Big Picture News Inc.
July 26, 2008
Anderson never feels alienated in 'X-Files' role
By Cindy Pearlman
Blame it on aliens -- or perhaps it's a force even more powerful: a movie studio desperate to protect the secrets of The X-Files: I Want to Believe.
I want to believe when Scully herself -- Chicago native Gillian Anderson -- says in her sultry, UFO-busting voice, "Oh, so you want a few secrets from the new movie. I'll tell you. Put it in the paper. Don't put it in the paper. Play it how you want to play it."
And suddenly the phone line goes dead.
Moments later, Anderson, 39, is back and a bit freaked out. "Wasn't that weird?" she says with a laugh. "It's almost like there was a force out there that didn't want me to reveal anything."
X-Files: I Want to Believe was so shrouded in secrecy before Friday's opening that no one was dropping one detail about the plot. The film reunites the TV series stars David Duchovny and Anderson under the direction of X-Files creator Chris Carter, who co-wrote the screenplay with Frank Spotnitz. It's a supernatural story that brings back the complicated relationship between Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson).
Carter says the idea is "to scare the pants off everyone in the audience."
Anderson was thrilled by the idea of bringing Scully to the screen again. "I'm excited for the people who care about The X-Files," she says. "I'm excited, too."
The last time Anderson played Scully was when the series ended six years ago.
"It was a mixture of feelings being Scully again," she says. "She felt extremely familiar and yet foreign at the same time. I've always liked Scully, which is a big plus when you live with a character for this long."
But the Scully of today isn't the Scully of yesterday.
"For me it was important to embrace the time that has passed. It wasn't about finding the same or re-creating," she says. "It was about finding new aspects of a more mature Scully.
"Scully and Mulder discuss things in the film that allude to what has taken place between them.
"These are two people who are incredibly strong individuals. They could do perfect in the world without each other. Yet one of them without the other would feel as the other half of them had died. You can't even think of Mulder without Scully."
That's a nice way of avoiding the big question: Are they in love?
"Let's just say the relationship energy between them is strong and alive," Anderson says. "The big question is, do people actually want to see them together? The only way we'll know is if we put Mulder and Scully in a love relationship on screen and we make a mistake. The problem is we can never go back."
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