anderson) in unexpected directions. Mulder continueshis unshakable quest for the truth, and Scully, the passionate,ferociously intelligent physician, remains inextricably tied toMulder's pursuits. Months after shooting had wrapped, Carterremained as circumspect about the story as he was during itsdevelopment and production. "Mulder and Scully are drawn back intothe world of the X-Files by a case," is all he'll add about theplot. Perhaps more clues...to something....can be found in thefilm's title. "I Want to Believe" is a familiar phrase for fans ofthe series; it was the slogan on a poster that Mulder had hangingin his office at the FBI. "It's a natural title," says ChrisCarter. "It's a story that involves the difficulties in mediatingfaith and science. It really does suggest Mulder's struggle withhis faith." Carter is much more revealing about his goals for thefilm. "Simply put, we want to scare the pants off of everyone inthe audience," he says.

While the scale and scope inherent in the medium of film allowedthe filmmakers to take the story and characters where the showcouldn't go, Carter says THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE also marksa return to the series' roots, when it was the lone beacon ontelevision for fans of thrillers, supernatural tales, and of horrorstories. "The film encompasses all the best things people lovedabout the show. It's scary, creepy, and has a good mystery. WithThe X-Files, we often scared people by what they didn't show, andwe use that device for the movie." Adds writer-producer FrankSpotnitz: "I think the best part of The X-Files was that it couldmake you afraid of anything. They didn't tell typical horrorstories or adhere to popular genre conventions. And this movie isin that tradition of showing things that you would not see in mostscary movies." Unlike the first The X-Files motion picture,released in 1998, Carter and Spotnitz's story for THE X-FILES: IWANT TO BELIEVE does not require audiences to understand theseries' complex mythology that stretched across its nine seasons onthe air. "The first movie was kind of an epic episode of the show,but THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE is a real, stand-alone movie,"explains Carter. "If the show hadn't existed, this is a story thatstill would have found its way to the big screen."