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NY Mag: A Three-Minute X-Files Reunion With David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson

Nov-24-2010
A Three-Minute X-Files Reunion With David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson
NY Mag

[Original article here]

A Three-Minute X-Files Reunion With David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson

Photo: Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic

We knew we’d get to see Agent Mulder in the flesh on Monday when we attended former X-Files star David Duchovny’s theatrical debut in the Off Broadway production of Neil LaBute’s The Break of Noon, about a man who survives an office shooting and finds God. But what we didn’t expect was to see Agent Scully (a.k.a. Gillian Anderson) by his side in the intensely crowded opening-night after-party. We grabbed them for a hot three minutes in between their mingling with old friends Ben Stiller, Garry Shandling, and Duchovny’s wife, Téa Leoni.

How often do you see each other?
Duchovny: Not often. Twice a year?
Anderson: Yes, twice a year.
Duchovny: Depending on whether we’re doing an X-Files movie or not. If we’re doing an X-Files movie, we see a lot of each other.
Anderson: In France, apparently, there is going to be one in France.

With you guys?
Duchovny: No, no. Not at all. Apparently the script’s written.
Anderson: We’re not in it at all.
Duchovny: But we always would love to do another one. So we’ll see. We’re getting a little long in the tooth, but we’ll do it. Just me. Not her. Long in the tooth, I mean.

Would you do your same roles or become FBI mentors?
Duchovny: Well, I wouldn’t be doing her part.
Anderson: I’ll be on crutches. He’ll be in a wheelchair. But, yeah, it would be fun.
Duchovny: I would do it forever. I will always come back. By the end of the run, we were all good.

Do you keep in touch over e-mail?
Duchovny: A little bit, yeah.
Anderson: A little bit of texting, a little bit of BlackBerry action.
Duchovny: I don’t know if you know this, but Gillian’s an accomplished stage actor. She came all the way from London just to see this. I’m very touched by that.

What are you doing in London?
Anderson: I live there. I’m shooting Johnny English 2, but I live there.

And you just couldn’t miss David’s opening night?
Anderson: I was told that he finally got to levitate. I had to see it with my own eyes.

Didn’t you levitate in The X-Files?
Duchovny: Oh sure, I did.
Anderson: Oh sure, yeah.
Duchovny: That’s why they hired me in this play. That’s something I can do.
Anderson: Typecast again, man!

This was a more realistic levitation?
Duchovny: Real enough.

Did you get hurt at all in the scene with Amanda Peet where she’s beating on you?
Duchovny: Sometimes she gets my ear but mostly she just gets my cheek.

There’s a scene with a prostitute. Did Californication help with your prep for the blow-job scene?
Duchovny: There are prostitutes other places other than on Californication. It’s not the only show that has sex on it.

Your wife, Téa [Leoni], said you use your iPad as your scene partner …
Duchovny: I do. It’s amazing.
Anderson: Your iPad?
Duchovny: This is going to be an advertisement. There’s this thing called iRehearsal.

Yeah?
Duchovny: You get your script on the iPad and you can record your lines or the other person’s lines and the script will scroll.
Anderson: No! And speak the other person’s lines at you?
Duchovny: Yeah, you record their lines. So you can rehearse all by yourself with the lines, and just talk to yourself. It’s great.

Last thing. Have you started to pray more now that you’re doing this play?
Duchovny: Not really. I pray enough in the show.

TVMag.com: David Duchovny: "Je suis francophile"

Nov-05-2010
David Duchovny: “Je suis francophile”
L’acteur de Californication goûte peu à la langue de bois
Julia Baudin

[Original article here]

David Duchovny: «Je suis francophile»

Photo : © CBS STUDIOS INC

D’un côté, la diffusion sur M6 de la saison 3 de Californication. De l’autre, la sortie en salles le 17 novembre de La Famille Jones. David Duchovny enchaîne avec le théâtre et d’autres longs métrages, évoque ses 50 ans, s’interroge sur l’avenir des Etats-Unis. Qu’aurait-il fait s’il n’était pas devenu acteur ? Entretien.

David Duchovny, vous venez de terminer le tournage de la saison 4 de Californication… Comment évolue Hank Moody, votre personnage ?
Dans la saison 3, Hank a accepté de donner des cours de littérature à l’université. Au début ça l’amuse. Très vite, ça l’emmerde. Alors il fait tout pour se faire virer, enfreint les règles, se montre grossier, couche avec tout ce qui bouge y compris avec celles auxquelles il ne faudrait surtout pas toucher… Dans la saison 4, il passera totalement à autre chose, heureusement ou malheureusement d’ailleurs.

A toujours pousser le bouchon de cette façon, ne risque-t-il pas de tomber dans le cliché ?
L’humanité toute entière ne passe-t-elle pas son temps à véhiculer des clichés ? Le point de vue de la série n’est pas de montrer un professeur amoral qui couche avec ses élèves – un cliché en effet communément associé au métier d’enseignant. Le point de vue de la série est de faire rire. La fin de la saison 3 tourne même à la farce totale, façon vaudeville français, un des plus vieux ressorts de la comédie hollywoodienne. Nous appelons cela « French farce »…

Vous avez étudié la littérature dans de prestigieuses universités… Une incidence sur la façon dont vous incarnez Moody ?
Le fait d’avoir été étudiant pendant longtemps, d’avoir fréquenté des professeurs, d’avoir une mère enseignante et un père écrivain m’aura-t-il aidé ? Sans doute. Mais c’est aussi un défi. Comme le fut celui de trouver la façon juste d’incarner Fox Mulder dans X-Files.

Le personnage pourrait-il vous lasser ?
J’ai surtout peur de me lasser de moi-même, vous savez… Il va sans dire qu’un personnage récurrent demande plus d’implication qu’un personnage de long métrage. Un long métrage, c’est trois mois dans une existence. Une série, c’est plutôt trois ans, quand ce n’est pas six. Je ne suis pas las de Hank Moody, d’autant que chaque saison de Californication ne compte que douze épisodes, ce qui correspond à environ trois mois de tournage – un peu plus cette fois-ci puisque je réalise un épisode. Je ne me suis jamais lassé de Fox Mulder non plus, sinon je n’aurais pas accepté de faire deux suites pour le cinéma. J’étais fatigué de la série.

Que faites-vous entre deux saisons ?
D’abord, j’habite New York. C’est ma ville. Ma famille, mes amis et une partie de mon travail sont là-bas. Ensuite, j’ai eu 50 ans cette année. C’est une seconde partie de ma vie qui commence et j’ai beaucoup de choses à faire.

Par exemple ?
Du théâtre. Je joue ces jours-ci à New York une pièce très contemporaine dans laquelle j’incarne un personnage qui tente de se remettre, au travers de sa rencontre avec Dieu, d’une terrible fusillade survenue à son bureau, emportant la plupart de ses collègues.

Hank Moody pourrait-il rencontrer Dieu ?
Hank Moody peut tout faire… C’est ce qui est formidable avec lui.

David Duchovny croit-il en Dieu ?
Je suis juif d’origine russe par mon père, Ecossais par ma mère, New-Yorkais d’adoption et francophile par nature. C’est déjà pas mal, non ?

La Famille Jones, dont vous partagez l’affiche avec Demi Moore, sort cette semaine en France. C’est une satire sociale très américaine dans laquelle vous incarnez un père de famille encore une fois assez atypique…
Il s’est produit quelque chose de très intéressant autour de La Famille Jones lors de sa présentation au dernier Festival du film américain de Deauville, chez vous, en France. C’est en effet une satire sociale construite sur un mensonge qui finit par ruiner une famille, le genre bourgeois huppé archi-consumériste. Tout part en sucette. Mais, cela se termine bien. Et voilà que le public français a détesté la fin – encore un cliché, les Français n’aiment pas les happy-ends. Mais les critiques ont été si sévères que les producteurs américains ont refait une fin tout spécialement pour vous et qui ne sera diffusée que chez vous. Incroyable n’est-ce pas ? C’est pour cela que je suis francophile, pour cela que j’ai tourné il y a deux ans dans Si j’étais toi, sous la direction de Vincent Perez, et que je recommencerais volontiers.

Vincent d’Onofrio avec Staten Island, Hugh Laurie avec The Oranges, vous maintenant… Certains acteurs de grosses séries hollywoodiennes ont besoin de se tourner vers le cinéma d’auteur new-yorkais. Est-ce une respiration ?
C’est comme de partir en vacances ! Le cinéma new-yorkais ou plutôt le cinéma américain indépendant jouit d’une liberté d’action et de pensée que ne peuvent se permettre les grosses machines hollywoodiennes, tellement cadrées, tellement calibrées. C’est un peu normal. En revanche, il a moins d’argent.

Côté grosses machines, verra-t-on bientôt un X-Files III ?
Il est en cours d’écriture. On attend juste le feu vert de la Fox, un peu échaudée par l’accueil relativement médiocre du deuxième volet. L’erreur vient, selon moi, de ce que les auteurs s’étaient trop écartés des racines mêmes de la série. De plus, le film était sorti en plein été. Le troisième sera beaucoup proche de ce que le public attend, avec des conspirations gouvernementales, etc.

Gouvernement justement… Il règne un drôle de climat aux Etats-Unis actuellement…
Ce qui se passe est cyclique car ce genre de retournement s’est déjà produit dans l’histoire récente américaine. Obama paie très cher ses réformes financières et du système de santé. J’espère sincèrement que ces tarés de détracteurs ne gagneront pas les élections de mi-mandat. Entendre les membres du Tea Party ou Sarah Palin déblatérer leurs âneries à la télévision est une chose, les imaginer jouer un rôle au sommet de l’Etat m’est insupportable. Ce serait une catastrophe pour le pays. A part ça, c’est pas mal chez vous non plus !

Si vous n’étiez pas devenu acteur, que feriez-vous ?
Sans doute serais-je écrivain ou professeur… de littérature, tiens !


English translation (partial)

 

Speaking of big machines [the previous answer involved the ‘big Hollywood machine], will we see soon an X-Files III?
It is being written. We’re just waiting for the green light from Fox, who were a bit scalded by the relatively poor reception of the second one. The error came, I believe, from the fact that the writers strayed too far from the very roots of the series. Moreover, the film was released in the middle of the summer.
The third one will be much closer to what the audience expects, with government conspiracies, etc.

Sci Fi Wire: Duchovny Still Believes In X-Files

Dec-11-2008
Sci Fi Wire
Duchovny Still Believes In X-Files
Staci Layne Wilson

[Original article here]

The X-Files: I Want To Believe didn’t do blockbuster box office, but star David Duchovny still wants to revisit the role of former FBI agent Fox Mulder, whom he refers to as “mine.” He adds that he wants to believe that The X-Files could live on in a spinoff TV series.

The movie–the second based on the long-running Fox TV series–is out now on DVD, and it is hoped it finds the audience that eluded it in movie theaters over the summer.

That includes Duchovny himself, who confessed that he never saw the film on a big screen. “It’s not a special-effects movie,” he says. “It kind of was coming out in a time when you expected it to be–in the summer. To me, it was more a fall movie.”

Duchovny adds: “It’s a beautiful-looking movie. The location, the glow of the snow and the eeriness of that part of it, I think that looks great on the big screen. Everything looks better on the big screen, but I think that, yeah, it’s less of a popcorn movie than it is a fall movie, … for lack of a better term.”

Duchovny, who is undeniably an SF icon, says that he’s not looking for any more fantastical roles. “I don’t feel a need to score in any sci-fi movie or television show for the rest of my life,” he says. “I think that we can check that one off for me. But I don’t choose genres. I choose characters, so I would never rule out a science fiction movie just because it was the genre. If it had a character or a story that I thought was really interesting, I would do it.”

As for The X-Files, Duchovny says, “I never thought of The X-Files as science fiction. I always thought of it as playing this character in this world. The world was recognizable to me. It wasn’t The Jetsons. It was present time. You couldn’t fly. You couldn’t transport our bodies over a teleport and all that stuff, so it was the real world, and it didn’t feel like sci-fi to me.” Following is an edited version of the rest of SCI FI Wire’s interview with Duchovny.

Do you suppose that the Fox Mulder character could somehow endure along the lines of a Sherlock Holmes or a James Bond? Do you think that other actors could play him, and how would you like to see him go in the future?

Duchovny: I’m sure that someone else could play him, but I’d like to play him for a little while longer. I certainly think it’s a pretty good idea to try to make another X-Files-oriented show on television. I wouldn’t be an actor in it, but I’ve always thought it was a great plan. But I would like to continue on as a movie serial. As far as what actors … I’m not ready to go out to pasture just yet.

What is it about Mulder that keeps you coming back?

Duchovny: He’s mine. I feel protective of him and of it and of all of us. It was the first real, real success of my career and will always be a cornerstone of my life in many ways, the creative endeavor it is. I feel protective of the character and of the show in many ways, and I’m proud of it. I think that it can expand and grow, and .. I find that we have bonds.

I guess Indiana Jones gets aged, but it remains the same movie even though he’s aging. Bond doesn’t age, and I find that a little less interesting, at least for me. I’m not just saying this because I would like to keep doing it, but I always talk to [X-Files creator] Chris [Carter] about how fascinating today it would be to take this guy from his early 30s and let’s take him into his mid-50s, late 50s. Maybe nobody wants to see 60-year-old Fox Mulder, but we can grow him. We can take him through life’s hardships and changes. It doesn’t have to be this cartoon where nothing changes. You can actually form the flow of this movie and the expanse of this show to embrace actual passage of time and what that does to a person and relationships. To me, that’s interesting as an actor and as a person. As an intellectually based character, you don’t give a damn what he looks like.

Since The X-Files: I Want to Believe may not have been the huge blockbuster that everyone was hoping for, we’d like to know: What is your own measure of success for the movie?

Duchovny: I guess it’s always the first time I see the movie. What’s my feeling when I come out? I always felt like the subject matter of this particular movie was limiting. It was dark, and it wasn’t going. I mean, it could always bust out and become something huge, but as you recall, Batman was just suffocating everything at the time. Even so, it was also a $29.9 million movie competing during the summer. It had some stuff going against it in terms of me thinking it was going to break out. I didn’t think that it actually would. It was very dark. The subject matter was limiting in that way. Even though I would hope any movie I do would do the best business it can, that was never going to be a measure of this particular film.

I’ve only seen it one time, and I was sitting in Chris’ editing room. I watched it on a little screen. I guess I missed the chance to see it on the big screen, and that’s too bad, but when I left that initial screening at Chris’ house, the film was pretty much almost done except for some special effects. I just felt like it was really strong and kind of a strangely moving piece of work. Still dark, and still, I thought, limited, but the way that the movie performed did not surprise me so much, and I think that if we do get a chance to do another one … what I always really liked about the show was that it had a dark vision, but at the heart of it being driven by Mulder was this real optimism or wonder or sense of belief, and then it would kind of open out. Most of the best shows that we did would open out into real wonder at the end, if only because you didn’t have an answer, which was the mystery of it, but the wonder.

Mulder’s quest, to me, is a very positive one. If we get a chance to do another one, I think because in this movie Mulder kept getting reinvigorated, Mulder was in a down place for much of this film; he wasn’t driving the way he drives, the way he drove everything before that. In a way, the nature of how we had to get back into the show, which was to take the guy out of his job, also deprived the movie of some optimism and wonder and enlightenment that occurs when you’ve got this unhinged guy trying to prove wonderful crazy things.

Access Hollywood: Celebrities Uncensored: David Duchovny & Gillian Anderson

Sep-??-2008
Access Hollywood
Celebrities Uncensored: David Duchovny & Gillian Anderson

[Original article here]
[Youtube version here]

http://widget.accesshollywood.com/singleclip/singleclip_v1.swf?CXNID=1000004.10035NXC&WID=482a0d55893fbe3f&clipID=277667

MTV: 'X-Files: I Want To Believe' Is For Loyal Fans And Newcomers, Cast And Crew Insist

Jul-24-2008
MTV
‘X-Files: I Want To Believe’ Is For Loyal Fans And Newcomers, Cast And Crew Insist
Tami Katzoff

[Original article here]

‘You want to reach as broad an audience as possible with as little foreknowledge as they can have,’ David Duchovny says.

If you pay close attention while watching the new film “The X-Files: I Want to Believe,” you’ll probably catch a few familiar names and faces buried in the heightened action — but only if you’re super-familiar with the TV show.

http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:videolist:mtv.com:1591508

It’s a gift that “X-Files” creator Chris Carter, who directed and co-wrote “I Want to Believe,” presents to the true fans: the X-Philes. It’s for the ones who have been waiting eagerly to see what has become of their favorite FBI agents, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully (David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson), in the six years since the TV show ended.

Carter said he can’t help himself: “I try to throw as much into a story as possible. If I have a chance to put a number in there, if I have a chance to put a face in there, if I have a chance to put a reference in there, I just put it in there. And oftentimes these are not perfectly well thought out. … They’re just inspiration.”

But those who are new to “The X-Files” needn’t worry — no prior knowledge is actually needed to enjoy “I Want to Believe.” Unlike the first “X-Files” movie, 1998’s “Fight the Future,” this film has a self-contained story, unconnected to the larger alien/ government-conspiracy “mythology” of the nine-season-long TV series. It’s more like a straight-up horror thriller than a sci-fi adventure.

“I think the movie does a really good job of weaving in certain things for the fans,” said Duchovny, but he stressed that the standalone nature of the plot was the only way to go. “To re-establish the name and the franchise six years after the show’s off the air and 10 years after the first movie, I don’t think you could build that next movie on any specialized knowledge. You want to reach as broad an audience as possible with as little foreknowledge as they can have.”

Anderson agreed: “For this one, coming back after such a long stretch of time, it actually does make more sense that we’re not dealing with all the complicated aspects of [the mythology].”

Back when “Fight the Future” was released, the TV show was still going strong. The movie served as a sort of bridge between the fifth and sixth seasons, and those unfamiliar with the show probably had a hard time understanding it all. “When we went out to publicize the first movie,” Duchovny remembered, “our marching orders were, ‘Tell people that they don’t have to know anything about the show,’ but that was a lie. We’re actually not lying this time.”

So if you’re not an X-Phile (yet), go to the theater, relax and enjoy. And if you are, you’ll be rewarded for your loyalty — but don’t think that you can catch every one of the hidden in-jokes and references. “There are things in there that no one will ever know that I’ve put in,” Carter said.

Collider.com: David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson Interview – THE X-FILES: I Want to Believe

Jul-22-2008
David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson Interview – THE X-FILES: I Want to Believe
Collider.com

[Original article]
As most of you know, opening this Friday is “The X-Files: I Want to Believe.” Since I’m under embargo….I can’t write anything on the film or even what the movies about. Sorry.

That being said, I can post what Fox supplied me…

In grand The X-Files tradition, the film’s storyline is being kept under wraps, known only to top studio brass and the project’s principal actors and filmmakers. This much can be revealed: The supernatural thriller is a stand-alone story in the tradition of some of the show’s most acclaimed and beloved episodes, and takes the always-complicated relationship between Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson) in unexpected directions. Mulder continues his unshakable quest for the truth, and Scully, the passionate, ferociously intelligent physician, remains inextricably tied to Mulder’s pursuits.

Anyway, a few days ago was the press day here in Los Angeles and I got to participate in a small press conference with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. So if you’d like to hear what they had to say about returning to play Fox Mulder and Dana Scully…read below.

As always, you can download or listen to the MP3 of the interview by clicking here. And…if you’d like to watch 2 movie clips and a featurette from “The X-Files: I Want to Believe,” click here.

Question: Can you talk about getting back into these characters after a five or six year period?

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

Gillian Anderson: I had a similar experience. This feels so weird. Summertime. I didn’t have all the running around that David had to do, but I did have my own unfortunate beginning which was starting with one of the most difficult scenes for Scully in the film where it’s later on in the script and she goes through a range of emotions in confronting Billy Connolly’s  character. I just had a really time for those first couple of days that that scene was. I had a really hard time just finding her, finding her voice. I think I must’ve gone through ten other characters in the process of trying to get to her when I had assumed that I would be able to show up on the first day and it would just be there. It wasn’t until I think day three when we got to work together, not just necessarily in a familiar environment which it really wasn’t, but in the environment of each other and the relationship and that it kind of felt natural and familiar and I felt like I’d landed this time.

Question: The film was very heartfelt and thought provoking, similar to some of the early episodes. Did that play part in coming back to this after all this time?

Duchovny: No. My coming back was not based on script. At this point I have almost complete blind trust in Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz to come up with the goods. So my only concern was that it should be a stand alone and not something that you needed specific knowledge of ‘The X-Files’ to enjoy. When I read the script I saw that it was that. Other than that I had no hopes or plans for what this would be. I just knew that the world we’d made and the world that Chris and Frank would remake was going to be satisfying to me.

Anderson: I had stated my interest in being onboard sometime ago as well and by the time I read the script it was kind of a given that this was something that we were going to do. So I don’t think there was ever a point where I jumped more onboard or had an opportunity to back out of it…

Duchovny: She wanted a musical.

Anderson: We’re I not allowed to sing.

Question: What do you think the secret is to your chemistry when you two plays these characters as actors?

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

Duchovny: I don’t know why in the beginning, maybe just luck in the beginning. But after this long we actually do have a history and so when 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 us and so you don’t really have to make it up. I think that just as people, now fifteen years later, we have just shared so much regardless of how much we speak to one another. I expect to see Gillian even if I haven’t seen her for a year. She’s not even listening to me.

Anderson: I was, I was!

Duchovny: You just heard the last line.

Anderson: I did. I was really distracted. I was listening to every word that you said.

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

Anderson: You can tune out now. Whatever it is that’s between us was there from the second that we started working together and it’s not quantifiable. I think it’s something that is unique and yes, they got lucky, but it was something that Chris had seen which is why he fought so hard, specifically, and this is something that’s been written about a lot, to cast me over someone else. He saw something between the two of us that was unique. Whether it’s luck or that we were meant to be with each other all along, I don’t know.

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.

Question: There’s the fact that you’ve both had children and have had children over the past six years or so. Does that align you more with a Mulder or Scully in terms of personal philosophy?

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

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

Anderson: I had a child when I was three [laughs]. But I think that in the series, from what I remember, Scully thought that she had a child early on – Emily. Right?

Duchovny: Oh, yeah.

Anderson: I don’t think that I would’ve been able to get there as an actor realistically, if I did do it realistically because I can’t really remember, because obviously that experience would’ve been informed by the fact that I was already a mother. I’m sure that our conversations that we do have from time to time about this child that I gave away must be influenced by the fact that I’ve had children, but the show was so not about maternity. It wasn’t about parents. It wasn’t about that. They were actually anti-parents in a way.

Question: But in terms of having your own children, does that make you more of a skeptic or a believer of miracles or in absolutes?

Anderson: That’s interesting. I never related the two. Probably absolutes on my end.

Duchovny: I’m gonna look out the window [laughs]. It’s miraculous. It’s spiritual. It’s otherworldly to have kids. It’s more Mulder, I think, but I don’t know.

Anderson: But then also when you have kids, when your kids get sick or when family members do, not just your kids, but when there’s death there’s also absolutes and that can hit home at any stage of one’s life.

Duchovny: See, we’re starting to argue.

Question: When you play characters this deep for so long and then it stops how much of that stays with you for life? Does it impact your personality in some way for life?

Duchovny: That’s a very interesting question and I wouldn’t know how to answer it. I mean, it impacts your life because strangers can see you that way. I’ll sit here and I’ll answer questions about this fictional person and so it stays with me in that way. I wouldn’t say that I ever get up and think of Mulder unless I’m working on it. I think that I liked a lot about the guy. When I played him I liked his courage and I liked his energy to get to the truth and to the quest and all of that and I think that at one point I’d learned a little from that, like a fan might. I was a fan of the guy. So that’s as far as I go in terms of saying that he lives in me.

Anderson: It’s the same for me. I don’t do things, mannerisms or something and think, ‘Oh, that was kind of like Scully.’ But by the same token I don’t know how much of me today wasn’t influenced by the fact that I got to play her for such a long time. It’s possible that there are aspects of my seriousness or my independence or my inquisitiveness about the medical profession or science or something that aren’t directly related to the fact that I lived with her for such a long time. But that’s hard to qualify and hard to say.

Duchovny: When Gillian operates on a human being –

Anderson: That’s when I’m reminded of Scully.

Question: Gillian, Scully was always rocking a cell phone way before everyone else.

Anderson: Rocking a cell phone? Is that what you said?

Question: Yes. Always on the cell phone and using it. What’s your own relationship to your cell phone, and how do you think that the character has informed strong female law enforcement characters?

Anderson: I think I only ever talked to Mulder on that cell phone. I don’t think that there were any conversation that was ever had with anyone else except for Mulder, if you remember.

Duchovny: You were in my fav five.

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

Duchovny: Yeah. You had to have like a trench coat to have them in the pocket.

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

Duchovny: ‘Hello? I’m talking to you on a phone that’s not attached to anything.’

Anderson: I’ve had letters from people, even actually recently, who have said, ‘Funnily enough I’ve been a fan for many years and it’s because of Scully that I’m now a forensic pathologist –’ or ‘I’m now a medical doctor –’ or ‘I’m now in the FBI –’ or any of the fifteen things that she was as a professional to be able to say all those complicated words.

Duchovny: You were talented. The cell phone question is interesting because I think that it extended the life of the series because Gillian and I 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 have time off because we could split up and we didn’t have to be in the same room to have a conversation. I’m being totally serious. I could have some time off and Gillian could have some time off and we’d just talk on the phone to one another rather than being in every scene together.

Anderson: It’s very true.

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

Question: In terms of what’s on film how much does Chris encourage a sense of humor?

Duchovny: Very, very, very little. Chris and I have always kind of battled over that. In the series it got in more and more for both of us as we went on and did what we thought of as the funny episodes and we both enjoyed doing those because they were like vacations and certainly Chris, as the show runner, was guiding that and letting that happen and saw the virtue in what a huge tent this show so that it could encompass everything from stand alones to mythology to parody of itself. I can’t think of another show that ever did that. We just never did the musical. We never did that, but that’s the only thing, thank goodness. But in terms of me coming up with stuff in the moment, usually Chris doesn’t like that because he has a different theory about the tension than I do. He really feels like 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 difference opinion we have. I don’t know what your take on that is.

Anderson: I’m not funny.

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

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

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

Question: David, you famously sort of distanced yourself from the show in the last season, being fatigued, and then we hear that you’re really the now who was big into getting this movie done. Can you talk about that? Is it a love/hate relationship?

Duchovny: I wouldn’t characterize me as the one who really wanted to get it going, but I’m certainly someone who would always say yes whenever Chris and I would talk about it. The love/hate has nothing to do with the actual content, the actual people, the actual anything. The love/hate had to do with me wanting to get on with the rest of my life, the rest of my career and when you think about it, that I did eight years and Gillian did nine, that’s a lifetime. There are no other dramas that keep the same characters that run that long. If you look at ‘Law & Order’ or ‘ER’, they’re twenty years old or whatever they are, but they’re completely recast. So it’s just not something you see. You don’t see actors not get fatigued and not get frustrated in a drama where we’re working, cell phones or not, everyday for many, many hours playing the same characters. So it’s just natural to burnout. There was always love for the show and love for the character. There was never any hate for that.

Anderson: But it’s interesting that it’s always something for the press to latch onto. It’s always a surprise, in some way or it’s a good headline, that someone wants to leave. It creates good drama and so it always becomes this thing where actually it’s just a natural thing.

Duchovny: Right, like you’re ungrateful in some way. Yes, I love ‘The X-Files’ and I love Vancouver. Those things are true.

Question: Can you talk about working in the severe weather conditions up in Canada?

Anderson: This time around I didn’t have as much exposure to it as David did. Fortunately, Chris didn’t write those words in the script for Scully. But I was up there in Whistler and when I arrived it was about eighteen below. Fortunately it didn’t stay there for too long, but I was out there for probably a good couple of weeks, I guess and it’s beautiful, but it’s also exhausting.

Duchovny: Yeah. Let me try to say this in a way that’s right. Just doing quotation marks is going to get me in trouble. I had to work in one of the most beautiful ski resorts in the world for almost three weeks. Pity me. I think it’s hard sometimes. The logistics of it is if you’re out in the middle of nowhere and you’re running around in the freezing rain or snow you don’t get a chance to go off and warm up in your trailer because you’re seeing so much that your trailer is on the other side of the town. So you are stuck in clothes that aren’t fitting for the environment for a long time. So, yeah, it’s a pain in the ass, but you just suck it up and it’s not going to be that long and your feet are cold and your ass is cold and your hands are cold and your muscles are cold. You just suck it up.

Anderson: I think one of the more physically challenging aspects for me at the time were that there were a couple of scenes where we had quite a bit of dialogue and when you’re in that kind of weather and the wind is slightly blowing and the snow is coming down, your lips actually do freeze. They do. There were a couple of times that were reminiscent of the pilot. There was a scene in the pilot where we’re in this pouring forest rain that’s freezing and I’m screeching at him about one thing or another –

Duchovny: ‘You mean to say thirty miles?! Came here?!’

Anderson: Are you making fun of me?

Duchovny: No. I just remember it.

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

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

Anderson: It’s beautiful.

Duchovny: You have to know that when you’re putting up with it, that if you’re experiencing this discomfort it’s probably going to look pretty good on film.

Anderson: If there’s pain involved.

Question: What are your next projects? And was the George Bush/J. Edgar Hoover thing scripted or did it just come about?

Duchovny: Yeah, that was completely scripted and that was an example of where I was trying to be what I thought was funny and Chris was like, ‘No. No.’

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

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

Anderson: We tried a few other versions of it.

Duchovny: Yeah, what did we do? I thought they were funny. It was funny. I can’t remember. Your upcoming projects?

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

Question: During your run of the show and of the movie, because of the things that you guys handled, did you ever experience any real paranormal happenings either on the set or outside of it?

Anderson: At Riverview. There was a place that we shot during the series and also during the film that was an abandoned insane asylum –

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

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

Duchovny: But there were some crazy people wandering around.

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

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

Anderson: That was really creepy.

Duchovny: We went into these rooms, tiny little rooms, that only had loops on the floor for where you would hook someone’s retraining irons onto.

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

Duchovny: But I’ve never really had a paranormal experience per say in my life. I believe in the spirit and the energy, but I’ve never seen it. I’ve felt it, but not seen it.

Question: David, what’s your next project?

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

Question: Are you going to Comic-Con?

Duchovny: When is it?

Question: Next week.

Duchovny: No [laughs].

Question: Who was your all time favorite TV crime fighter?

Duchovny: I was always an original ‘Star Trek’ fan. I don’t know if Kirk is a crime fighter, but I liked him.