David Duchovny Reveals He Initially Didn't Want To Join THE X-FILES

It’s hard to imagine what The X-Files would have been like had David Duchovny not played Agent Fox Mulder. He was perfect in that part, it’s a role that he was born to play! But, he almost passed up the opportunity! He initially didn’t want to take on the role and his agent had to talk him into it.

During a conversation with actor Rob Lowe on Literally!...With Rob Lowe, a podcast on Conan O'Brien's Team Coco network, Duchovny said, "I had gotten… a couple of scenes in this movie of the week, and it was a director who I was friendly with, and I was going to have to…pull out of that part to do The X-Files pilot.”

He went on to talk about the conversations he had with his agent, “I said to my agents, ‘I don’t want to do that. You know, she’s a friend, and I don’t want to pull out.’”

He added, "I wasn’t interested in conspiracy theories, and I was perfectly willing to just say, ‘I’m going to have to pass on that pilot, because I said I’d do this other project.’”

Duchovny recalls saying, "X-Files, this is about extraterrestrials. How long can it go? It's a good pilot but you’re either going to see the aliens or you won't."

Thankfully, Duchovny listened to what his agents had to say and he ultimately chose to join The X-Files! He went on to say, "It’s scary to think back on, if you didn’t open this door, or you took that left instead of that right. It’s like, none of it had to happen. You talk about actors being dumb…well, that was me."