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DD and GA Discussing the Former Strain in Their Relationship

All right, so!

I've divided this post into three main sections: "THE SHORT ANSWER" (the quote to end all quotes), "IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER" (most, but not all, of the times David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson discussed their relationship), and "A NOTE ON JOURNALISM" (an honest look at media misrepresentation.) Also, there's a subsection titled "IN RETROSPECT" which quickly sums up the first nine years.

**Note**: This post excludes any talk about wages or lawsuits, as well as rumors of a more personal relationship between them (to be explored in future~)

THE SHORT ANSWER

February 8, 2016:

Towards the end [of the original run], rumours emerged of on-set arguments between the two stars. The drama about unexplained phenomena was riven by unexplained personal difficulties. “We’d spent eight or nine years working together 12 to 14 hours a day,” Duchovny tells RT. “On top of that, we went from complete obscurity to worldwide stardom. Not just America. I think we both went somewhat crazy. It’s such a big change in someone’s life and such a strain on one’s time to make a show like that, so we both went a little nuts. You’d have to, right?

“At times we were nuts with one another, where she [Anderson] was acting crazy or I was acting crazy, or we were both acting crazy. But the thing about being crazy is you don’t know you’re crazy. I look back now and say, ‘Oh, I was a little nuts.’ And I think Gillian would say the same. We both appreciate why the other was crazy. We get it, and forgive.”

A NOTE ON JOURNALISM

Both actors expressed frustration, in the past and present, with the media, press, tabloids, and what-have-you that had (and have) the power to frame one's words and experiences through a crafted lens.

UPROXX deftly described that bias in their February 2016 article:

In September 1997, 28-year-old X-Files star Gillian Anderson took out full-page ads in both The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety thanking the cast and crew of her mega-hit FOX series after neglecting to mention creator Chris Carter, the show's writers and, most glaringly, co-star David Duchovny during her acceptance speech at the Emmys earlier that week. The E! Online rundown of the kerfuffle is particularly harsh in its assessment of the actress:

On Wednesday, Anderson bought full-page ads…to pay tribute, albeit belated, to the cast and crew of her Fox show. That's right. The cast and crew. You know, the people she forgot and/or declined and/or ran out of time to thank on Sunday night when she picked up an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. “I would like to sincerely thank Chris Carter, my dear friend and creator of The X-Files,” Anderson's five-sentence make-good begins. The ad also offers a nod to her costar, David Duchovny. “Your talent has always inspired me–without your 'Mulder' there would be no 'Scully,'” it reads. While there was no comment Thursday from Anderson's camp as to the reason behind the print campaign, it has been reported that the 28-year-old actress' colleagues weren't exactly big fans of her Emmy acceptance speech.

The report goes on to relate how Anderson “gushed effusively over presenter Helen Mirren and then turned her attention to her family–a family, she says, that still treats her like a real human being and presumably not like the World Class Master Thespian she is.”

Aside from the snark, arguably the most telling part of the article comes in a short paragraph near the end, when the writer describes how the actress's “attempt at self-effacing humor was met with meek laughter…and a stone-faced reaction shot from Duchovny.”

Except when you watch the clip now, it quickly becomes apparent just how overblown E!'s description of the moment was. Before getting up to accept the award Anderson not only leans back to give Duchovny a kiss, but the actor's so-called “stone-faced reaction” instead plays as, well, intent listening. While it's impossible to know how Duchovny really felt or what hurt feelings, if any, went on behind the scenes, if nothing else the E! piece offers a window into “the media's” capacity to twist the split-second, wordless reactions of public figures into something ugly. And without the benefit of YouTube, where we now have the capacity to judge and re-judge these things for ourselves, it's easy to understand how little it took for E! to make a proverbial mountain out of a molehill.

Despite the press's unfair treatment of the situation at the time, like any long-time co-stars — and certainly even more than many long-time co-stars — Anderson and Duchovny's working relationship was clearly a complicated web spun from rigorous 16-hour working days, disputes over contracts and compensation (Anderson was paid considerably less than Duchovny for several seasons of the original series, and initially offered half his salary for the revival) and the inevitable personality clashes that arise between people forced into close quarters over a long period of time. Both Duchovny and Anderson have described the relationship as akin to a “marriage,” but perhaps it's their alternative rendering of it as “a brother-sister” dynamic that's more apt. Like siblings, actors don't normally have the luxury of choosing their co-stars.

Just something to keep in mind.

IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

THE EARLY YEARS

November 2024, regarding 1993-1994:

According to Duchovny, tensions between the two got so bad during the show’s first season that series creator Chris Carter suggested an unusual solution.

“I think we were kind of butting heads so early on in the first season that Chris asked us if we would go into fake couples therapy,” Duchovny said. “Would we go into, like, TV character couple therapy?”

“I remember sitting in his office with you,” the What Happens Later star told Anderson, who said she did not recall the conversation, “and Chris is like, ‘Yeah, do you guys wanna go, like, into therapy?’ And I was like, ‘You mean as Mulder and Scully? I’m confused…’”

October 1994:

EXTRA: Several extra questions came up online asking how is it working with David Duchovny and the second part of that extra question is it really possible to fall in love with someone else when you work with him everyday?

GILLIAN: Oh dear. I don't suppose those were women that asked the extra question, were they. Let me see what should I answer first. Is it possible, well obviously it's possible to fall in love with someone else while working with David everyday and how is it working with David. Well you know sometimes we don't see each other very much because we're not working in the same, a lot of times we work together but after working together for so long, every single day, sometime 16 hour days back to back its like a brother or sister in the house. It's like Hi, Bye. See ya, later. And you know I've gotten used to David and what he looks like so I'm not constantly walking by and going Oh My, is he gorgeous, not that I ever did but, joking. You know it's become a working relationship. We're not best friends. We probably would not prefer to see each other than we would to see each other just because we have to see each other all the time and we just show up and we do the job and say goodnight.

November 1994:

"Neil in Victoria (11 years old) asks if GA & David Duchovny are good friends off the screen?

GILLIAN: "It's a lot of work to work with someone as intensely as we do on a daily basis. Our relationship shifts and changes, and on the weekends we don't hang out because we're sick of seeing each other all week!"

February 9, 1995:

A few days after getting [the Pilot], Anderson flew to Vancouver to start shooting. "David took me under his wing," Anderson recalls." [His reassurance] meant a lot to me, and still does, because it was a very scary time."

Anderson scoffs at rumors of a romance with Duchovny. "I love rumors that have no basis in reality that are funny," she says with a smile. "[They're] not hurting anybody." Duchovny, whose two-year relationship with actress Perrey Reeves ended only a few months ago, is less enchanted. "I think gossip is hurtful," he says, before turning blase. "You know, it doesn't matter to me."

NEEDING A BREAK

March 11, 1995:

David Duchovny is not happy. He stands behind Gillian Anderson in a barebones photo studio, resigned to having roll after roll of pictures taken on what promises to be another 16-hour day. Now that The X-Files has been crowned with a Golden Globe for best drama and is emerging from cult status to become a mainstream hit, the world is descending upon Vancouver, British Columbia, where the Fox series is shot and in all the X-citement, everyone wants a piece of the costars.

Anderson, sensing Duchovny's mood, looks down at his hand on her left shoulder and tries to brush it away, as if it were a mosquito. Then she turns and jumps into his arms, laughing, looking like a little girl making trouble for a protective older brother. Startled to be holding her, the smile on Duchovny's face is forced no longer. "When we first started X-files," says Anderson, "I was so green. It was only my second time in front of a camera. I desperately needed someone to show me the ropes. And he did that. He was wonderful."

Little wonder, then, that Anderson, 25, turned to David again when she was pregnant. It was last winter, they were still in the thick of their first season in a series showing real promise, and Anderson was worried about losing her job. "I went into his trailer," she recalls, "and I said, 'David, I'm pregnant.' It looked like his knees buckled. I think he said, 'Oh, my God.' And he asked me if it was a good thing. I said, 'Yeah, it is.' "No one else knew, and Duchovny kept it that way for weeks, until Anderson was ready to tell her producers and deal with the professional consequences. "We really trust each other," Duchovny says simply.

There is, between these two, a real-life camaraderie born of necessity, a friendship strong enough to survive too many work hours, and a chemistry powerful enough to rearrange the atoms on-screen. "Whenever we're acting together," says Anderson, "it's there." ...

"But we don't hang out," cautions Duchovny, 34. "We are very wary of the fact that at any moment the other can turn into a psychotic human being because of the demands that are put on us, the 16-hour days. So I know when she is very tired and irritable, and she knows the same about me. We have a great respect for the fine line the other is walking all the time."

THE UPS-AND-DOWNS OF AN INTENSE RELATIONSHIP

May 1996:

Q: Have you and David made a lot of public appearances together?

GILLIAN: We did at the beginning. Then the object was to individualize us a bit.

Q: Oh, so you are two different people?

GILLIAN: We are! ...

Q: How do you assess David [Duchovny]'s appeal?

GILLIAN: Obviously, the audience is only seeing his character, who's incredibly intelligent, kind, charming and sensitive. He's like the perfect romantic hero. And a lot of that is also David. He brings such a warmth and intelligence to the role and a smooth sexuality that I don't think anybody in their right mind could not find him attractive.

Q: There's a certain powerful sexuality in your characters' interaction even though you don't do it.

GILLIAN: We don't do it?

Q: You don't have sex. Except on our cover. Was it good for you, by the way?

GILLIAN: They just happen to show up in our hotel room. Was it good for me? Yes. I think what makes the relationship between Scully and Mulder sexy is the respect they have for one another. I'm sure that's very intriguing for the audience. ...

Q: In terms of life on this planet, has there ever been a huge blowup between you and David?

GILLIAN: Oh, they're ready for me!

With that, the interview subject runs off to finish a scene, although, inexplicably, it appears they're not quite ready for her yet.

February 20, 1997:

After four years, the stars have worked out some tricky underwater patterns of their own. "It's complicated," Anderson says. "We can be very in sync. And there are times when we are just in two different worlds and just coming in to do our work." Duchovny has contributed story ideas: Anderson as not. She feels that - because of her first-season pregnancy, which required a conspiracy malevolent enough to keep her offscreen for two weeks - she inadvertently turned the show toward its mythology episodes. "There are certain people on the show who are aware of that," she says. "And there are certain people on the show who don't want to admit that." ...

You can feel the competitiveness on the set. Duchovny is obviously the favored child. He kids around with the prop coordinators while Anderson accepts a massage from the set's masseuses and tries to focus. Duchovny seems surprised and mildly hurt that I'm here to talk only to Anderson. When he and I do speak for a moment, it doesn't get by her. As she collects her things and shuts her trailer's lights for the last time in 1996, she has a question: "What did you just talk about with David?"

May 1997:

They are not similar people, Anderson and Duchovny, but they are forced together in a coupling that the public views as idyllic, and because of this there is an oddly conspiratorial feel to their interaction. "It's a difficult relationship because it's like an arranged marriage," Duchovny says. "We didn't choose to be together." When the first question is asked -- "How has your personal dynamic changed over the course of four seasons?" -- they look at each other as if to make sure they're on the same page, and Duchovny begins speaking. "It changes all the time, right?" [Anderson nods in agreement.]

DUCHOVNY: It's not that it used to be one thing and it's another thing now. It's cyclic.

Are you in an up cycle at the moment?

ANDERSON: Today, yes.

DUCHOVNY: Or else we wouldn't be here.

Is it really that day-to-day?

DUCHOVNY: It's like any relationship, only intensified, because we can't take a break. I can't say, "I'm going for a walk." [Anderson laughs.]

Q: There's a feeling that fans want you to be great friends off the set.

DUCHOVNY: Or to be fighting.

Q: What's the reality?

DUCHOVNY: We've never socialized. Since the pilot, we've not gone out even once.

Q: Why is that?

ANDERSON: Soon after we started, I got married and had a baby. On top of that, after working so closely during the week, the days off are time to spend with other people.

Q: Do you ever communicate with each other through the press?

ANDERSON: Well, most of the time when we have discussions about the press, it has to do with mending things and saying, "It's not how I feel."

DUCHOVNY: Like, "When I said you were an a-hole, I meant to say motherf-er."

ANDERSON: Exactly. ...

Q: Do you turn to each other for career advice?

ANDERSON: There have been defining moments over the past four years where we have, not necessarily for career advice, but when we have both been there for each other for support.

Q: Examples? We love examples.

ANDERSON: Well, I won't give any.

DUCHOVNY: When my goldfish died.

ANDERSON: But most of the time, we have our own separate support systems and deal with things in our own way.

DUCHOVNY: I guess the only thing we'd talk about now is when we want to do the X-Files movie. I think we both want to do it as soon as possible so we can get it over with. [Anderson looks genuinely startled.]

DUCHOVNY: Oh. [Pause] I don't know if you do.

ANDERSON: Have we talked about it?

DUCHOVNY: We did a little bit early in the year. ...

As Kim Manners explains it: "They're totally different human beings, but they can just look at each other and know exactly where they're going in a scene." He stops for a moment before continuing: "It's weird. David and Gillian are the best of acquaintances; Scully and Mulder are best friends."

October 1997:

GILLIAN: [Suddenly swings around and fixes her gaze on a lanky, shirtless man with quite well-defined abdominals as he slumps into a lounge chair by the pool] Hey, you get to see David Duchovny in shorts. {laughs happily}

US: David and Tea Leoni recently got married. Were you surprised?

GILLIAN: I was and I wasn't. At that point, I'd met Tea once and I knew just by the way they were together that there was something different about the relationship than there'd been with the previous girlfriend. So when I heard, I wasn't surprised they got married. But I was sort of surprised that he didn't tell me first. But I don't tell him stuff, either. I mean, he's a friend, and I care about him. And once in a while we share intimate information. Basically, we just work together. What I also didn't expect is that he called me from New York when he was making his "I'm sorry I didn't tell you" calls.

US: How many calls do you think he made before he got around to you?

GILLIAN: I wouldn't venture to guess. [laughs]

October 26, 1997:

“We have a relationship that is completely odd and fabricated,” Duchovny says. “We’ve been thrown together, two people who don’t know each other, and we’ve been forced to spend more time together than married people do. So you can’t describe our relationship as ‘like’ or ‘dislike.’ ”

Sounds a little frosty.

“It is frosty,” Gillian Anderson agrees when she is read Duchovny’s description of their relationship. “But it’s accurate.” She laughs. “It’s not that we don’t like each other. It’s complicated.”

January 1998:

The laugh returns when Anderson is asked to address the seemingly ongoing tabloid reports of discord between Anderson and co-star David Duchovny regarding topics as diverse as equal pay and Duchovny’s new wife, Tea Leoni, being on the set.

“All those reports are so insane! In terms of the pay dispute, that was all handled by the people at Fox. I don’t think there was ever more than a one minute discussion about the money between David and I. There was a story about me slamming my trailer door and not talking to David because of the salary thing, and that was just ludicrous. If I’m angry at him about the money or anything else, I’ll tell him.

"But the money thing is not about David. It’s about paying two people who are doing the same job, the same amount of money regardless of sex. It’s not David’s fault he’s making what he’s making. There’s never been a reason to take it out on him.”

And the blowup with Tea Leoni? “I’m not the person who kicks somebody’s wife off the set. At the point that supposedly happened, I hadn’t even met her.”

June 2, 1998:

"You don't have other examples of a two-person show that comes back five seasons," says Duchovny, who found love in his personal life, marrying actress Tea Leoni last year. "You have ensembles, but two-person shows explode, because it's tough to work like that. It's an arranged marriage.

"Obviously we're not as close as Mulder and Scully. We don't hang out. We've got a good working relationship. The fact that we are still doing the show speaks for itself.

"I feel fine going to work and seeing Gillian , and I feel fine when the day is over. We're friendly, we're friends, but it's not more than that. It's not less. It works."

Anderson doesn't seem surprised to hear that Duchovny has compared working together to a marriage.

"We spend so much time together that it's like we were married," says the now-single actress. "I would hope that a marriage was a little more intimate than our relationship.

"We have a strong working relationship, but our private relationship isn't very strong. We share some things sometimes with each other, but we have that separate outlet through other people in our lives."

June 1998:

"We don't really need to talk all the time or gossip," he says. "We've worked together so much we don't want to. We have a relationship of reliance more than a friendship. The interaction we have, we save for work. We save it all up for the camera. It's like a superstition almost."

Anderson addresses the subject a bit more bluntly: "We're not close. Once in a while we find ourselves in intimate conversation, but we don't visit each other on the weekends."

[**Note**: GA was in pain this interview-- an inflamed cornea-- which may or may not have affected her answers.]

June 18 1998:

Charlie Rose: Well, are you two close? David Duchovny: Not personally. [Charlie Rose: Yeah]. We're close professionally as can be-- Charlie Rose: Yeah, I mean, there's respect and admiration and-- as colleagues would have-- David Duchovny: She's the other one holding the other side of the rope, you know? I mean-- [Charlie Rose: Yeah.] I rely on her. I trust her and she does me. We don't, you know-- Charlie Rose: Why haven't you bonded? David Duchovny: Well, we have bonded in certain way. Charlie Rose: In a professional way. David Duchovny: Yeah. Charlie Rose: But, I mean, you're not friends. You don't go out to dinner. You're not-- David Duchovny: No. No, because it's enough. You know, we spend so much time together. And, in fact-- Charlie Rose: Plus you have something very engaging to go home to-- David Duchovny: Yes, but even if-- even if I didn't I would just have my own solitude that I would want after a day on the set of The X-Files. But it's funny 'cause Tea and I -- my wife -- just had a little party in our new house. I hadn't-- It's my first party that I've ever given really in my life, and Gillian came. I invited Gillian, and she came. And, when she came, I said, ''You know, this is really screwed up because I can't any longer say that we don't socialize.''

October 1998:

While it's common knowledge that Anderson and Duchovny don't socialize off camera, there's no denying their chemistry. Fortunately for the actors and X-philes alike, the chemistry is practically automatic; it just happens when the roll. "Really, the chemistry between us is beyond our control. We're very thankful for it, and we don't take it for granted. There's nothing really to build anymore," Anderson notes. "It's there, and our characters shift and change as the time passes. We come together and we fall apart, just like David and I do."

TIMEOUTS AND GRATITUDE

January 2000:

Q: And what about you and Gillian? For years, there have been rumors that the two of you don’t like each other.

DD: It’s always been fine. We’re just not Mulder and Scully. We’re not going to lay our lives down for each other, yet we do like each other.

2000:

Q: What’s the dynamic between you and Gillian when you’re not working? Do you have any relationship at all?

A: Not really. We’re friendly.

Q: Has she come over to see the baby?

A: No. It’s always been that we’ve spent so much time together we don’t want to see each other when we’re not working. Not that we don’t like each other, it’s just she has a life and so do I.

September 22, 2000:

Still, in light of previous comments Anderson has made (in an October 1999 Access Hollywood interview, she spoke of being ”physically, psychologically … spent,” and said of a then-projected eighth season, ”It would be a big mistake to try and draw it out. It would be great to go out with a modicum of respect”), that she re-upped at all seems an attitude adjustment drastic enough to do any of X‘s morphing villains proud. She attributes those grousings to a long-running ennui on both her and Duchovny’s part. ”David and I kind of settled into a rhythm of just showing up and doing the work,” she says. ”We’d get little bursts of stuff here and there, but it was dragging.” Now, having worked with the fleshed-out Doggett character, she reports, the show ”has got a whole new life.”

Season 8 commentary, reflecting on 2001:

"My second-to-last-day, when I shot my last scene with Gillian, was very emotional and very sad," Duchovny said. "I really *hadn't* pondered the weight of eight years coming to a close until I was in the middle of the scene and realized that this would be the last time I was going to do Mulder and Scully on the show. It was sad and very heavy, but not depressing. It was an acknowledgement of a lot of time, effort, and love."

-- Kim Manners' DVD commentary about the final scene goes exactly like this: "This was David and Gillian's last scene together and we shot it on the last day. As they come together to kiss, you will see the camera pull back out the door and that was the last shot of David and Gillian together. And we wrapped, and David and Gillian stood in that room together alone and held each other for a good five minutes. They didn't talk, they didn't move, they just held each other, with tears running down their faces. It was a very touching moment and one I will never forget. And I think we got the kiss in one take."

August 2002:

After two years of will-they-or-won't-they return false starts, the reality that the end is near has struck the red-haired actress full force. "I woke up feeling so emotional today," Anderson admits on a bright Friday afternoon, with just four more episodes -- including the show's two-hour finale -- still to shoot. "This is surreal. It's only started to hit me these past couple of days. It feels like nine years was so short....

While parting will be such sweet sorrow, "ultimately, it is good for everybody. Everybody has put in such a good effort over the years, and have really tried to keep the quality of the show up and continue with its integrity as much as it can. But there's a time for everything to end, and I think that this is the right time..."

Anderson also notes that she will miss the show itself, "the whole thing, the whole living, breathing being that it is. There are certainly trees in that forest that I can visualize -- missing Kim Manners, and Chris and David and the crew, and just being on set. I do know that my experience of this will be a full experience of letting go of the [show]."

I WANT TO BELIEVE

April 24, 2005:

The D stands for Dear Old Friends. David Duchovny got a call from one of those last weekend.

"I pick up my cell phone and it's a very familiar voice I haven't heard in over a year," says the actor, who makes his directorial debut in the film "House of D," which opens Friday.

Yes, the former Agent Fox Mulder of "The X Files" was again listening to the mellow tones of Agent Dana Scully.

She was not on the line to report an alien attack in the City of Angels.

"Gillian Anderson was in Los Angeles and she caught my movie," Duchovny says. "She wanted to call to say she really loved it and that meant so much to me because the call was out of the blue. I haven't spoken to her in over a year. We e-mail, but it was good to hear the voice of a friend."

Miscellaneous quotes:

[On his on screen chemistry with Gillian Anderson:] It is nice and natural with Gillian, It was nice to work with her again. I don't know why we have such good chemistry, it is really mystical. We have always worked really well together. It is always easy to work with her.

[On how his relationship with Gillian Anderson is now:] It is very good, yes it is. We have a very good relationship. Different than when it was when we were shooting The X-Files, we are both not exhausted all the time.

IN RETROSPECT

August 1, 2008:

Q: When was the last time you saw Gillian Anderson prior to shooting the film?

DD: It had been a number of years but when you spend that much time with someone it doesn’t feel like you’ve been apart. She’s like my sister.

Q: After working so closely together for eight years you must have been sick of the sight of each other.

DD: Absolutely. Familiarity breeds contempt. It’s nothing to do with the other person. All that fades away and you’re just left with the appreciation and love for the people you’ve worked with for so long. We used to argue about nothing. We couldn’t stand the sight of each other.

April 16, 2008:

Shock: What’s that like with David now that you’re not with each other 16 hours a day on a series? Anderson: It’s great, but it was great then, too. This is like a sibling relationship and I never had siblings. I had brothers and sisters that started when I was 13, so I was out of the house and didn’t have that experience. There was always this love/hate – hate is too big of a word – but there was always something. It was a natural relationship over a period of time. Now we’ve grown up and we’re older, we’re more appreciative of the relationship period and the unique experience we had together and have an opportunity to continue that and foster it. We’ve always loved each other and we’re always going to be a battle sometimes.

July 22, 2008:

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.

THE IN-BETWEEN YEARS

November 24, 2010:

Q: 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.

October 2014:

Q: Was there a sense of almost a bunker mentality where you were at least going through this process with David? You mentioned he had more experience, he had done some bigger films but still the phenomenon that emerged within the first couple years was pretty remarkable. Did it help to have him there too and kind of like “Are you getting this too? Are you going through this too? Is this weird?”

A: No. No, not really. We talk about the fact that it’s crazy that we didn’t. And that we didn’t take advantage of the fact that we had each other but it was complicated. These were long hours that we were working. We spent more time in each other’s presence than we did with our, you know, spouses and children, etc.But also, you know, I think we p-ed each other off, quite frankly. And I have no doubt that after they’re waiting – we’re gonna roll and somebody has to come in and redo my lips and the difference between the maintenance for guys and gals and we’re shooting in all weather – you know, we never shut down except for one day for weather in the entire show. We were shooting up in Vancouver through rain, sleet, everything. And my hair would frizz up to here in between takes and they’d have to get the blow dryer out under the tent and we’d be waiting for Gillian’s hair to do another take. You know, that p-es you right off. It adds up. So I, you know, I’m sure there were plenty of things he did that p-ed me off too. It just wasn’t, you know, but on the other hand.. NOW, we get to talk about that and we’re probably closer than we’ve ever been.

THE REVIVAL

February 8, 2015:

Not surprisingly, she and Duchovny also became the story – according to the press, they were having an affair, hated each other or both. “I mean, yes, there were definitely periods when we hated each other.” She starts again. “Hate is too strong a word. We didn’t talk for long periods of time. It was intense, and we were both pains in the a*** for the other at various times.”

How was Duchovny a pain in the a*** for her? “Erm ...” Ten seconds pass without a word. Meanwhile, her smile gets wider and wider till it’s halfway up her cheeks. “I’m not going to get into it. I’m not even going to begin to get into that. But we are closer today than we ever have been.”

December 2015:

We made 202 episodes in the end, over nine seasons, and worked long 16-, 17-hour days. David and I were in almost every scene for years - often at night, in the rain, on location. So much of it was shot in the dark, with us lighting ourselves by flashlight, in all kinds of weather, and in the forest. Oh, the forests. When the show finally moved to Los Angeles I can’t say we missed them, or the weather, but Vancouver really did set the mood for the show in a fundamental way.

And then there’s that undeniable chemistry between the two of them, the two of us, David and me. That was present from our first exchange. That thing that drove fans crazy, regardless of whether David and I were even speaking to each other at any given time. You can’t fake that. It’s bigger than the two of us, and is there for the service of the series and its fans....

If we didn’t know it already by the time we wrapped this latest series, David and I were both profoundly aware of how lucky we have been. How fortunate we are to have played these two characters who have had such an impact on television, defined a genre, found affection with so many people - and lasted for so many years.

December 23, 2015:

TVLINE | Do you have a better appreciation for what a gift The X-Files has been to you than maybe you did during the initial run of the show?

DD: I always had an appreciation for it. It was a career-making show. Aside from my gratitude for whatever business it brought my way, it also afforded me a chance to go to work every day. If I ever did not have an appreciation for the show it was probably [during the final seasons] when I think we were just tired, and antsy to go out and do other things. I'm sure there were times when I was dying to get off the show, but it wasn't because of the show. It was because it was a grind.

TVLINE | And how has your relationship with Gillian changed?

DD: We've been good for quite a while work-wise. Whatever difficulties we may have had over the years [stemmed from] what I said earlier about wanting to get off the show… the fatigue and a hot-house feeling of being in the same room with the same people for nine years. We're good now. We have a shorthand and I really enjoy working with her a lot. That was probably the easiest part of transitioning back into the show was our work together.

December 28, 2015:

Of course, the question we had been unconsciously skirting was the obvious one. To say that Anderson’s relationship with Duchovny had been well documented would imply that everything reported about them was true, and given how contradictory it was, that seems unlikely. They were said to be lovers; they were said to hate each other; there was chemistry or there was pure acid. Suffice it to say that a great deal of attention has been paid, over the years, to their pairing. The onscreen-offscreen slippage was, surely, intentional — their frisson fueled the show, and they knew it. In 1996, Anderson and Duchovny appeared locked in an embrace on the cover of Rolling Stone, lying in bed together naked.

“We’re probably closer today than we’ve ever been,” Anderson told me. Whatever happens with the new series, The X-Files is a fixture in the pop-culture firmament, and she and Duchovny now understand that, in her words, “it’s just the two of us that have had this particular unique experience.” In the past, she reflected, “I don’t think that was necessarily important enough an element to draw us together.” But they both have children, and their friendship has grown. “I think we’re old enough to realize,” she said, maybe a little coyly, “that there’s value in our staying onside and supporting each other.”

January 19, 2016:

Duchovny and Anderson weren’t always so easygoing on set, and they presented about as far from a united front as two co-leads could. “The crucible of doing that show made monsters out of both of us,” Duchovny admits, but says that reuniting on “I Want to Believe” changed things for the better. “Once we got to step back, it was like, ‘Oh, wow, we really like each other. I didn’t know that was going to happen.’

“The way we work together has changed,” he adds. “Whatever rapport we have as actors, we earned. It’s nice to be able to play that without ever even feeling like you’re playing it.”

Anderson agrees. “Our relationship has definitely become a proper friendship over the last few years. I think we’re more on each other’s side. We’re more aware of the other’s needs, wants, concerns, and mindful to take those into consideration— and just sharing more about our experiences in the moment, under the sudden realization that we’re both in this together, and wouldn’t it be nice if it were a collaboration?”

January 23, 2016:

Q: And has it been fun [on the show]? Duchovny: There have been fun days. Anderson: Today is a fun day. Yeah. Duchovny: Yeah. It’s fun to work with Gillian. To me, that’s been the most fun part, just doing this thing again that we do. ...

Q: Did you talk at all before you got here, gear up for the return? Anderson: No, I wouldn’t say “gearing-up.” We have an ongoing relationship that’s mostly based on logistics, mostly based in email. Duchovny: We’re not living together? Anderson: We email each other across the road.

There’s a lot of fan fiction out there where you guys are living together. Duchovny: I know. Anderson: We talked about it over breakfast a couple of times but, other than that, it was just having the conversation about what we now had decided to do and getting excited. If you looked at the track of our emails, it would be increasing enthusiasm. And then decreasing enthusiasm. Duchovny: And then no emails at all.

February 8, 2016:

Towards the end [of the original run], rumours emerged of on-set arguments between the two stars. The drama about unexplained phenomena was riven by unexplained personal difficulties. “We’d spent eight or nine years working together 12 to 14 hours a day,” Duchovny tells RT. “On top of that, we went from complete obscurity to worldwide stardom. Not just America. I think we both went somewhat crazy. It’s such a big change in someone’s life and such a strain on one’s time to make a show like that, so we both went a little nuts. You’d have to, right?

“At times we were nuts with one another, where she [Anderson] was acting crazy or I was acting crazy, or we were both acting crazy. But the thing about being crazy is you don’t know you’re crazy. I look back now and say, ‘Oh, I was a little nuts.’ And I think Gillian would say the same. We both appreciate why the other was crazy. We get it, and forgive.”

March 11, 2016:

On the tension between her and co-star, David Duchovny, Gillian said there was tension “for a long time”: “We’ve always gotten along and we’ve been decent friends but we were down each other’s throat for so long… We were always together.”

Joking that they fell out about her hair, Gillian laughed: “It’s so stupid. I can’t talk about this without just laughing and laughing, it’s just so silly. It takes women a lot longer than it takes men because, it’s very damp in Vancouver and so my hair gets frizzy so we shoot in the rain all the time and then I’m a drowned rat and then we have to wait around for them to blowdry it and everything and so there’s a lot of waiting because of me. It didn’t encourage our [friendship] but I got it, I understood… We were too much together but we’re incredibly friendly now.”

June 17, 2016:

Anderson: David and I have solidified and intensified our friendship and our working relationship since the series ended, so it really is just going back and choosing to work with somebody, and feeling like we are doing something that only the two of us have the experience of. We’re there for each other, and enjoy that in and of itself. It was something I looked forward to with this series, and something I would potentially look forward to doing again. It’s a nice thing to have in one’s life.

Duchovny: I agree with that....

THE PRESENT DAY

August 5, 2024:

[Gillian Anderson], 55, addressed the moment in which she and her X-Files costar, 63, shared a kiss before she turned to then-boyfriend Rodney Rowland for a smooch after winning Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series nearly three decades ago.

“OK so I’ve been told that you guys want some information about when I won the [Emmy] back about a century ago and I kissed David first and why did I not kiss my boyfriend Rodney,” she shared in an Instagram video.

“The fact is that David and I were actually living together and Rodney was my beard,” she teased before quickly clarifying, “I’m joking, that’s just a joke. Is that really mean?”

“I don’t know why I kissed [David] first [at the 1997 Emmys],” she shared. “I guess because he was on the show with me and we were practically married because we spent more time with each other than we did with our loved ones. We were there to celebrate the series and so yeah. Maybe? Maybe that’s what it was?”

The actress — who starred as Dana Scully on the Fox series — shared that Rowland was “a great guy,” adding, “[I] don’t think it bothered him. He understood. It was complex.” ...

To the delight of their fans, Duchovny and Anderson have remained good friends over the years. In 2021, the two caught up in over lunch and shared a selfie on Instagram that went viral.

"I was having lunch with [Gillian], and as I was leaving she was like, 'Let's take a photo,'" Duchovny told PEOPLE In 2021. "I was told there was a big reaction to it! I never get that stuff, but it's really cool that people are interested after all these years."

Now, more than 30 years after The X-Files debuted, Duchovny understands why his friendship with Anderson has endured for as long as it has.

“When you share a seminal kind of experience in your life — this huge success with the show that we had — only we know what it's like to be in the center of that,” he explained. “It's almost like being in the same family. We know what it was like to be raised in that time. There's a certain kind of shared experience, knowledge, and past that never goes away.”

November 2024:

“We know each other very deeply and yet we don’t know each other either in some weird way,” Duchovny, 64, said.

Over the past 30-plus years, in which the duo have starred together in a total of 11 seasons of The X-Files as well as two spin-off films, Duchovny said, “I don’t know that we ever sat down and said, ‘Hey, what was your childhood like?’ ”

“We didn’t. And why would we? We were busy,” Anderson agreed. “We have a closeness that we don’t have with probably many other people, and went through something that we didn’t go through with any other people. I mean, yes, there were crew and etcetera, but in terms of our experience as actors. And so, I thought it would be a curious investigation.”

Duchovny admitted that he thought the “trickiest” part of their conversation would be addressing what he called his “failure of friendship.”

“There was a long time, working on the show, where we were just not even dealing with one another off-camera,” Duchovny recalled. “And there was a lot of tension. Which didn’t matter, apparently, for the work cause we’re both f------ crazy, I guess. We could just go out there and do what we needed to do.”

“That is kinda crazy,” Anderson agreed. “I mean, it’s crazy that we were able to present on camera, you know, the various feelings and emotions and attraction and all that kind of stuff, but then not speak to each other for weeks at a time.”

Duchovny suggested that it may have been a smart choice. “Cause we’re, like, savin’ it up. I don’t know,” he said. “But I could've handled myself better, you know? And as you know, we went through a crazy-making kind of a process with this thing. We went from — I mean, I was pretty inexperienced. You were really inexperienced. And all of a sudden … It was like a global phenomenon before the Internet. And we’re just scurrying, trying to figure out who we are.”

BONUS

Tea Leoni's--

2000:

INTERVIEWER: What’s your take on his relationship with Gillian Anderson?

TEA LEONI: “It’s complicated. It rivals some sibling relationships I’ve seen. And some married couples I’ve seen.”

--and Mitch Pileggi's thoughts on the matter--

January 17, 2000:

Q: Describe the on and off-screen relationship between David and Gillian. On-screen, they have an awesome chemistry- they cook together. Off-screen they're both actors doing their jobs- they get along fine, but you can imagine how many hours they've been together over the last seven years. If I had to look at another person that much, I'd probably hate them. They don't hang out together, but they get on amazingly well for the amount of time they have to spend together.

Q: So, none of the rumours about the two of them feuding are true? I think they're too tired to feud. It takes too much energy for that crap.

CONCLUSION

I think two things can be true:

David and Gillian had obvious respect for each other; but they also wanted to carve out space and a career separate from each other. Both even predicted they'd be closer friends off the show than on.

They were "crazy," needed to prove themselves, and were just trying to survive the chaos of 90s stardom.

And most importantly, this whole string of quotes is their past-- one we care more to dissect than they care to remember (ironically.)

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