“Problematic”: Gillian Anderson opens up about ‘X-Files’ exit
Former The X-Files star Gillian Anderson recently explained her decision to exit the show after its 11th season, describing some of the storyline decisions as “problematic”.
Anderson recently reunited with her former co-star, David Duchovny, for his Duchovny’s podcast Fail Better, in which Anderson took the opportunity to reveal why she departed the show and how she felt about where the narrative was headed.
Anderson and Duchovny starred in the popular FBI show as partners Mulder and Scully between 1993 and 2002. The pair reunited in 2016 and 2018 for two additional seasons, but Anderson confirmed that the 11th season would be the final time she appeared on screen as Scully.
Although initially explaining that her decision centred around her desire to explore other projects, she told Duchovny during her appearance on Fail Better she was surprised by the response to her declaration to withdraw, claiming that the show was lacking in quality towards the end.
“The end was problematic, storyline-wise. Particularly for Scully,” she said. “It was the first time that I got the sense of like, oh, am I the only one that thinks that [the show will end]. Everybody else seems really disappointed that I’ve just declared that.”
Anderson also didn’t appreciate where the storyline went in season 11, specifically with Scully’s son, which was a plot device used to continue her pregnancy reveal at the end of season seven, despite many previously thinking Scully couldn’t have children.
As a result of her son’s presence in the final season, Scully’s prominence resided on the sidelines, which was enhanced by another pregnancy announcement in the finale. “It felt like Scully’s trajectory was no longer one of strength and agency,” Anderson said. “It felt like it was beholden to an old idea of what a woman is… Literally all she could talk about was William and finding William. That’s literally a one-track song.”
Continuing, she also clarified that she wasn’t “enjoying the direction that it was heading” and felt that she “didn’t have a voice in it”. As a result, she decided she needed to “move on to something where I might have more of a voice.”
The pair also directly addressed their previous disagreements and decidedly brushed their previous feuding under the carpet and chalked up any friction to the pressure and expectations on set.
The X-Files is currently available to stream on Disney+.
