David you have a sturdy foundation with Mulder after all these years. Coming back to the show for this new season was there anything you new or nuanced you wanted to throw into the mix?

DD: That may be in the back of my mind, but that’s not really fair.  I can’t say all of the sudden ‘Hey guys I want purple hair.’ Mulder is who he is. The show is what it is. My job, as the guy who plays him, is to just make sure its as believable or funny or scary or as real as it can be and not cater to my own whims as an actor who wants to be seen one way or the other who wants to suddenly show up with a French accent.

Did you envision in 1993 you’d still be playing the character almost 25 years later?

DD: (Laughs) Well the way you put it sounds like a nightmare. So probably yeah. But, no I never thought… I remember agreeing to do the pilot and thinking I don’t really want to do television. So your life and career happens while you’re making other plans. Having said that I have no regrets and at this point nothing but gratitude. Not only is the work itself on this show gratifying, but its enabled me to have a career that I don’t think I would have had otherwise. I remember talking with my manager at the time and saying it’s a show about aliens. I like the pilot so lets do it and then I won’t worry about having to do TV because nobody is going to want to watch this. It’ll be a good pilot, but it’ll never catch on. That’s why I’m an actor and not in marketing.

Gillian your character is a trailblazer of sorts in bringing strong women to the science fiction genre on television.

GA: Before the X-files it was “Baywatch” pretty much. So seeing a professional, intelligent, equal female on TV very much started with her. So the fact that that was the beginning of the conversation and has spread and been emulated ad nauseam is gratifying.

Was it difficult for you jumping back into character?

GA: One of the biggest questions for me as an actor… coming back to something after so much time… is the fact that I don’t look a lot like the young Scully. My face is much more angular.  Obviously I’ve aged a few decades. So if that’s the case and I’m emulating someone who exists in celluloid so much younger, what are the elements of her that are still evident and which elements are appropriate and which elements are inappropriate because they are a matter of ones age. So that’s been an ongoing conundrum in trying to do right by her.

The Truth is STILL Out There: ‘X-Files’ Cast Talk Season 11