By Henry Senecal

For more than nine years the television series The X-Files was an award-winning show that held its audience captive with tales of the supernatural intertwined with intrigue and mystery.

The chemistry between its two main characters Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) was an integral part of what made the show work. Mulder was the semi-innocent believer while Scully was the perennial skeptic.  The successful The X-Files motion picture was released in 1998 and benefitted from the dynamic of their relationship and the cases they examined. It fueled the franchise that kept the show alive and kept the fans coming back for more.

Now, six years after the show has left the airwaves, series creator Chris Carter and writer Frank Spotnitz are attempting to hook a whole new generation of fans with The X-Files: I Want To Believe.

The new film’s stars and creators recently spoke to MediaBlvd Magazine about their latest project.

MediaBlvd Magazine> Can you talk about getting back into these characters after a 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 10 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, I remembered what it was all about. That relationship anchored my performance, just as I think the relationship anchors this film.

Gillian Anderson> I had a similar experience. 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 she goes through a range of emotions in confronting Billy Connolly’s character. I had a really hard time just finding her voice. I think I must’ve gone through 10 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 day three, when David and I 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, that it felt natural and familiar, and I felt like I’d landed this time.

MediaBlvd> Why was there such a long period of time between the first film and the end of the series, and this film?

Chris Carter> Fox came to us a year after the TV series ended and said, “If you want to make another movie, let’s go,” and we went. We worked out a story, and they liked it. Negotiations began, and then it all broke down over what I will call “TV contractual problems,” which unexpectedly took years to resolve. It’s the nature of the business. When it was finally resolved, they called us back and said, “If you still want to do that movie, we still want to, but you have to do it now.  It’s now or never. There is a writer’s strike looming and if you don’t do it now, it might be two years before you get another opportunity. And, we think that’s too long. You will have asked the audience to wait too long.” We agreed. So, that is why we did the movie five years out. It’s now six years since the show was on the air.

MediaBlvd> This film feels very sincere to the episode structure, but the other movie was very epic. Why did you decide to tell this story?

Chris> If you look at The X-Files, we did 202 episodes. About 80% of them are not “mythology” episodes, which tend to be the epic episodes. They deal with the big conspiracies, like the search for Mulder’s sister. They deal with what I would call the “saga” of The X-Files. When we finished the first movie, we said the next movie we do would be a story that stands alone -- what some people call a “monster of the week” story. We wanted to do a story that didn’t require you to have any knowledge of that ongoing story arc. So, that is simply why we chose to do a story like this. 

Frank Spotnitz> We actually came up with the story for this in 2003. We walked away for four years. When we came back, we actually lost our notes, so we had to start over. Of course, we remembered a lot of it. In the process of starting over, we found ourselves so interested in where Mulder and Scully were in their lives, and the nature of their relationship. We realized that, in order to be true to the characters, that relationship could not have stood still. It had to have changed. We saw it much more emotionally than we did, immediately after the show ended. I think it is an unexpectedly emotional film. That was just the story that came out of us; the story we really wanted to tell. The more you think about this movie, the more parallels you will see between what the bad guys are doing, and what Mulder and Scully are doing. 

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

David > 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.

Gillian> I had stated my interest in being onboard some time ago, and by the time I read the script, it was 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.

MediaBlvd > With so much accumulated mythology and characters, and elements that the fans love and are dying for, how did you decide what to put into this movie?

Chris> We wanted to make this as pure a movie as we could, about Mulder and Scully.  They are the essence of The X-Files. I spoke earlier about how struck we were with their relationship and their emotional story, and returning to the show after such a long absence. The more characters you bring in from the past, the more explaining you have to do, and the more it gets wrapped up in the mythology of the show. In this movie, we wanted to keep it as simple as we possibly could.  There were many other characters we talked about that we would have loved to bring back in this movie. Ultimately, there was only room for one. But, it’s not a sign of any lack of enthusiasm or affection for the others.

MediaBlvd> What do you think the secret is to the chemistry between these two play actors?

Gillian> We’ve actually been having a 15-year affair.

David > I don’t know why. Maybe it was just luck, in the beginning. But, after this long we actually do have a history. So, when 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. As people, now 15 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.

Gillian> Whatever it is that’s between us was there from the second that we started working together. It’s not quantifiable. I think it’s something that is unique and, yes, they got lucky, but it was something that Chris Carter had seen, which is why he fought so hard, specifically 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.

MediaBlvd> 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, in your own life?

David> It impacts your life because strangers can see you that way. I wouldn’t say that I ever get up and think of Mulder, unless I’m working on the character. I liked a lot about the guy. I liked his courage and I liked his energy to get to the truth. At one point, I’d learned a little from that, like a fan might. I was a fan of the guy. But, that’s as far as I go, in terms of saying that he lives in me.

Gillian>  It’s the same for me. I don’t do things 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, that are 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.

MediaBlvd> Gillian, Scully was always using a cell phone, way before everyone else did. What’s your own relationship to your cell phone?

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

David> You were in my “fave five.”

MediaBlvd> In terms of what’s on film, how much does Chris encourage a sense of humor?

David> Very, very, very little. Chris and I have always 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. We both enjoyed doing those because they were like vacations. And, certainly Chris, as the show runner, was guiding that and letting that happen, 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. 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 like to let the air out. So, that’s just a difference opinion we have.
Gillian > I’m just not funny.

MediaBlvd> David, you sort of distanced yourself from the show in the last season, but you were really the one who was big into getting this movie done. Why is that? Is it a love/hate relationship for you?

David> 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 or the actual people. The love/hate had to do with me wanting to get on with the rest of my life and the rest of my career. 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 20 years old, or whatever, but they’re completely re-cast. 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, every day, for many, many hours, playing the same characters. It’s just natural to burn out. There was always love for the show and love for the character. There was never any hate for that.

MediaBlvd> What was it like to work in the severe weather conditions in Canada?

Gillian> 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 18 below. Fortunately, it didn’t stay there for too long, but I was out there for probably a good couple of weeks. It’s beautiful, but it’s also exhausting.

David> I had to work in one of the most beautiful ski resorts in the world for almost three weeks. Pity me. But, it’s hard sometimes. The logistics of it is that you’re out in the middle of nowhere and you’re running around in the freezing rain or snow, and you don’t get a chance to go off and warm up in your trailer because 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. It’s a pain in the ass, but you just suck it up. You know it’s not going to be that long, but your feet are cold, your ass is cold, your hands are cold and your muscles are cold. You just suck it up. And, when you see it on film, it’s just gorgeous. You look at those big snowflakes coming down in the movie and it’s worth it.

Gillian> It’s beautiful.