David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson Re-Open The X-Files

During this weekend's Wondercon MovieWeb was able to go behind-the-scenes of the convention floor to have a secret little chat with actor David Duchonvy and actress Gillian Anderson to talk about coming back to The X-Files after a 6 year hiatus from the show ended. The truth follows...

Earlier it was stated that we get to see the characters in a whole new way...

David Duchovny: In the general sense, there's a journey to be had. You either start at the top or the bottom for a journey to happen. Our movie has to start at the top and work it's way down. Or start at the bottom and work it's way up.

How does it feel to be back?

Gillian Anderson: We've all been very excited. When we were rehearsing it and finally got on set together, it was a good feeling.

David Duchovny: I'm just happy we didn't come [to WonderCon] before shooting. It'd be too much pressure, sometimes it's good to work in a vacuum. If we started shooting tomorrow after this, I'd be like "I can't satisfy!" They want too much! They love us too much!"

Do you feel a certain responsibility over characters who have gotten larger than life?

David Duchovny: I don't think you could function on set if you think like that. I think once you start to think of the impact, then you're not really coming from a truthful place. I think the best thing to do for me is what's worked in the past. Trust Chris and trust Gillian that we're doing our work right. But if we're wrong, it's the first time we've been wrong.

Can you talk about the working relationship while getting back in the groove?

Gillian Anderson: There's something incredibly familiar when we get to work together. There's a natural rhythm that we step into. It depends what the scene is and how it's written and how it allows us to play on old dynamics.

When did you realize The X-Files was part of our culture?

Gillian Anderson: Probably the 3rd season. It actually hit me. We were working every weekend doing magazine covers and press.

In the 6 years away, was it good to creatively ferment ideas for the characters?

David Duchovny: I wouldn't say we were doing that. I think we probably stopped thinking. Though it took a while to stop thinking.

How did you get back into character?

Gillian Anderson: Every now and then we'd meet up and reminisce about the characters. At the beginning, shortly after we started shooting, someone sent me some clips put together on youtube. It was the first time I'd seen something like that. "The intimate moments of Mulder and Scully."

David Duchovny: Very romantic (laughs)

Gillian Anderson: And it was actually a good thing for me to see, to step in the shoes of some of the audience members and see the history of the relationship and try to honor that again.

David Duchovny: You're kinda striding the line of what's yours and theirs. What's yours (points to us), what's mine, what's ours as creators of it and what's yours as owners.

Conspiracy theories in general have exploded with youtube, mass communication, broadband, all that. Did you look into those to fill your head and get motivated?

David Duchovny: No, I remain a guy who skates on the surface of...I mean, I know how to e-mail.

Gillian Anderson: I think I visited youtube by myself for the first time this year.

TV and movies are different mediums, is it a different process to adapt to?

Gillian Anderson: Doing it for a film is different from doing it for a television series. We've only done one other film and there's a difference in lifting something to the big screen, I think, to wrap one's brain around that when one's brain is actually used to doing the TV more. It's kind of odd.

David Duchovny: It's an interesting challenge as an actor. It's not quite like being in a play, where you're re-creating the character every night from the beginning, but it is something like that, I would imagine. There's a certain kind of honoring of the past work that you've done. So it's tricky. It's interesting. That makes it interesting.

David, at the end of the series, there was understandable ambivalence. You had done it so long, you wanted to go out and do other things. Now that so much time has passed, are you interested in doing another film in the series?

David Duchovny: Of course. Going out and doing other things was only a matter of the fact that we were busy 10 months out of the year doing that. It was never a hatred of "that thing," it was only a hatred of the fact that I couldn't get out and do anything else.

Is Californication coming back for another season?

David Duchovny: Oh ya.

Are you done shooting that?

David Duchovny: Late April.

Gillian, do you know what you're doing next after The X-Files?

Gillian Anderson: Something in South Africa, something in Chicago.

Are you doing to direct anything?

Gillian Anderson: Ya, I hope to, there's something I've been hoping to finish and direct for a really long time and I'm still committed to that being the first feature that I direct.

David, do you have a project in the drawer?

David Duchovny: Ya, time and money. When the money comes together and I have time.

for our interview with excutive producer Frank Spotnitz and director Chris Carter.

The X-Files 2 is in theaters July 25th.