The X-Files
Australian Conne-X-ion
Australian Media
November 2000

Pregnant Pause

After months of indecision about its future, the X -Files is back for an eighth season that will answer two mysteries: Who (or what!) fathered Scully's baby and can the series survive Mulder's absences? LAWRIE MASTERSON spoke to Gillian Anderson.

Gillian Anderson is one of the few people who knows the answer to what has become a kind of whodunnit- the identity of the father of the baby her character Agent Dana Scully is expecting in The X-Files.

She knows this week, anyway but in the way of series television generally, and The X-Files specifically, it could be someone (or something!) entirely different by the time the show's massive worldwide audience is let in on the secret.

"As of right now I know but, I mean, it could change by the time we shoot it," she says.

Along with series creator Chris Carter, Anderson undoubtedly is hoping that revelation and others will help focus attention back on the on-screen mysteries of The X-Files and away from the behind-scenes uncertainties and controversies which have dogged the show these past months.

As the eight season premiers in the US this month, The X-Files finally has resolved a major lawsuit brought about by Anderson's co-star David Duchovny (Agent Fox Mulder) against the producers 20th Century Fox Television and come to an agreement for him to appear in 11 of the 22 new episodes and created a new regular character, Agent John Doggett, played by Robert Patrick.

And after arm wrestling 20th Century Fox for most of the Northern summer, Anderson has retreated from her stance against continuing with the show and signed on for two more years.

Duchovny's limited screen time in the new shows, which will go to air on Ten early next year, has already been set up with Mulder's abduction by aliens in the final episode of season seven.

Doggett's introduction provides Scully with a new sparring partner as she searched for Mulder, but the duo do not have an auspicious start when she throws water in his face soon after they first meet.

Last year Anderson, 32, was adamant that she would not continue with The X- Files because she was absolutely exhausted.

"Even fathoming doing an eighth season… it just felt impossible," she says now.

Nevertheless, she still had another year of her contract to run and she admits push came to shove during her negotiations with Fox.

"I was over a barrel, a very large barrel," she says. "There is no two ways about it."

Describing the negotiations as "incredibly uncomfortable and unfortunate", Anderson says she was particularly irate over a widening salary disparity between her and Duchovny during the past three years.

"It became just ridiculous and unacceptable."

Also, she was concerned about having to spend time with her six-year-old daughter Piper, who recently started school in Vancouver, Canada, hometown of Anderson's former husband, production designer Clyde Klotz.

Fox was willing to meet most of her demands, but only in return for her signature for a ninth season.

"They were asking for a ninth season and I said, 'Absolutely not', and they said, 'Well. If you're not going to do a ninth season then we are not going to pay you what you deserve'," an unsmiling Anderson says.

"So in order to even negotiate fairly, I needed to agree to do the ninth year."

On the posiitve side, Anderson and Carter had started discussing his plans for the eighth season.

"Hearing his enthusiasm about this new character he had created, the concept that perhaps it could be a good thing started to enter into my mind," she says.

She now has good feelings about the new episodes, although she recognises the risks inherent in Duchovny's limited involvement and the arrival of 41-year-old Patrick, a veteran of more than 50 movies, who is best known as the cyborg villain in Terminator 2:Judgement Day.

"It feels fresh," Anderson says," Robert has come in and he has got very enthusiastic energy. The opportunity of creating a new character has imbued the writers with a new enthusiasm and that gives the actors more to work with.

"So, there is a feeling of starting over, in a sense. If we do just one season with Robert, because the fans just cannot deal with Mulder not being around, then that is great, too.

"It is going to be what it is going to be, but it would be nice if people kept an open mind about it and were not so initially afraid and judgemental."

Anderson pulls few punches as she talks and is especially forthcoming about her daughter, although she declares that her private life is "none of your business".

With production of The X-Files moving to Los Angeles lasy year after six years in Vancouver, she now finds herself having to commute in the opposite direction to spend time with Piper.

Allowing Piper to spend part of her formative years outside celebrity-obsessed LA also plays a part in Anderson's thinking.

"It is becoming more difficult- the older she gets the more she sees, you know? Most of the time when I am out in public and someone asks for an autograph, if I am with her I usually say no. I do not want her to witness other people treating me specially. It does not feel right to me.

"I mean, I am incredibly blessed to have a constant job and to be paid for standing in front of a camera and she is very fortunate to be growing up with such financial security, but the challenge for her is not to come to expect that. The challenge is to expose her to the way most of the rest of the world lives."

By Lawrie Masterson

David Duchovny said he doesn't regret his decision to work only part-time this season on The X-Files, on which he has co-starred for the past seven years.

Duchovny told TV Guide that he feels "a little nostalgic, a little sad" about leaving the show, but he likes spending more time with his wife, actress Tea Leoni, and their one-year-old daughter.

"I've been home at six o'clock the last four months in a row. I was never home at dinnertime before," he told the magazine.

Duchovny will appear in 11 of the new season's 20 episodes. So far, he said the current arrangement "is working exactly the way I wanted it to.

"I get to do a movie while I'm doing a show."

Duchovny also put in a vote of support for his replacement Robert Patrick.

"He's really excited to be here, and I think it's good to have someone come in and smack everybody and say, 'Wake up! This is a great job!' I wasn't gonna be that guy," Duchovny said.