“I Could've Handled Myself Better.” David Duchovny Recalls the Infamous Conflict with Gillian Anderson on the Set of The X-Files, Which He Calls “Failure of Friendship”
David Duchovny regrets the “failure of friendship” that took place years ago when his conflict with Gillian Anderson occurred. The actors on the set of The X-Files were able to not speak to each other for several weeks.
The X-Files was a huge hit that was popular in many countries. The TV series, whose stars were David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, owed a lot just to the actors playing the main roles, whose chemistry was impressive. However, it turned out that off-camera the actors did not always get along well with each other. Despite a good start, at one stage of work on The X-Files a conflict broke out between them, which, as Anderson confessed, occurred for a trivial reason.
David Duchovny hosts the Fail Better podcast, to which he invited Gillian Anderson. For the actors, it was an opportunity to reminisce about the old days when they worked together on The X-Files. During the conversation, the topic of their infamous conflict surfaced, which Duchovny called a “failure of friendship” (via People).
Duchovny: There was a long time, working on the show, where we were just not even dealing with one another off-camera. And there was a lot of tension. Which didn’t matter, apparently, for the work cause we’re both f------ crazy, I guess. We could just go out there and do what we needed to do.
Anderson: That is kinda crazy. I mean, it’s crazy that we were able to present on camera, you know, the various feelings and emotions and attraction and all that kind of stuff, but then not speak to each other for weeks at a time.
The actors revealed that they were able to not speak to each other for weeks, even though they continued to work together. Duchovny, meanwhile, summed up the conflict by saying that he “could’ve handled himself better,” and partly blamed it all on his inexperience, from which came a lack of understanding of certain things.
I don’t know. But I could've handled myself better, you know? And as you know, we went through a crazy-making kind of a process with this thing. We went from – I mean, I was pretty inexperienced. You were really inexperienced. And all of a sudden … It was like a global phenomenon before the Internet. And we’re just scurrying, trying to figure out who we are.
Despite the dispute between them, Anderson and Duchovny continued to appear together in The X-Files, and over time they reconciled and rebuilt their friendship. And to this day they remain on good terms.
