"The situation was crazy"

Revelation: The “X-Files” stars hated each other!

(Bild: picturedesk.com/mptv / picturedesk.com)

As FBI agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder, they couldn't have been more different in the cult series "The X-Files". It was no different behind the camera either. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson couldn't stand each other from the very beginning and there were always tensions on set. 

During a reunion of the two on Duchovny's podcast "Fail Better", the 64-year-old now revealed that series creator Chris Carter "even wanted to send us to marriage therapy!"

Was "so incredibly angry"
Anderson remembered well that she and David had gotten into such an argument at the beginning of the first season in 1993 "that we often didn't speak a word to each other for weeks." The only conversations they had were in the script.

The low point of the relationship came after both were nominated for Emmys in 1998 and Duchovny had organized a private jet from the Vancouver location to the gala in Los Angeles. Duchovny: "I took you with me. You were totally late before the flight back and I was so incredibly angry with you. Because we didn't speak to each other, you wrote me a letter on the flight, even though I was sitting exactly two meters away from you." From today's perspective, the actor thinks "that you found all the right words in the letter and told me what I wanted to hear".

"The situation was so crazy"
Nevertheless, the relationship remained frosty until the end of the series in 2002. In hindsight, this was a stroke of luck for Anderson professionally: "That situation was so crazy. We even managed to pretend to have romantic feelings for each other - but then didn't look at each other when the camera was off. It made us both better in front of the camera!"

Producer wanted therapy
Nevertheless, Chris Carter had tried his best for ten years to reduce tensions and improve the atmosphere on set. Duchovny will never forget how he and Anderson were summoned to the producer's office: "I remember how we were both sitting in front of him and he suddenly said: 'Would you like to go to TV couples therapy?' I was totally confused and thought he meant Scully and Mulder on the show. But he really meant us." They both declined with thanks.

The two have since buried the hatchet and can even laugh about their on-set feud. Anderson: "We're closer today than we are with many other people - because we had this shared experience that no one else can relate to!" Although Duchovny thinks he should have behaved more decently back then, he doesn't feel any real remorse: "Our enmity helped me give my best performance as an actor!"