Below is the transcript from our 1998 Ninemsn world-wide live chat with X-Files stars Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny & writer Chris Carter. I was a member of the team back at NineMSN in Australia who helped run and co-ordinate this live event.
NineMsn, MSN Start UK, MSN US, MSNBC and Microsoft Studios, in conjunction with New Weekly in Australia, welcomes X-Files The Movie fans from all over the world to our online chat with X-FILES stars Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny, William B. Davis (The Cigarette-Smoking Man), and John Neville (The Well-Manicured Man), as well as the movie's producer and writer Chris Carter on the eve of the X-Files' movie, Fight the Future, release worldwide.
This is the transcript of the record-breaking X-Files live chat event where over 21,000 users logged on to chat with the stars of Fight The Future. Given these numbers and the dynamism of the chat environment, some questions and answers read out of sequence. This is the way they appeared in the chat room - so enjoy them!
It is 7am in Sydney Australia and 6am in Japan June 12, 1998, and 10pm in the UK, with other countries online as well, 11 June, 1998. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you The X-Files Movie Internet Event!
MSN START/MSNBC
Welcome to FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder aka David Duchovny and Dana Scully, aka Gillian Anderson with X-Files producer and writer Chris Carter on the day the X Files Movie premiered in Los Angeles June 11th. Our first question:
<Shahilah Hamdan-Malaysia>
What was the wildest thing that ever happened during filming of the X Files.
David Duchovny:
One time we actually broke for lunch on time <g>
Gillian Anderson:
Oh Gawd! the wildest thing that's ever...? - Well along that vein, we actually... it rained so hard we had to stop shooting, that was just one day in five seasons. We were in the woods and were supposed to be sitting down the water was up to our navel... so we all went home (laughs)
MSN START/MSNBC
Chris as the director any anecdotes...?
Chris Carter:
Ahm...
David Duchovny:
....Chris never broke for lunch :0)
Chris Carter:
Yeah, nothing that springs to mind...
MSN START/MSNBC
<Jeremy UK>
What was it easier for you making a movie instead of a T.V. series?
David Duchovny:
Well, from the beginning we'd always said that our show was like the movies we were seeing in theatres. It had production values of a movie and doing stories that were movie worthy.
We'd made this boast to our selves though we'd never gone public with it - we'd always thought the Show was like a movie. So to actually make the movie was kinda like a fulfillment of that boast or promise - that we had been secretly boasting about amongst ourselves about...did I say the word boast enough? :0).
<laughter>
MSN START/MSNBC
Gillian, did you change your acting style at all?
Chris Carter:
You were bigger, right?
Gillian Anderson:
I was yeah...
David Duchovny:
Wait was that a request :o)
Gillian Anderson:
<g> I don't know. I don't think so. The whole film feels a little different up there on the big screen... <giggles> I'm not sure if it was simply because we were bigger, and it's wider I don't know did it feel different to you...
Chris Carter:
<laughs> I know - as David said, we took a big screen approach to our small screen, I know now that was what we imagined we took but everything changes for the big screen because doing a movie is a much bigger venture than doing a TV Show and not just because it costs more, because everything changes - the size of that screen changes the dramatic weight of everything.
MSN START/MSNBC
<staci in Portland>
What will the move from Vancouver to sunny Los Angeles for the darkness in the X Files that we have come to know and love?
<general groans, snoores and yawns>
Chris Carter:
Yeah, I think we've heard of this question before...I'll answer the questions ;0)
David Duchovny:
It means the DC will have to make things darker <grin>
Chris Carter:
I'll answer the question. <g>, Actually, the move will offer us some different stories to tell we'll be able to go down to south western states - the X Files travels around the stories are in different places - we get to go to California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas - places we wouldn't go normally in Vancouver cuz you can't get there...
MSN START/MSNBC
<Ximena in Mexico>
Chris, do you ever plan on giving Scully a desk?
Chris Carter:
I think that question was answered in an episode we did in the 4th season...she does have her own desk - and a tattoo to go along with it.
David Duchovny:
Yeah...she has a tattoo of a desk!
<laughter>
MSN START/MSNBC
<a peculiar question Camilla US>
If Fox Mulder discovered that Larry Sanders was an alien clone? Would he have the heart to kill him with an Ice Pick.
David Duchovny:
Yeah, I think I would stab him. But it wouldn't be with an ice pick <grin>
<laughter>
MSN START/MSNBC
<Sarah, AGE 12 UK>
You know you played Basket ball.
Did you seriously consider a career as an athlete?
David Duchovny:
I considered it but nobody else went along on that fantasy with me. I played in basketball in high school a little bit in college. I shot a shot in "Paper Hearts". I sunk like five out of eight (baskets).
Gillian Anderson:
<laughs> He did and he was pretty far back! 3/4 of the way back on the court - I helped him of course.
David Duchovny:
Well, I don't wanna brag <grin> That other guy Tom Noonan he is a good ball player.
Gillian Anderson:
<giggles>
MSN START/MSNBC
<Anna in Sweden>
How do you account for the X Files' tremendous popularity?
Chris Carter:
I'll answer that - It's David and Gillian - that's it - period. It's the characters they play and the way that they play them.
David Duchovny:
It's Chris..
Gillian Anderson:
Oh, it's not just...it's many, many things...scripts, cinematography, the sets, the relationship between Mulder and Scully, the co-stars we get to work with and the casting of them, the topics and the subject matter.
Chris Carter:
...Canadian accents...
David Duchovny:
Not anymore...
MSN START/MSNBC
<christina US>
We know you as Mulder and Scully rather than Fox and Dana. Why don't you call each other by your first names?
Gillian Anderson:
We do sometimes...
David Duchovny:
It's like we use it as a dramatic device.
Gillian Anderson:
Yes, it's because it ends up getting pretty intimate when we do
to the point where using the name Fox...sounds almost ahm...naughty about it in some way I don't know - you know... <giggles>
David Duchovny:
As long as she doesn't call me F***s <laughing>
Gillian Anderson:
<over last> Yeah, no - Fox - I wasn't thinking of it that way. It seems like another step towards intimacy.
David Duchovny:
Next season she's just going to call me Fo... then just 'F'....
MSN START/MSNBC
<bizzyziggy US>,
Does the movie have plot threads that lead into the next season of episodes?
Gillian Anderson:
Do you mean will it?... does it?
Chris Carter:
Yes. The idea was that the movie is a culmination of a lot of what happened in the first five seasons and then the big things that happen in the movie, will lead into season 6 and beyond.
MSN START/MSNBC
Chris, do you have a favourite episode from the X Files series?
Chris Carter:
I have several favourites I choose from different seasons so I'd have to go through seasons 1 through 5. When I think about it. I was in Cost Rica at Christmas time and I watched 'Beyond the Sea' in Spanish so I must like it a lot I think!
David Duchovny:
I have favorites, but I feel bad after I talk about them, because it's like convering your blessing onto some of your children but not your others.
Gillian Anderson:
The one that stands out to me the most was a recent episode we did at the end of the 5th season 'Bad Blood', it was very different to ones that we did before, it was more of a comedic script and it was very funny - intentionally! ;0)
MSN START/MSNBC
There has been a lot of speculation about where Mulder and Scully's relationship is going. Will the movie answer any of that for us?
Chris Carter:
Ahhhhh...it will suggest some things but I don't think it answers anything but it will present an interesting situation for Season 6. It certainly has ratcheted it up <grin> to an extent.
Gillian Anderson:
<laughs> Ratcheted it up? Hey, a bumper sticker!
MSN START/MSNBC
Do you think that Mulder is capable of carrying on a romantic relationship?
Gillian Anderson:
<laughs> Why do you have a smirk on your face saying that?
David Duchovny:
It depends if it fits in the scheme of the story. I mean, the story telling takes such precedence in the show. To think that Mulder and Scully would be on the tail of some mystery or some alien and have to stop and discuss why Mulder doesn't put the cap on the toothpaste - it kinda gets in the way sometimes - doesn't really fit.
It fits the way it has been and that's as a possibility or an accent but not as meat!
Chris Carter:
I want to say to the audience... Beware of Agent Fowley!
Gillian Anderson:
Beware of her? wait a second...what?!
Chris Carter:
I'm just saying beware to the audience. Beware to you as well (to 'Scully') as well. Whatever you like - I think it's been ratcheted <g>
Gillian Anderson:
Special Agent Fowley and Scully get together.
MSN START/MSNBC
<For Gillian from peter in France>,
Scully's character is increasingly drawing strength from her religious beliefs while Mulder has been more doubting of that. What are your own beliefs.
Gillian Anderson:
My beliefs are not religious per se they're more - and I hate using this term - spiritual than religious. It doesn't conform to any particular religion.
Without getting too philosophical...there's not really any way to talk about it but it has nothing to do with organised religion of any kind.
Chris Carter:
What Gillian just spoke about or the character?
I think its interesting about Scully. She is a skeptic because she is a scientist yet she was raised with certain religious beliefs. The interesting thing about her character is that she is a scientist but her religious beliefs don't fit with that skepticism.
MSN START/MSNBC
<Seattle>
How do you judge whether or not to do a mythology episode or a Monster of the Week episode?
Chris Carter:
You want to space the mythology episodes evenly because they are very personal episodes in the show. They tend to become the thing that everything else fits neatly within.
It's sort of rhythmic thing. I think next year you'll see 6 of 22 Shows will be about mythology. They are fun to do.
The difficulty is in making sure they can be easily understood but complex enough to be interesting ...and make sure you don't loose the audience along the way.
MSN START/MSNBC
How about for the acting does it make a difference Mythology episode or Monster of the week - stand-alone?
Gillian Anderson:
I feel sometimes that mythology episodes take more energy and take more focus. Monster of the week episodes are opportunities to do good work but also to kind of rest a little bit and not have to keep the intense focus on all the time.
MSN START/MSNBC
<kaisho US>
How much do the 2 of you, David and Gillian add to the story line yourselves?
David Duchovny:
Not so much. In the first three years I had something to do with a few of them but not years 4 and 5.
Gillian Anderson:
Except recently, I wanted to have a fight scene...and got the opportunity to have one!
Chris Carter:
I'll say! :0)
I think their contributions come through character. David and Gillian have a lot to say about their characters and what they would say in a given situation and that's how the story lines are impacted. It's always been a pretty open line of communication both ways - story and character.
MSN START/MSNBC:
<Brett, in Australia>,
Chris! The tremendous success of the X Files, is it all your Master plan - did you see this from the beginning?
Chris Carter:
Oh yes ... <grin> No, you can't imagine this kind of success because TV Shows don't have this kind of run first of all... mostly it's a business where things come and go. That we would be doing Expos, and we would have books and 4 records now and movie - a lot of it is unprecedented so you don't dare imagine it to be honest.
MSN START/MSNBC
<Ernst from france> Chris, do you know the ending?
Chris Carter:
The ending of the show? Yes, I know vaguely where I want to go but there's a lot of work between now and then so a lot of that will dictate how it ultimately comes to an end.
MSN START/MSNBC
<email Germany>
For Gillian - Before the Show you were a relative 'unknown' to such a big star. What has fame meant to you?
Gillian Anderson:
I was unknown to the public! - no question about it. <giggles> What has fame meant for me?
I don't know if it is 'fame' that has meant something more than the opportunity to be working continuously has given me the opportunity, to learn the business, how to work in front of film. Also, because of the show's respect as a whole, it's made an easier ground for me to at least have conversations with people that I respect in the business and that I would like to work with.
MSN START/MSNBC
<Richard LA>
For DAVID - You work so hard shooting movies in the breaks between the show. What drives you to work so hard?
David Duchovny:
I'm not working right now, I'm taking a break. I think that what drives you is a change of pace. Playing the same character five years in a row... you get a couple of months off in between seasons you want to do something else. Sometimes its interesting, but sometimes it's rejuvenating sometimes exhausting, you gotta take the chance and try it.
MSN START/MSNBC
Question from one of our Hotmail readers. Can you still keep adding to the characters after 5 years?
David Duchovny:
You add experiences to the character. The character is set. I set the character in the first year. The core of the character doesn't change it is set, though it accumulates details and just goes through different experiences.
MSN START/MSNBC
Scully has grown amazingly over the years with some extraordinary experiences. Do you see many changes for her?
Gillian Anderson:
Well, I don't necessarily think it's me taking her further. I rely and trust the writers to take her in interesting and sometimes complex directions. The writers have done that wonderfully with no input from me whatsoever. I think she is set - I settled into her character more in the third season. From that point on I feel comfortable with her. It's just a matter of changing the details and experiences.
MSN START/MSNBC
<Buffalo>
Would either of you be interested in Directing?
David Duchovny:
<nods> Yes. But if you were to talk about directing an X-File, it would mean, we'd need two weeks off to prep it, which would mean you'd need an episode and a half off as and actor and then you'd want more time for post production, which would mean more time on the back end, so it's hard when you're acting in a series with just two lead actors to get the time off to direct.
Gillian Anderson:
Not an X-File...I couldn't imagine directing David! :0) (You know what I mean by that :0)) Eventually I would be interested in it, but I'm not prepared for by any stretch of my imagination right now. I haven't been paying attention.
David Duchovny:
You know, it's like you ingest it you know more than you think you do, but still don't try to direct me :0)
MSN START/MSNBC
<John Buffalo NY>
Chris Carter:
Guest writers are a lot of fun in this past season. Is that going to continue.
Chris Carter:
Yeah, I don't want to go out and make a run on every horror or mystery or science fiction writer in the world. But there are certain really perfect fits Stephen King was one and so was William Gibson was another. We actually worked with William Gibson for two years off and on for that story and I was just talking to him today actually and we are going to do it again next year.
MSN START/MSNBC
<Elkhorn, Nebraska>
What do you think is the most important aspect of the X-Files, what do you want fans of the show to walk away with? and Q: What do you think of all the fan sites on the Internet? Do you ever visit them?
Chris Carter:
I want people to be entertained and scared I want it to make it a great intense, hour of television. If they get anything beyond that - if it's not that we set out to educate people even though the science is very accurate to the point where it's almost speculative. What we all try to do is to make it a very entertaining show.
David Duchovny:
I think our shows been popular on the Internet from the beginning because the cult fan base being science fiction and that somehow entails owning a computer and being on the Internet is something that - makes sense. I don't personally visit the sites...except for one time but it makes sense.
Gillian Anderson:
It seems to fit very well with the nature of the series. A lot of the episodes hint at the broadening of technology and technology taking over in some way or another and the involvement of extra terrestrials and their heightened technology. It seems logical...and I'm not answering your question at all...I think it's great!
MSN START/MSNBC
<Wind Canada>:
Did you have any reservations about doing the film as opposed to doing a new role or a different character?
David Duchovny:
Yes. That was the sole reservation, I wanted to do this film from the first or second year when we first started talking about a film. But you have a fear as an actor of doing one role too long and this meant 5 years now I've done this one character with only two or three other characters in that time. Also creatively, it can be a little stifling to play the same character. Spending the vacation playing Mulder it was a concern.
Gillian Anderson:
I actually didn't agree at the time with Fox's interest in doing the film during the hiatus. I thought it might be a better idea to do it when the audience no longer had the show to watch any more. But ...ahm...I was wrong.
MSN START/MSNBC
<jennifer Milwaukee>,
Chris, do you see a lot of movies in X Files future? :0)
Chris Carter:
I've seen a lot of movies this year actually... <grin> The word sequel scares me .. <laugh> They are a chance to exploit the success of the first one... I want to do another movie ! I want to do a whole series... Pre-quell doesn't scare me at all <laugh>.
David Duchovny:
This movie is actually part 4 of an 8 part serialisation like Star Wars. This is part 4 there is three pre-quels and four sequels - this is just an equal.
MSN START/MSNBC
<Jayde>:
Chris: What other science fiction writers do you enjoy?
Chris Carter:
I wasn't a science fiction fan. But I like William Gibsons books and Doug Copeland but that's not really science fiction per se. Although, I read Ray Bradbury as a kid.
MSN START/MSNBC:
David, there has been some great scenes between you and The Smoking Man over the years. Do you and Davis have a particular chemistry?
Gillian Anderson: (giggles)
David Duchovny:
No, we just play the scenes. They are usually high intensity screaming and yelling, pointing fingers, taking the cigarette out of his mouth and smashing it in his face and so on... so they're fun! It's chemistry of a kind....
Gillian Anderson:
I'd say that it's chemistry.
David Duchovny:
Once we thought he was my father it got more interesting.
Gillian Anderson:
I think there's definitely sexual tension between the two of them, but it's overpowered by the sexual tension between Mulder and Scully...
David Duchovny:
We like to keep the sexual tension underplayed especially between the Cigarette Smoking Man and me ;0)
The tension got higher when William Davis started saying he was the Hero of the show and everyone's father - it started to piss me off so the tension got a little higher - he needs to be ratcheted down a notch :o)
MSN START/MSNBC
<Seal from Denmark>:
To DD and GA: Do you get sick of the fans. Is it a drag sometimes?
David Duchovny:
You don't get sick of the fans. You get sick of talking about yourself. You get sick of yourself and the fans can bring that out in you!
Gillian Anderson:
It's true, after doing the junket...
David Duchovny:
The fans bring the worst out of yourself...
Gillian Anderson:
That's a very good point! It entails talking for 9 hours a day about yourself and your participation in the movie ad nauseum. You go home and you just want to beat yourself up a little. It's horrible makes you just feel sick to your stomach! It's weird, it's not healthy it's not natural <laughs>
David Duchovny:
She loves the fans...
Gillian Anderson: (laughs).
MSN START/MSNBC:
<Malasia>
How much of your own stunts do you do?
David Duchovny:
You do some within reason, you do the stuff that they tell you that you can do that will look good and won't hurt you. You don't do the stuff that he tells you you'd be a fool to do.
Gillian Anderson:
You've gotta do some...
David Duchovny:
You trust the stunt co-ordinator or you wind up getting hurt. You can't get hurt because you don't have a sub. It's like being an athlete you've no substitute.
Gillian Anderson:
You kinda do 'em, cross your fingers and hope you don't get hurt.
David Duchovny:
If Mulder sprains an ankle, it has to be part of the story. I was playing squash with Chris and I tore a calf muscle. We wrote it into the story - a fall so I could be limping. I had to fake limp after it was healed.
I still beat him...<g>
Chris Carter:
I let him win :0)
MSN START/MSNBC
Where does the Inspiration for the shows come from?
Chris Carter:
That's a question that everyone asks and it's impossible to answer, but the truth is that most of them come out of science so if you find some interesting science you can ask the 'what if' question and take it to it's illogical or paranormal end.
David Duchovny:
The wonderful thing (to chris) if you'll allow me to speak for you, about the mythology for the characters is that after a while it begins to dictate the development of the story lines and takes you to a new area where we have to kind of fill it in.
Chris Carter:
Right, at the beginning of season 5 we had this two part episode and when we came to storyboard it, the way the story worked out - for the first time, what had gone before began to dictate what should come next. It becomes inevitable, which suggests that when you make enough choices a pattern emerges and begins to assert itself.
MSN START/MSNBC::
Gillian, do you plan to pursue a Musical career of any kind?
Gillian Anderson:
No, no, no...no your taking about Black Astro Turf? - that wasn't my intention to begin with at all. I was just doing something for fun - a one of - I did a Spoken word on a track for the band - it was just for fun.
MSN START/MSNBC::
<Q from Mexico>
David. Do you expect any Oscar nominations?
David Duchovny:
If there is it'll be for the technical awards some excellent people came in and did some excellent work in this movie, so that's where I'd anticipate it would go.
MSN START/MSNBC:
Are you Star Wars or Star-Trek fans?
Gillian Anderson:
I love Star Wars. I'm not familiar with Star Trek myself but my daughter actually, is a bigger Star Trek fan.
David Duchovny:
Yeah, I loved Star Trek in re-runs when I was a kid Channel 11 in New York.
I'm a fan of the original series I don't watch the movies or the next generation or the present generation, just Kirk and Spock and Sulu and the boys.
Chris Carter:
No, I was a fan of Star Wars and George Lucas fan. I'm not a fan Star Trek fan and I get boos and hisses when I tell people that to Star Trek fans.
My big Brother was a fan and maybe that is why I wasn't.
MSN START/MSNBC
One of the similarities with the fan base continuing after the run of the show - do you see X Files conventions a little like Star Trek 20 years down the road.
Chris Carter:
To be honest I hadn't thought about it. I think the differences in the shows are great. I don't imagine X Files: The Next Generation or X Files Babylon 5 or it doesn't seem like it is something that would come naturally out of the show or anything like that. It'd be more like re-runs of the Twilight Zone. They didn't have conventions.
David Duchovny:
Though that maybe because it was more an anthology...
Chris Carter:
...an anthology yes...
MSN START/MSNBC
<Question from France>
Will you be touring Europe with the X File movie?
David Duchovny:
Yes, I might go to europe in late June or early July.
Gillian Anderson:
Yep...
Chris Carter:
Uh huh no, I'm going to Mexico I got some fans down there - the Oscar people.
MSN START/MSNBC
<A question from Ireland>
Mulder started out trusting no-one can he trust Scully fully?.
David Duchovny:
Yeah, I think Mulder has trusted Scully now for quite a while I think one of the interesting propositions we can play on now is when he distrusts Scully. So it can be more tense when he feels he can't trust her rather than the other way.
MSN START/MSNBC
Does the show have an over all message for the fans?
Chris Carter:
No, whats interesting for me over than wanting them to be entertained and see something worthwhile. I get to write about things that interests me in science and play with belief systems and dramatic devices. Overall there is no great message, no.
MSN START/MSNBC
How do you write do you have a particular writing style?
Chris Carter:
Basically the same way your sitting now. Hunched over... in the dark. :0) Nah..actually, I do have an ergonimically designed chair it's a several thousand dollar chair but I have discovered I haven't always been using the chair for it's purpose. I need that edge of the seat feeling, like on a Saw Horse which is not what it's there for.
Gillian Anderson:
Yep. In the dark.
Chris Carter:
Yes, in the dark...
MSN START/MSNBC
Will Scully continue to take a more active role in the sequels is she going to be doing more fighting scenes? Do you see her rescuing Fox and so on!
Chris Carter:
In the sequels Yes. Scully has rescued Mulder in the series, she is fully capable of handling herself I think it always exists as a possibility.
Gillian Anderson:
Yeah, I enjoy the physical work. Doing some minimal stunts - I enjoy lifting up David. It's fun!
MSN START/MSNBC
What's the most fun?
Gillian Anderson:
About the series? Gosh! I guess playing the characters. Some of the most fun is the some of the work that we've done in Mulder's office. There's a historic feel to it in a way...
Chris Carter/David Duchovny:
Careful... don't let that out right now...
Gillian Anderson:
Oh yeah, Okay...
We have a lot of fun. It's hard work but it's fun. It's a wonderful opportunity to work with such great scripts, focus on the characters and developing the characters it's complicated but it's all good...
David Duchovny:
I can't answer questions like that - favourite food, favourite musician, favourite movie, I go home at night and I kick myself after I answer questions like that - it's all good, as Gillian said.
MSN START/MSNBC
Chris, The Black Oil - can you tell us a little more about it?
Chris Carter:
I'm going to make a pitch for the X Files Album, which has a secret track on it where I give a little bit of information about it at the end of the record. So that's a good place to learn what the black oil is so you have more sense of it so when you watch the movie you have a little more idea of the landscape that the story takes place in. It is extraterrestrial.
MSN START/MSNBC
<UK>
Final Question for our readers from England. Is the movie accessible to people who haven't ever seen the TV programme.
Chris Carter:
Completely, we have shown it to a number of people... even those who have never seen the show.
Gillian Anderson:
About 95% of the press haven't seen a single episode and their response was that they completely understood it and on top of that, they would now go back and watch the show.
David Duchovny:
That has been on eof the nicest things about responses we've had from previous screenings. Even people who have never seen the show enjoyed it so much as a movie, as a piece of entertainment, completely in and of itself.
MSN START/MSNBC
Thank you very much for joining us on MSN Start and MSNBC. We have been joined online by a record 21 thousand people online and viewed on 9,000 NetShow Audio and Video streams.
Chris Carter:
Let's do it again sometime, that was cool - so cool.
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