David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson honestly acknowledge not speaking during ‘X-Files’: ‘Failure of friendship’

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson acknowledged there was “a lot of tension” between them on “The X-Files” that resulted in the co-stars not speaking for weeks off camera while working on the hit show.

Anderson, 56, spoke to Duchovny, 64, on the Nov. 12 episode of his “Fail Better” podcast, with the two revisiting their time together on the hit Fox show that ran from 1993-2002, spawned two movies, and revivals in 2016 and 2018. Duchovny played FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder, and Anderson played his partner, Special Agent Dana Scully, in the science fiction series about unsolved cases involving the paranormal.

Anderson said she came on Duchovny’s podcast to have “a conversation that I don’t feel like we ever had,” which led to him reflecting on shooting the show together during the height of its popularity in the ’90s.

“The part of this conversation that is the trickiest part for me is, I guess I would talk about like my failure of friendship, or my failure of companionship,” Duchovny said.

“There was a long time working on the show where we were just not even dealing with one another off camera,” he added. “And there was a lot of tension, which didn’t matter, apparently, for the work, because we’re both f—— crazy, I guess, that we could just go out there and do what we needed to do.”

“It’s crazy that we were able to present on camera the various feelings and emotions and attraction and all that kind of stuff, but then not speak to each other for weeks at a time or whatever,” Anderson said.

“I don’t know, but I could have handled myself better,” Duchovny said.

Duchovny also opened up about leaving the show in the early 2000s and his emotions after Anderson left “The X-Files” following its revival in 2018.

“I never apologized to you for that,” he told Anderson about his original departure from the show. “I don’t know that I even talked to you about it, and then you said you weren’t going to do the show anymore, like, the last time we did it (in 2018). And I know that hurt my feelings.”

“Oh, I didn’t know,” Anderson said.

“I get it, you know, like, OK, and I support it, whatever it is you want to do, but I was like, ‘Oh, she’s quitting me,’ you know?” Duchovny said. “She doesn’t like working with me anymore. It was like, that little kid inside is going, ‘Hey!’ And then I was like, but I didn’t say anything to her back in the day.”

Later in their conversation, Anderson returned to the moment Duchovny left in 2001.

“We never talked about it,” she said. “I don’t think I ever blamed you. … I don’t think I blamed you at all. I don’t think I was upset.”

“Well, thanks a lot,” Duchovny said.

After Duchovny departed, Anderson considered following him out the door.

“There was a point, I mean, for me at that time, it was, ‘Can I too?'” she said. “At first I thought, ‘Well, then we’re both going to because clearly I can’t go on without him, so surely I’ll be able to.’ And then they started talking about, ‘Well, if you stay on, you can actually make some good money.'”

Duchovny also recalled a “dysfunctional” moment between the two in the midst of their stardom on the show.

“It was some Emmys, and it was the day after, and I had a private plane, and I was giving you a ride,” he said. “And you were late, and I was so angry. And then we sat on this private plane, flying to Vancouver from LA, not talking.

“And you wrote me a letter,” he continued. “So you’re just like 6 feet away from me, writing a letter to me, and it’s a beautiful letter. I don’t remember it exactly, but it was appreciative, and it was like it was all the things that I wanted to hear. But it’s just amazing that we couldn’t just have that conversation. The fact that it’s a private plane, it’s just all ridiculous.”

“I had no memory that we were even on a private plane together, let alone, yeah, I wrote you a letter on one,” Anderson said. “Interesting.”

Duchovny also remembered a moment with “The X-Files” creator Chris Carter amid some tension in the first season.

“I think we were kind of butting heads so early on in the first season that Chris asked us if we would go into fake couples (therapy). Like, would we go into TV character couple therapy? I remember sitting in his office with you, and Chris is like, ‘Yeah, do you guys want to go into therapy.’ And I was like, ‘You mean as Mulder and Scully?’ I’m confused. I remember that.”

Another source of strife came in 2016 when Anderson fought for pay equity with Duchovny for the revival of the show. She told The Daily Beast at the time that she was only offered half the salary of Duchovny for the 2016 return and had spent three years during the original run of “The X-Files” trying to achieve pay equity with her co-star.

“That whole pay equity thing, that’s in our past as well,” Duchovny said. “I was part of that.

“Selfishly, back then, I thought I was like being attacked,” he continued. “I thought, ‘Oh, I’m being attacked for being offered more money.'”

“Attacked by who?” Anderson asked.

“The world,” Duchovny said.

“What, that they blamed you in some way?” Anderson said.

“In a way,” Duchovny said.

“Oh really, I didn’t know that,” Anderson said. “I’m sorry. That’s interesting that I wasn’t paying attention to that side of it.”

“Well, I didn’t make you pay attention to it,” Duchovny said.

During their talk, the two also delved into Anderson’s childhood and latest ventures, including her new book, “Want,” a collection of anonymous sexual fantasies submitted by women from around the world.