David Duchovny RecallsX-FilesCreator Suggesting He and Gillian Anderson Go to Couples Therapy After 'Butting Heads'

Mar. 15, 2025

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in ‘The X-Files’ in 1996.Photo:Fox/Liaison/Getty

Fox/Liaison/Getty

David DuchovnyandGillian Andersonare revisiting some of the rougher patches during their time onThe X-Files.

The actors and long-time friends costared in Fox’s hit paranormal drama from 1993 to 2002, returning to their roles as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully in a pair of spin-off movies — 1998’sThe X-Filesand 2008’sThe X-Files: I Want to Believe— and a two-season revival of the series in 2016 and 2018.

Duchovny told PEOPLE in June that as early as their audition process forThe X-Files,he and Anderson felt“an immediate connection through the work that we could do, and that lasted for a long, long time.”

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in ‘The X-Files’ in 2000.FOX Image Collection via Getty

FOX Image Collection via Getty

But in the most recent episode of his Lemonada Media podcastFail Better, the two costars share an intimate, candid conversation about the tougher times duringThe X-Files’ initial nine-season run, admitting that there were periods when theywouldn’t speak off-camera for weeks.

“I have an image of, like, the most dysfunctional we ever were,” Duchovny, 64, told Anderson, 56. “It was some Emmys, and it was the day after, and I had a private plane, and I was giving you a ride.”

“You were late, and I was so angry, and then we sat on this private plane flying to Vancouver from L.A., not talking, and you wrote me a letter,” he recalled. “So, you’re just, like, six feet away from me writing a letter to me that you give to me. And it’s a beautiful letter.  I don’t remember it exactly, but it was, like, it was appreciative, and it was, like, it was all the things that I wanted to hear.”

Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny at the 1996 Emmy Awards.Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty

Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty

According to Duchovny, tensions between the two got so bad during the show’s first season that series creatorChris Cartersuggested an unusual solution.

“I remember sitting in his office with you,” theWhat Happens Laterstar 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…’ ”

Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny in 2016.Kevin Winter/Getty

Kevin Winter/Getty

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The pair went on to note the laundry list of factors that made for difficult times onThe X-Files, including the show’s overnight success, long hours on set and, according to Duchovny, Anderson’s youth — she was just 25 when the series premiered in 1993 — plus her pregnancy during the first season.

“I do remember times where I just bawled my eyes out,” Anderson recalled.

“It’s hard under those circumstances,” she continued. “It required us to be, you know, über adults very quickly. And I have to imagine that under those extreme circumstances that the only thing that at times is gonna wanna come out is actually our [inner] child and not our adult at all.”

Duchovny and Anderson’s full conversation can be heard on the latest episode ofFail Betterpodcast, out now on all major podcasting platforms.

source: people.com