David Duchovny reveals ‘failure of friendship’ with The X-Files co-star Gillian Anderson amid tension on hit show

David Duchovny said that the bonds between he and Gillian Anderson, his co-star on The X-Files, were weakened during their time on the hit Fox series.

The X-Files actor, 64, welcomed his longtime co-star, 56, on his Lemonada Media podcast Fail Better in a segment set to debut Tuesday, and they discussed their past peaks and valleys.

Duchovny, who played the role of Fox Mulder on the sci-fi series opposite Anderson’s Dana Scully, said there was a ‘failure of friendship’ between them during the show’s first run from 1993 to 2002, which spanned nine seasons.

The Emmy-nominated actor said that despite the success of the series, communication between he and Anderson was nil amid ‘a lot of tension’ between them.

‘There was a long time, working on the show, where we were just not even dealing with one another off-camera,’ Duchovny said.

Anderson and Duchovny pictured on a 2018 episode of the show during its second run 

The Californication star noted that he did not feel the friction between he and Anderson manifested in their performances on the series.

It ‘didn’t matter, apparently, for the work cause we’re both f***ing crazy, I guess – we could just go out there and do what we needed to do,’ Duchovny said.

Anderson acknowledged the situation was ‘kinda crazy,’ adding that it was a testament to their professional abilities as performers.

‘I mean, it’s crazy that we were able to present on camera, you know, the various feelings and emotions and attraction and all that kind of stuff,’ Anderson said, ‘but then not speak to each other for weeks at a time.’

Duchovny said that he and Anderson never spoke too much about their backgrounds during their run on the series.

‘I don’t know that we ever sat down and said, “Hey, what was your childhood like?”‘ Duchovny said.

Anderson added, ‘We didn’t. And why would we? We were busy. We have a closeness that we don’t have with probably many other people, and went through something that we didn’t go through with any other people.

‘I mean, yes, there were crew and etc., but in terms of our experience as actors – and so, I thought it would be a curious investigation.’

Anderson, a two-time Emmy winner, pictured at the Emmys in LA in September 

Duchovny played the role of Fox Mulder on the sci-fi series opposite Anderson’s Dana Scully 

Duchovny said that while he feels he ‘could’ve handled [himself] better,’ he thinks that the underlying hostilities between the two actors helped their onscreen performances.

‘Cause we’re, like, savin’ it up – I don’t know,’ Duchovny said. ‘And as you know, we went through a crazy-making kind of a process with this thing. We went from – I mean, I was pretty inexperienced. You were really inexperienced.

‘And all of a sudden … it was like a global phenomenon before the Internet. And we’re just scurrying, trying to figure out who we are.’

Anderson praised her one-time co-star for his work on the podcast, which has featured guests including Bette Midler, Andy Cohen, Rosie O’Donnell, Sean Penn and Ben Stiller.

‘Listening to the depth of your conversations that you were getting into with people and appreciating that,’ Anderson said, ‘I felt like I was learning more about you than I knew, or than I ever knew.’

Duchovny added, ‘We know each other very deeply and yet we don’t know each other either in some weird way.’