David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson Press Conference:
When you play characters this deep for so long and then it stops, how much of that stays with you for life? Does it impact your personality in some way?
David Duchovny: "That's a very interesting question and I wouldn't know how to answer it. I mean, it impacts your life because strangers can see you that way. I'll sit here and I'll answer questions about this fictional person and so it stays with me in that way. I wouldn't say that I ever get up and think of Mulder unless I'm working on it. I think that I liked a lot about the guy. When I played him, I liked his courage and I liked his energy to get to the truth and to the quest and all of that. And I think that at one point I'd learned a little from that, like a fan might. I was a fan of the guy. So that's as far as I go in terms of saying that he lives in me."
Gillian Anderson: "It's the same for me. I don't do things, mannerisms or something and think, 'Oh, that was kind of like Scully.' But, by the same token, I don't know how much of me today wasn't influenced by the fact that I got to play her for such a long time. It's possible that there are aspects of my seriousness or my independence or my inquisitiveness about the medical profession or science or something that aren't directly related to the fact that I lived with her for such a long time. But that's hard to qualify and hard to say."
David Duchovny: "When Gillian operates on a human being…"
Gillian Anderson: "That's when I'm reminded of Scully."
David, you famously sort of distanced yourself from the show in the last season, being fatigued, and then we hear that you're really the one who was big into getting this movie done. Can you talk about that? Is it a love/hate relationship?
David Duchovny: "I wouldn't characterize me as the one who really wanted to get it going, but I'm certainly someone who would always say yes whenever Chris and I would talk about it. The love/hate has nothing to do with the actual content, the actual people, the actual anything. The love/hate had to do with me wanting to get on with the rest of my life, the rest of my career. And when you think about it, that I did eight years and Gillian did nine, that's a lifetime. There are no other dramas that keep the same characters that run that long. If you look at Law & Order or ER, they're 20 years old or whatever they are, but they're completely recast. So it's just not something you see. You don't see actors not get fatigued and not get frustrated in a drama where we're working…every day for many, many hours playing the same characters. So it's just natural to burnout. There was always love for the show and love for the character. There was never any hate for that."
Gillian Anderson: "But it's interesting that it's always something for the press to latch onto. It's always a surprise in some way, or it's a good headline, that someone wants to leave. It creates good drama and so it always becomes this thing where actually it's just a natural thing."
Can you talk about working in the severe weather conditions up in Canada?
Gillian Anderson: "This time around I didn't have as much exposure to it as David did. Fortunately, Chris didn't write those words in the script for Scully. But I was up there in Whistler and when I arrived it was about 18 below. Fortunately it didn't stay there for too long, but I was out there for probably a good couple of weeks, I guess. And it's beautiful, but it's also exhausting."
David Duchovny: "Yeah. Let me try to say this in a way that's right. Just doing quotation marks is going to get me in trouble. I had to work in one of the most beautiful ski resorts in the world for almost three weeks. Pity me. I think it's hard sometimes. The logistics of it is if you're out in the middle of nowhere and you're running around in the freezing rain or snow, you don't get a chance to go off and warm up in your trailer because you're [shooting] so much that your trailer is on the other side of the town. So you are stuck in clothes that aren't fitting for the environment for a long time. So, yeah, it's a pain in the ass, but you just suck it up and it's not going to be that long, and your feet are cold and your ass is cold and your hands are cold and your muscles are cold. You just suck it up."
Gillian Anderson: "I think one of the more physically challenging aspects for me at the time were that there were a couple of scenes where we had quite a bit of dialogue and when you're in that kind of weather and the wind is slightly blowing and the snow is coming down, your lips actually do freeze. They do. There were a couple of times that were reminiscent of the pilot. There was a scene in the pilot where we're in this pouring forest rain that's freezing and I'm screeching at him about one thing or another…"
David Duchovny: "You mean to say 30 miles?! Came here?!'"
Gillian Anderson: "Are you making fun of me?"
David Duchovny: "No. I just remember it."
Gillian Anderson: "I remember it too. It felt very much like that. But what was reminiscent was the fact that my mouth wouldn't work. I had all this stuff to say and it just comes out as gobbledygook."
David Duchovny: "But when you see it on film, it's just gorgeous. You look at those big snowflakes coming down in the movie and it's worth it."
Gillian Anderson: "It's beautiful."
David Duchovny: "You have to know that when you're putting up with it, that if you're experiencing this discomfort, it's probably going to look pretty good on film."
Gillian Anderson: "If there's pain involved."
