I couldn’t decently make the kind of timeline I made last year, with sightings and rumors, but even if we felt like Gillovny wasn’t very active this semester, there’s still quite a few things that shows the unconditional love between David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson…
January 10th: David is at the New Orleans Wizard World with Mitch Pileggi.
– It took him 8 minutes to talk about Gillian when no one asked him to (video) : Question: “Mitch what’s the favorite scene that you did with David and David what’s the favorite scene you did with Mitch?” David: “That would have been a great question if it was: Mitch what’s your favorite scene to do with David, David what’s your favorite scene to do with Gillian. That would have made me laugh. I thought it was coming. It didn’t come.”
– He talked about Gillian being a horrible a driver and told the now famous neck-brace prank (video): David: “Gillian’s a terrible driver. She had car accidents with nothing. Like the world was empty. There was nothing on the street. I was so relaxed. And she hit something. Hard. Backing up into it. So we had a little whiplash. She hit the nothing that was there. Hard.” Mitch: “Gillian is a horrible driver.” David: “But she thinks, she is good. That’s the hard part. So please don’t tell her.”
– Gillian answered a week later with a tweet (source): “Excellent driver on both land and sea.”
January 22nd:David was obviously scrolling though Gillian’s tag on Twitter and liked this tweet.
February 8th: David was on a podcast. The interviewer said “Give your girl, Gillian a call! Get her on that.” He answered “Okay.”
February 9th: During a podcast, David was asked about Gillian in the Fall and he said she was “very very very good. Very great” (podcast – starts at 26:50 min)
February 13th: During a Facebook Live, the interviewed ask David is they can call “Scully”. He answered “yeah, when we’re not rolling!” (source)
February 14th:
– Variety shipped them for Valentine’s Day. (source)
– During an interview for his music tour, David remembered Gillian being on stage with him at The Cutting Room. (source) : That was my first performance in New York. That was really the album release performance. I remember being nervous at that, and I think we had just said we were going to do more X Files, and we were going to do the Television Critics Association Awards. Gillian was in town to do that the next day. I just thought it would be fun if she came up and sang a song. She didn’t know any of my songs, but we were going to do a cover of “Helpless” by Neil Young. I got her on the phone and she rehearsed over the phone with the band to get the key she could sing it at. That was that.
April 10th:After the official announcement of The X-Files season 11, Gillian tweeted (source): “You ready for more of this @davidduchovny? #TheXFiles.” David answered (source): “Oh yes, Been ready since ‘93″
April 22nd:Gillian follows David on Instagram.
May 11th: I cannot not mention Orlando Jones and this fuckery: (source)“It’s going to happen. They don’t understand what’s going on. David just finished touring, he and Tea are no longer together — which is horrible, I love Tea. They have beautiful kids. But Gillian’s beautiful, she’s sort of amazing — I don’t really understand what the problem is. Here’s the thing, I get that they want to take a slow roll, they want to walk in the sand for a little while, they don’t want to commit too soon. But in 20 years they’re going to be on Golden Pond together if I have to break both their fucking legs and put them there.”
– Gillian was awarded for her role in The Fall, and David surprised her (or not), with a funny and memorable speech to give her the award. (video). They left the stage together and shared a cute moment (video)
May 16th: Gillian did a panel conversation for Buzfeed. She said “after seeing the playback from last night’s Webby Awards, David and I walking together, me in crutches and him in sling: That makes me think that may be an old idea. Maybe we should just fucking retire.”
May 17th: Gillian commented on the Webby Awards in an interview (source): “It was hilarious. The whole thing was hilarious,” said Anderson of Duchovny’s presentation. “The fact that we’re both crippled right now is so f—ing funny. And we’re about to start five and a half months of filming, so we’re going to have to heal really quickly. It was just hilarious between that clip and his speech and us both being invalids, it made my year so far.”
She also tweeted the Alien Baby Baby Mama fan art.(source)
May 18th: Gillian thanked David for The Webby Awards on Twitter (source): I would like to thank… @davidduchovny. Thanks @TheWebbyAwards!
June 1st:David finally started to follow Gillian on Instagram.
June 12th: David was asked how his relationship with Gillian has changed. He said: “It is deeper because of all those years that have passed. The respect and trust we feel towards each other are obvious! I think we are also both better actors today!” (source)
As usual, please tell me if I missed something! I’m sure the next semester will spoil us with loads of Gillovny!
Were you worried when you first moved to Britain that you might be sacrificing a Hollywood career?
I didn’t worry about it then. But at times, I lapse into thoughts of “Should I have worried about it?”. But I love my lifestyle here. I love the time that I get with my kids. I love that I don’t have paparazzi outside my door. I love the multicultural aspects of the city, multiracial aspects of the city, and that my kids are exposed to every walk of life in a way that they would not if we were living in Los Angeles. And I’ve had extraordinary opportunities over here in the work that I’ve gotten to do. It’s very different work than perhaps I would have had if I had stayed on. I was 24 when I got that job (Scully in X-Files), I had a child at 25, and that was my priority beyond having to show up to work. I’ve never sought celebrity. I don’t go on Facebook. I don’t have MySpace. I don’t Tweet. I like living a very private life, and I’m proud of the choices I made.
You hardly have a trace of an American accent. Was that a conscious effort?
You forget I grew up in England. I moved here when I was two and spent my formative years here. My parents always retained a flat here; so in the summertime we would come back. Essentially, it was my first language. When we first moved back to the United States, it took me a little while to get rid of my British accent. And I didn’t really lose it until maybe at the end of high school or beginning of college. It’s always been my first language so to speak, so it is near impossible for me not to fall into it when I moved here. And my kids are British and my partners have all been British. (She’s been married twice, divorced twice, has a daughter from her first husband, and two boys from a third relationship which she ended in 2012.)
How easy is it for you to juggle career and family?
It takes a lot of effort, a very careful consideration of the choices you have to make, although it’s become easier over time. When you’re younger and you’re pulled in so many different directions and you don’t know what’s right and what feels right – there are so many things in this business that can make you feel uncomfortable – you feel you’re selling your soul in a sense. And that makes you feel depleted, that you’re doing things that aren’t genuine. But as you get older it gets easier to make those decisions and to identify what feels comfortable in your skin and what’s important to you.
You are about to start shooting the new season of The X-Files. Are you surprised the fans are still here?
We know the fans are still here. What is surprising are the new fans.
There’s a whole other generation of fans who’ve discovered the series (through streaming services) so to be met by 13-year-olds who are talking about how they have seen all the episodes and they can’t wait for the new season, that I think was surprising. It’s had a longevity far beyond what we ever imagined.
You say living in London you’re shielded from the paparazzi. How do you feel about the media in general?
I think of the years that I used to disdain it. If you look at those pictures of me when X-Files was breaking, I always had this look on my face of disdain. But over time, as I have gotten older, I have learned to appreciate how we can be of service to each other, and the importance, when working on great projects, of getting it out there in the right way so that it is perceived in the way that you would like it to be perceived.
Speaking of projects, your new series American Gods offers you a chance to play David Bowie, Marilyn Monroe and Lucille Ball. You must have jumped at the opportunity.
Absolutely. It really has been a gift. But I wasn’t sure, when I first jumped into it, whether I embraced the fact that I had such an opportunity, or was I thinking, “What have I done?”. But after I figured out the logistics exactly of how to do each of them, I relaxed a little bit and then realized that this can be a lot of fun, and I just need to make the most of it.
Who was the most fun to play?
Probably Marilyn, because she’s so bright and lighthearted and I am not. I tend to be so serious; so it was nice to embody someone who’s bubbly and bright spirited and flirty and stuff, so it was fun to jump into her.
Are you a sci-fi junkie?
You know, it’s interesting. I have never been a sci-fi reader, I appreciate certain kinds of sci-fi films; I think Close Encounters (Of The Third Kind) was a big deal for me when I first saw it, but I have never specifically been drawn to the genre. But it keeps finding me. I keep being presented with (sci-fi) things and I keep thinking no, I don’t want to go there, but they are things that I just can’t say no to. I mean, when (executive producer) Bryan (Fuller) approached me to do American Gods with the opportunity to play different characters, I mean, you really can’t say no to that.
And so, as much as I think I need to start mixing it up a bit more, I keep being shown that maybe (sci-fi) is where I need to reside a bit longer. So, I am a reluctant fan.
Another X-Files related question for you here (apologies if you’re getting fed up of answering these!). “Post-Modern Prometheus” is one of my favourite MOTW episodes and I would have sworn a year or so ago I saw a video on YouTube which showed Mulder and Scully kissing as they dance at the end (like in this ‘screencap‘). I haven’t been able to find the video since, but I have read that they were supposed to kiss but Chris thought it was too much and cut it from the episode. So I was wondering — did Mulder and Scully actually kiss at the end of the episode, and if so does that exist on film anywhere (preferably somewhere us Philes can watch it)?
Bethan
South Wales
Bethan, the kiss was not scripted, but David and Gillian wanted to do a take with a kiss, so it was filmed. I honestly don’t know whether 20th Television has saved all the unused footage from the television series.
According to Frank, the Post-Modern Kiss is legit.
Of course! But it’s probably the drawing, though. This footage of the PMP kiss is the Holy Grail! I can’t believe it’ll come our way as randomly as that!
Wait, I know this kiss exists, and there used to be a video of it somewhere, but it’s nowhere to be found anymore, and the picture you have might be a drawing. But if it’s not, give it to me!
Just Holding Hands 