Mulder and Scully reopen the X-Files

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, stars of the new 'X-Files' movie, talk to Will Lawrence and John Hiscock about their on-screen chemistry

Watch the trailer for The X-Files: I Want to Believe

DUCHOVNY ON ANDERSON

When the film The X-Files: I Want to Believe was in production, pictures were "leaked" showing the two principal characters, FBI Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, locked in a passionate embrace. The images sent X-Files fan-sites into meltdown.

The creator of the The X-Files television series, Chris Carter (who directs the movie), has always maintained that the show's success was based on the relationship between his pair of probing paranormal investigators, played by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, sharing "an intellectual romance". But the pictures suggested the new film saw their relationship become physical. For the fanboys, this was major news. But is it actually true?

"I'm not sure I want to tell you, or they might kill me," smiles Duchovny. "Or you. I'd rather you, obviously! There was some disinformation during production, but yes, Mulder and Scully kiss." He laughs. "It's not been a chore at all, at least not for Mulder. I guess you should ask Scully!"

"When we were filming the movie, somebody found one of those video pastiches that fans put together on the internet," continues Duchovny. "They'd put music to it and cut together kisses from the TV series. Gillian and I were watching and she said, 'I thought we'd only kissed once.' But it looked as if we were all over each other. I thought ours was a chaste show, but this was like porn!"

Duchovny and Anderson have, as one expects, built a close relationship since their first outing in The X-Files in 1992. They've filmed eight seasons of the show (Duchovny was absent from the ninth and final season) and one previous X-Files movie, which was released in 1998.

The series ended six years ago, and while Chris Carter set to work on a second film, he fell into a legal dispute with Twentieth Century Fox, the studio that backed the entire X-Files franchise, and production was suspended.

"The argument was more with the accounting at the studio, the people who were dispensing the money that the show was earning, rather than on the creative side," explains Duchovny. "It's all cleared up now, and coming back was something I always wanted to do, even as I was leaving the show. I thought it would be fulfilling to come back to this character every five years or so, at different stages of his life.

"We didn't want to keep Mulder frozen in time, like Bond. With The X-Files, I would love to follow Mulder as he got older and older. We hope it becomes that kind of a film franchise."

There are already whispers of a third film planned for 2012, an important year in X-Files mythology. "Chris Carter has said something about 2012," concedes the 47-year-old actor. "It depends very much on this film. I know we've made a great thriller/horror/creepy movie. Simply put, if it does the right kind of business, we'll be able to make more."

In the meantime, Duchovny will concentrate on other projects - the second season of his latest TV show, Californication, will air in the US this autumn - although he says leaving Mulder behind is no easy task.

"I still get approached by people who think I am interested in what Mulder is interested in," he says. "It doesn't affect my life, but occasionally somebody slips me a book or some notes on an unusual theory. In response, though, I've started to develop my own theories.

"My main one concerns aliens: I always think of the 'ship of fools', where they once took the undesirables and send them off into the high seas, instead of to prison. I think on other planets they do the same, which is why every time a human has contact with an alien they get their teeth drilled or their anuses probed." He laughs. "Hey, maybe they've sent away their dentists and sex offenders…" WL

ANDERSON ON DUCHOVNY

After starring for nine years in a hugely successful television series and accumulating a worldwide fan network, Gillian Anderson could have named her price and had the pick of the choicest roles.

Instead, when The X-Files came to an end in 2002, the Chicago-born actress, who had never felt at ease on the celebrity circuit, turned her back on Hollywood and moved to London, her home for part of her childhood, to live in relative anonymity. The move surprised her friends and fans but has brought her the personal and professional satisfaction that eluded her for most of her time in Hollywood.

Talking in an oceanfront suite at a hotel in Santa Monica, Anderson, who first landed the role of Special Agent Scully aged 24, says: "I've never been hugely ambitious. By moving to London I removed myself from the madness of the entertainment industry. I love the city and the culture, and it was an opportunity to bring my children up in a more sane environment. I get to walk outside and not be followed, have a meal with my family at a restaurant, and there are not cameras around every corner."

She is expecting her second child with her British boyfriend Mark Griffiths, a businessman. Like their 18-month-old son Oscar, the baby will be born in London. Anderson also has a daughter, Piper, from her first marriage, to X-Files assistant art director Clyde Klotz.

Her London life has included appearances on the West End stage, a highly praised performance as Lady Dedlock in the BBC's Bleak House and roles in several British films, including The Last King of Scotland.

But the chance to work again with her old friend David Duchovny was too much to resist, so last year, 39-year-old Anderson flew to Vancouver to spend three months filming The X-Files: I Want to Believe, in the middle of the freezing Canadian winter.

Most actresses will say they take a role because of the script. Not Anderson. "After the series, David and I kept in touch," she says. "We agreed we'd do a new film even before they asked: the script had nothing to do with it."

With Billy Connolly playing a priest with a haunted past, the plot explores controversial themes of religion and paedophilia as well as expanding the complicated relationship between Dana Scully and Fox Mulder.

"We delve into the relationship between these two in a much more intense way than we ever did before," says Anderson. "A lot of emotional things come up for Scully."

The versatile actress had no fears about returning to the character of Scully, but it proved to be harder than she had thought. "At first I felt I was swimming in strange waters," she recalls. "I thought I'd fall back in naturally but I had a hard time finding Scully's voice. Only when I started scenes with David did I feel comfortable. We have a great camaraderie and I felt I'd come home."

The chemistry between her and Duchovny on screen seems stronger than ever in I Want to Believe, but it's not something Anderson can explain.

"It's a mystery," she says, "and a blessing. It's real, kinetic and tangible. We can both be in heinous moods and the chemistry is still there, thank goodness."

And the future? She has the films Boogie Woogie, a satire on the art world, and How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, based on Toby Young's book, awaiting release and has optioned the rights to the book The Speed of Light, by Elizabeth Rosner, which she is adapting and hopes to direct and produce. JH