One can never mention “The X-Files” without conjuring the image of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, but according to the former, he nearly said no to the series when it was first created.
In a recent episode of “Literally! With Rob Lowe” podcast, Duchovny revealed that he had actually considered turning down filming the pilot after getting another acting job with a friend.
“I had gotten a couple of scenes in this movie of the week, and it was a director who I was friendly with, and I was going to have to pull out of that part to do The X-Files pilot,” he explained. “I said to my agents, ‘I don’t want to do that. You know, she’s a friend, and I don’t want to pull out.’”
Duchovny admitted that he even thought that the show would not last as it was about the extraterrestrials.
“I wasn’t interested in conspiracy theories and I was perfectly willing to just say, ‘I’m going to have to pass on that pilot, because I said I’d do this other project,’” he said.
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| Duchovny as FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder in 2018 vs 1993 |
Fortunately for the actor, he had very convincing agents who told him that it would be a mistake to turn down the project.
“It’s scary to think back on, if you didn’t open this door, or you took that left instead of that right. It’s like, none of it had to happen. You talk about actors being dumb… well, that was me,” he added light-heartedly.
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| Mulder and Scully reunited in the 2018 revival, also known as the eleventh season |
When Lowe asked if there will be another X-Files movie in the future, Duchovny said that the question should be asked to Fox instead as the network owns the property.
“You know, they’re weird because it’s…a big-ticket property and you think, why wouldn’t you try to do another one? So, I don’t know,” he added.
“The X-Files” was originally aired in September 1993, and went on to air for nine seasons before it ended in 2002. It was later revived as a six-episode series in 2016, and again in 2018 with ten episodes. The franchise also released two movies, “The X-Files: Flight of the Future” (1998) and “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” (2008).
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| “The X-Files” ran for eleven seasons |