When Mulder hated Scully: The intense relationship between Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny
As the stars of what was one of the biggest and most popular TV shows on the planet during the peak of its success, Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny found themselves forever intertwined by The X-Files, something that did huge damage to their personal relationship.
The dynamic between FBI agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder was just as important to the series as the paranormal goings-on, and the two leads had chemistry for days. Viewers obsessed over their slow-burning on-screen relationship, theories abounded that the two were so convincing they must be having a real-life affair, all while they were growing increasingly resentful of each other behind the scenes.
The X-Files won two Golden Globes for ‘Best Television Series – Drama’ during its original nine-season run, with Anderson and Duchovny each winning a trophy for their efforts along the way. Averaging tens of millions of viewers per week, the pair were riding high on the back of a cultural sensation, even if things got to a point where they could barely stand to be in each other’s company.
Cracking open his copy of the big book of cliches, Duchovny explained that a lot of the hostility was based on how much time they’d spent with each other over a number of years. “Familiarity breeds contempt. It’s nothing to do with the other person,” he admitted. “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.”
In an interview with The Guardian, Anderson confirmed that “yes, there were definitely periods where we hated each other.” In addition to there being “long periods of time” where they wouldn’t speak a word to one another, the actor described the churn of The X-Files as an “intense” process that saw the stars become “pains in the arse for the other at various times.”
Dipping back into the tome of cliches for further inspiration, time does in fact heal a lot of wounds, with the fractious relationship between Anderson and Duchovny among them. Refusing to pick at old scabs, the star was adamant she wouldn’t consider “even going to begin to get into that” when pressed on what caused the bad blood between them. On the plus side, though, she did call them “closer today than we ever have been,” which explains how they were coaxed back into the fold for the recent revival.
Having endless amounts of chemistry on-screen is hard to manufacture to the point of being nigh-on impossible, but the crackling double-act that anchored The X-Files for so long is arguably even more impressive knowing that Anderson and Duchovny were growing increasingly irritated with each other as the series progressed.
There is such a thing as spending too much time in someone else’s company, and when that happens under contractual obligations in a pop culture touchstone placed under microscopic scrutiny, then things can often devolve into outright animosity.
