Gillian Anderson, best known for her role as FBI agent Dana Scully in "The X-Files," described the intense fame associated with the show as "disturbing." Speaking on the "Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend" podcast, Anderson reflected on how the show's initial five-year filming period in Vancouver, British Columbia, provided a sanctuary from the pervasive celebrity culture.
"I found disturbing and it really angered me. I pointed my car at many paparazzi over the years," Anderson said, recalling experiences in Los Angeles where celebrities were frequently followed and photographed. "So being up there and not having that — it just didn’t exist up in Vancouver — was very freeing."
The science fiction series "The X-Files" originally aired from 1993 to 2002, with the bulk of its early seasons filmed in Vancouver. The show later returned to the city for its 2008 film "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" and its revival seasons from 2016 to 2018.
Anderson felt that filming in Vancouver helped maintain a separation from the entertainment industry, contributing to the cast's and crew's well-being. "And I think that kept us a little saner than we might have gone," she added.
Meanwhile, Anderson's co-star David Duchovny, who played Fox Mulder, previously shared his own frustrations with the show. On his "Fail Better" podcast in July 2025, Duchovny pointed to inconsistencies in his character's portrayal by episodic directors who he felt sometimes overstepped creative boundaries. "Sometimes the directors would come on, and they’d know they had a great script... and they really wanted to kill it. Those guys were dangerous," Duchovny said. He recounted instances where directors would comment on Mulder's behavior as uncharacteristic, to which he would respond, "Yeah, like 10 other times we’ve seen Mulder like this before."